Ant One     一品螞蟻  

Came to this restaurant aiming for a quick dinner. Place was almost full on a Friday night when we arrived at around 7:30pm. The menu was quite impressive indeed - the chef claimed to be able to churn out all kinds of stuff from Singaporean / Malaysian to European / Mediterranean items, as well as some pretty innovative "fusion" dishes, all charged at affordable prices. But what about the actual food quality ? We tried altogether 3 items: the mixed vegetables stirred fried with spanish sausages, the roast lamb shank, as well as the fried salmon steak with rice in coconut broth. I must say the fried veggie with sausage was a brave and innovative attempt by the chef; unfortunately the dish was just too salty, and we could not finish even half of the dish without literally drowning ourselves with water The lamb shank was also badly made - just a chunk of dry, tasteless and overcooked mutton . By far the best dish was the salmon steak rice - the salmon steak was nicely fried and was cripsy and delicious, and the combination with coconut broth was certainly interesting; nevertheless, the dish was a bit too oily in our opinion, and again we could not manage to finish all of the rice because of its greasiness. Overall not a very satisfying meal, and were it not for the reasonable price tags, I would have written this place off right away with a crying face. Only for quick dinners if you really have no other choices.

Ever get the feeling you have been cheated? I have. Many times, in fact - dishonest cab drivers taking the "scenic route", vending machinese not performing its task, contractor doing a lousy job for your home, newly acquired appliances breaking down, expensive garments that look cheap after one wash. Perhaps food prices have gone up, resulting in a slightly heightened sense of er, wealth management, but local restaurants are beginning to get rather irksome. I feel cheated nowadays parting good money in return for a load of rubbish food. Hello, Ant One!

Famished after a late night stay back at the office, my partner and I settled for their Dinner For Two set, a seemingly economical route to enjoy a selection of the menu. Here's the summary of the food served and our verdict:

Starters:

1) Russian Borsch - Utterly bland. Scooped at least 3 spoonfuls of oil swimming on the surface. Cabbage was soggy. Soups like borsch are supposed to be thick, wholesome. Not this baby - thin, watery. I seldom waste food in restaurants, but a few mouthfuls, I could not continue.

2) Deep Fried Ribs - Make no mistake, it screamed "DEEP FRIED". Over cooked. The after taste of hot oil lingered for a while in the mouth. Depressing.

Main:
1) Angel Hair in Cream Sauce with Bacon - It wasn't angel hair. They probably ran out of it and substituted it with overdone spaghetti, like the ones you find in your local Cafe De Coral. Sauce tasted like canned soup from Campbell's. Rubbish.

2) Hot pot rice with smoked duck - Smelled great when it was first served. Unfortunately, judging from the quality of the preceeding dishes, our hopes of a decent meal all but vanished. No real surprise then. The rice turned out lumpy and tasteless. Some black beans, red chili, and salt would have saved it from garbagedom. But they left it to the smoked duck to cajole whatever taste or fragrance it could from the rice. Smoked duck was palatable. One brownie point there then.

There are several ways a restuarant can drive customers away - 1)bad food, 2)poor service, 3)awful decor, and 4)put a song on repeat forever. We were too tired to stick around for its G.O.D-ish interior, and were reasonaby smittened by the attentive waitresses, but I be allowed the part of a culinary critic, then Ant One was certainly guilty of the above two bookending misdeeds.