影片
更多
2008-07-20
26 瀏覽
When I went to Coffee Mill at Marco Polo Gateway last week, I noticed a cardboard model of a chef I knew from Café des Artiste before. The waiter told me that this chef is now working for them and since I had a memorable experience at Café des Artiste before, I thought to give the restaurant a visit on my dad’s birthday last week. The restaurant has a relaxing ambience with gentle romantic lighting. After we sat ourselves down (with 4 other friends), the chef came to greet us. On hearing tha
The restaurant has a relaxing ambience with gentle romantic lighting. After we sat ourselves down (with 4 other friends), the chef came to greet us. On hearing that it was my dad’s birthday, he immediately asked his staff to bring us some canapés – with salmon, foie gras and pate-like mixture. The latter two were particularly creamy and rich. I thought it was very sweet of him and was impressed by the hospitality. He also recommended some dishes to us, and since we were arguing about which soup to have as they all looked good, the chef suggested that he would put three different kinds of soup into a small bowl each so that we could try them all. So we had the fish soup, the lobster bisque and the onion soup. It’s not an exaggeration, but all three soups were cooked to perfection – the fish soup was real fishy and rich, the lobster bisque was beautifully creamy, just like how it should be and the onion soup was light and flavoursome with the aromatic cheese layer on top.
For the next course, we had the tuna tartar with lemon and olive oil. For such a simple dish, it was surprisingly refreshing and tasty.
What I’d call the highlight of the evening was the lobster soufflé with sea urchin sauce. I’d say this is one of the best dishes I’ve ever had in western cuisine! The soufflé was nicely fluffy with some crushed potatoes and meaty lobster pieces at the bottom to make up the different textures of the dish. At first, some of us thought that the sea urchin sauce would be too fishy, but we were all pleasantly surprised by the uniqueness of its flavour – it was creamy and had the sweetness from the sea. Did I say it before? It was an ABSOLUTELY SUPERB dish. The presentation was very attractive too with the sea urchin sauce in a little shot glass. So one could just take a sip of the sauce out of the shot glass and pour the rest onto the soufflé. Even with a couple of my friends who didn’t like sea urchins, they were very appreciative of this special dish too.
Before the main course, we all had the thyme sherbet to rinse our palate. I was very impressed with this dish as the thyme flavour really stood out. And with a bit of the mint leave after a mouthful of sherbet, it’s even better as there was a perfect mingle of spicy, lemony and cooling effect. Nevertheless, a couple of my friends at the table were not too thrilled by it as they admitted that it’s not a taste that they were used to.
Some of us at the table had the beef tenderloin as the main and some had the pan seared scallops. Again, the beef tenderloin was tender and cooked to different people’s taste. I asked for a medium-rare and it WAS medium-rare, no more no less. Everyone tried the scallops as well and loved the dish too. The scallops were so fresh that it almost melted in our mouths with the light and silky butter sauce.
Last was the desserts, again, due to difference in opinions, Chef Didier offered us a sample of 3 different kinds of desserts – the chocolate fondant, pistachio ice-cream and paris brest (choux puff with praline cream). Oh la la… They were sooooooo gooooood! Sorry if it sounded like a gross exaggeration, but they were heavenly! Chocolate fondant couldn’t have been more chocolaty, and it was amazing to see the running chocolate sauce out of the cake. As for the last two desserts, they were so smooth with very distinct flavours. Tres bon!!!!!!!
The service was excellent throughout with friendly waiting staff and chef. They were very helpful with the decision of our choices. We ordered 3 bottles of wine on the chef’s recommendation with a complementary aperitif from him. I can’t remember what the wines were now, but they all went very well with the food. The meal was worth every cent and I would highly recommend this restaurant to everyone for all occasions.
And by the way, on our departure, we were reminded of the ‘All-you-can-eat’ promotion throughout July, and possibly August, at a very reasonable price of $395 (with $50 extra for all the house wines you can drink!). I’ll definitely be back with an army of greedy stomachs!!!
張貼
