A KLueriffic Experience!

Appetizer: Layered Tuna with Fruits Ratatouille and Light Dressing

Palate Cleanser: Lime V.S.O.P Sorbet

Main Course: V.S.O.P Marinated Beef Burger with Beetroot Marmalade and Yellow Squash Confit

Dessert: Green Tea Parfait with Strawberry Confit and Almond Tuille

Drinks: Free flow Martell either neat or mixed with Orange or Apple


Take a good look at the menu above, because that's what I was meant to be having last Saturday evening at a Martell/KLue magazine sponsored dinner at Relish...unfortunately food experiences can't always go the way you want them to...and sometimes we build it up too much in our minds that once we actually get to eat the meal it's just not as good as we expected...well this was definitely NOT what I expected!

Now I was going in to this with high expectations purely because of a previous experience I had with one of these Martell dinners at Marketplace Restaurant. The dinner was sublime with tender steaks and chocolatey mousse and the drinks were amazing...especially the Green Tea Martell Combo! The entire experience is something I still talk about till this day...so I was hoping for something along those lines...

Well I was wrong...the night started off well with good company...we decided to start off with a few drinks...for the first one I chose to go with the Apple juice mix...I took a sip and deduced that it was basically water with a tiny splash of Apple and Martell. The ice had melted causing it to be severely watered down...so I figured for the next drink I would have an Orange mix instead...this was even worse! By the third drink I had learnt from my mistakes and I picked up one Apple mix and one neat Martell and poured the two together. It gave it a little more taste and finally there was a kick to it! The waiter soon enough noticed what we were doing and before we even had to ask he would show up with one mix and one neat...if there was one thing good I could say about the night it would be that this waiter in particular offered impeccable service.

So then onto the food...the layered tuna turned out to be two tiny slices of seared tuna...I personally would have preferred tuna sashimi opposed to the pointless sear these got. The fruits ratatouille turned out to be a tiny sprinkling of grapefruit...both the yellow and pink...it was so insignificant to the dish that it could have been left out altogether!

The palate cleanser was not bad...I actually enjoyed this as it was quite refreshing...and hey it had more liquor than the drinks themselves!

After the tiny green sorbet shots we waited a good 30mins before our main courses came out...by that time I was STARVED! My tummy had been teased with a minuscule appetizer and my palate was refreshed and eagerly awaiting a mouth tingling main...oh the deception of it all...had I not been so hungry I would have refused the main...and you're probably thinking "gasp! she was considering refusing a burger! A burger of all things sacred to her!"...but yes I was considering it...the dry tasteless patty which was apparently marinated in V.S.O.P was topped with pureed beet and sour squash...the combination made the meat taste a little off(or maybe it was off)...unfortunately I didn't have the presence of mind to really care as I was famished...I stuffed the entire burger down...and still felt unsatisfied...

By this time I was unhappy...and even the numerous watered down drinks could not hide my disappointment...this night was not at all what I was imagining...and I figured maybe dessert could salvage it...after all how wrong can you go with dessert? Once again I was being too optimistic because you can apparently go horrifically wrong with dessert!!

Dessert was...well to put it in the nicest of terms...green goo in a shot glass...or sludge so to speak...the Almond Tuille was stale and instead of having a crunch to it, it had a rubbery bite....the Strawberry Confit was just chopped strawberries tossed into this sludge...and at the very bottom of it all was crushed and mushy digestive biscuits...the whole dessert didn't even look appetizing...and trust me it wasn't! It might as well have been puke in a shot...

So what did I learn from this night? Never EVER go into a meal expecting too much...because it could all come crashing down...I also learnt that naming a dish in fancy terms using words like confit and tuille still can't save the dish! Oh and if you're wondering where all the pictures are...well with a meal this appetizing you can only imagine how horrible the photos were!! So I decided not to fully immerse you in the horrendous experience I went through! Trust me if you saw these photos you'd thank me...