Am always dubious in trying restaurants which gain loads of popularity out of the blue. We went to Deer Kitchen tonight hoping that it is not one of those traps who pay for food reviews.
We had 1 dinner set, plus 1 pasta on the a la carte menu.
We picked the Truffle ravioli as starter and the Iberico pork loin as main for the set ($258). It comes along with daily soup (Cauliflower soup), dessert (jelly made with wine) and drinks (orange juice + $3). For the pasta, we have King prawn angel hair ($138).
Complimentary bread was served at the beginning. It was not hot, not even warm. Neither was it soft or of fragrance. It failed in every aspects as a snack. It's even worse than what you got from a local spot which serves Cantonese-styled western food. What a brilliant way to start your meal.
The ravioli came next. It was the best in the meal. Good combination of flavour and textures. Nothing to complaint about.
But the angel hair was what follow. It was a putative chef recommendation on the menu and we soon find out the chef was quite wrong on this. As expected, the "King prawn" was no way near fresh. It was frozen to such an extent that its protean has lost all the elasticity. But it is still incomparable to the angel hair. The problem lies not in the pasta but in the sauce. It is as salty as sea water in Dead Sea. It would definitely give your kidney a heavy attack. We hate to but we failed to finish the dish in the end.
The so-called Cauliflower soup was then served. It's the first time I have ever tried Cauliflower soup which is so lack of Cauliflower flavour. It is as bland and diluted as the ordinary "white soup" that you was fed in "Cha Chaan Teng". This is not acceptable.
At that stage, the meal was already ruined so much so that it could never be brought back alive by the Iberico pork loin. The pork, though tender and juicy, is lack of the unique "Iberico flavour". It was immersed in large portions of marinade and garlic. Maybe that's how restaurants can maximize their profit by using the below-par raw materials but that's not how you do your customers justice. By the way, the grilled sweet potatoes on the side is not fresh either.
We were so glad that we only ordered 1 set as we only got 1 dessert in the end. Suffice to say, you will regret ending your dinner with some heartless jelly holding a piece of artificial-flavoured-cherry.
Maybe if DK is named as a Cafe, it will fit the expection of the customers better. I will leave this deer to others.