Hweecat meow.
Unsurprisingly, we got drenched on the way to OCF. :O Thankfully, we were given a table despite our early arrival. Even though the tables further in at the restaurant with better comfort were fully filled and the only seats available are the bar-tops and the table nearest to the entrance, we were nevertheless glad to be able to finally have our dinner.
(Of course, we could wait for the other tables, but our stomachs couldn't wait any further.)
In typical Cat and Hweecat food-ordering style, we told the service staff, "One each *points to menu*" In between courses, the service staff asked us who would be having which dish.
Cat went for L’Œuf Royale - egg bon-bon in leek emulsion and topped with black truffles. This is an egg-based savoury experience with a creamy surprise on the inside. When Cat lowers his head close to the egg-based dish for his nose to take in the aroma, and offers Hweecat a share of the egg bon-bon multiple times, you know it is a winner.
We asked for another serving of bread just to clean up our entrées. Before our mains came, a service staff asked if we would like more bread for the mains. Without much thought, we replied, "Nah, it's okay."
That turned out to be our biggest blunder of the day.
Plats
As Cat does not like seafood in general while I love seafood, I had La Dorade - Japanese seabream, seafood and cocobean fricasseé in pesto. The Japanese seabream has a slightly strong, sweet flavour with a delicate texture. Not sure if it is farmed or caught in the wild.
Cat does not like the fish due to its slightly strong taste, I find it decent and fresh. The portion was a tad bit small though.
Only one type of dessert was available for the Restaurant Week dinner set - La Fraise. It's a combination of sweetened strawberries, strawberry sorbet and Opalys white chocolate and tastes like deconstructed strawberry crumble cake. The strawberries do not taste like low-grade jam strawberries, instead they tasted reasonably fresh. What a way to conclude our dinner on a sweet note. (:
The dessert surprisingly made our stomachs feel slightly fuller, but we were still not fully satiated! Hence, we ended up having supper after dinner.
Post-Dinner
It's Restaurant Week once again, the time where participating restaurants come up with set meals at promotion prices. The first day of Restaurant Week happens to coincide with Pi Day (3.14.15), which calls for a celebration for us Mathematics-loving cats. Since Cat was not sure when his afternoon appointments would end on that day, I made a 8pm dinner reservation for two persons at Olivia Cassivelaun Fancourt (OCF) to stay on the safe side of punctuality.
On the actual day
Cat arrived at City Hall MRT at around 6.45pm, which was earlier than our 8pm dinner reservation but would have been late for 6.30pm dinner reservation. We were faced with two options: to walk around and wait until 8pm for our dinner reservation, or to try our luck with dining early. We decided on the latter.
Alas, it started raining when we were on the way to The Arts House @ Old Parliament! We rushed straight into the main building, frantically searching for the restaurant. After pacing up and down the stairs, we realised that we went to the wrong building - OCF was at a separate building from the main Arts House building!
Unsurprisingly, we got drenched on the way to OCF. :O Thankfully, we were given a table despite our early arrival. Even though the tables further in at the restaurant with better comfort were fully filled and the only seats available are the bar-tops and the table nearest to the entrance, we were nevertheless glad to be able to finally have our dinner.
(Of course, we could wait for the other tables, but our stomachs couldn't wait any further.)
In typical Cat and Hweecat food-ordering style, we told the service staff, "One each *points to menu*" In between courses, the service staff asked us who would be having which dish.
Entrées
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| Le Ballotine de Volaille |
I opted for Le Ballotine de Volaille - chicken stuffed with foie gras and wrapped up like sausage. Chewy on the outside, melt-in-the-mouth on the inside. Goes well with bread and tastes satisfying.
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| Egg bon-bon with black truffles and leek emulsion |
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| Bon appetit! |
That turned out to be our biggest blunder of the day.
Plats
 |
| Japanese seabream in pesto |
As Cat does not like seafood in general while I love seafood, I had La Dorade - Japanese seabream, seafood and cocobean fricasseé in pesto. The Japanese seabream has a slightly strong, sweet flavour with a delicate texture. Not sure if it is farmed or caught in the wild.
Cat does not like the fish due to its slightly strong taste, I find it decent and fresh. The portion was a tad bit small though.
 |
| Australian striploin |
Cat had Le Bœuf - Australian striploin topped with Cevennes onion, with potato puree and roasting jus. No questions were asked about meat rarity. The striploin is of such premium quality that it tastes incredibly tender and juicy. We guess the striploin is cooked rare to bring out its natural sweetness. We haven't tasted beef as good as this piece of striploin so far, but then again, we haven't tried top-grade beef in Japan yet. (Update 27/10/15: We tried really good beef from Japan!)
Again, we wish the portion was bigger. Cat was still hungry after finishing the striploin and starting to get impatient.
Dessert
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| La Fraise - strawberry dessert |
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| Hweecat posing with her dessert |
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| Hweecat attempting to pose demurely :P |
Post-Dinner
We couldn't quite fathom why we paid S$55++ per person for a meal which leaves both of us hungry, until a few days later. We then realised that we had made a wasteful blunder.
We should have asked for more bread for the mains!
We were already hinted by a service staff about it, too. Without bread to soak my plate clean for the main course, I ended up leaving a bit too much pesto for my Japanese seabream. We could have stuffed ourselves silly soaking up our main courses with free flow bread and walked out with a fuller stomach! D:
Overall, food quality is pretty good by our standards (we enjoyed our food but we really wanted more!), service was flexible and attentive (at least we were allowed to dine earlier), and the manager even took time off to explain the dishes to us. Still, a hungry Cat could potentially become an unhappy impatient Cat. If you have a pretty big appetite and love plentiful food, do make sure to ask for more bread to avoid a hungry experience!
