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2014-11-24
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We chose to dine here on a Monday but it was still a full house at Seasons. Olivier Elzer's work surprised me tonight, not in terms of the great use of ingredients (this should be the given standard) but the abundant use of spice, salt and other condiments. Cooking here had a much "heavier taste " (重口味) and in much larger portions than other fine dining restaurants. Most of the dishes were influenced slightly by Asian cuisines. Another favorable note was all courses are served hot unlike other (
Our party of 4 was being adventurous and had the 6-course Special Tasting (secret) menu. My hands couldn’t keep out of the bread basket. It was addictive. No butter needed as most of the bread was made with herbs. I especially love the rosemary pastry and a paper thin one that tasted like potato chip.
First course was Alaskan king crabmeat and avocado salad. Crab and avocado were a sure win combination and the twist here was the hint of ginger, which was slightly Chinese I think.
Cep mushroom bisque with what I think was a chunk of burrata; creamy, smooth but not overwhelming. I tasted bacon, garlic and amusingly, pecks of chili which added a little heat to the tip of the tongue.
Scallop with eggplant confit, potato purée and black onion chip. This dish had a sharp and appetizing fragrant and I immediately thought of Thai food. It also had a bit of spiciness to make things less dull. Very flavorful dish - sour, sweet, bell-peppery, herby and creamy. The dollop of potato purée was a way to cleanse the palate after the saucy scallops.
Prawn risotto with garlic chive was also a surprise because they used red rice. Good use of spice - masala in Indian cuisine. Every grain of rice was "popping" in my mouth. The prawns were meaty and sweet. I was already full by this course, like I'm done, full.
The entrée was pastilla de pigeon, a classic French dish; pigeon, foie gras and pine nut wrapped in a thin, crispy pastry. Wow, this was a big (~3” diameter) considering all the courses from previously. Half the portion would be just right. Regardless, it smelled superb in a sweet dark sauce. The pigeon was cooked just right and the texture was toothsome. Small amount of foie gras which added a gamey-birdy taste (I slightly didn't prefer) but it kept all the ingredients in different textures together like fillings in a pie. Pine nut was a plus because it gave crunchiness to this meaty course.
I always worry about desserts in fine dining because they usually don’t live up to the expectation of the salty courses; it’s like a movie which started off great but had a bland ending. So I was real pleased with Seasons. It was a pistachio ice cream on top of a chocolate cake/cookie. The ice cream was not sweet and seemed to have a cooling minty effect. The little droplets of chocolate mousse around the dish were fun, visually, like little pine trees in Christmas (at the same time reminded me of the blackheads you pulled out using the nose pore strips. Haha). Good ending and we “leave” happily ever after. And I was HUGGING MY STOMACH like a bowling ball when I walked out!!!
The only issue that left me thinking was because all courses are highly flavorful; they gave little rest to your taste buds. I would love to have a clean sorbet in between just to refresh the palate before the next course. Still, all dishes were very enjoyable.
Servers were friendly and helpful but talked too fast when explaining the dishes. There were two moments that were puzzling though. Our server had asked us in the beginning on whether we would like fresh oysters, and yes, sure that’ll be nice. Towards the end of the meal, we suddenly realized that there were no oysters. Just curious, we asked about them and the server said they were sold out... Then why asked us on the first place? We also stated that we didn’t want foie gras but the entrée had some in it... Good that it was just a preference and not an allergy issue.
I would still come back for more Seasons as the menu changes every week or so, or even a few days. Apart from tasting sets, the a la carte menu also looked very attractive.
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