Sunday, August 26, 2007

life is treating you well when you drink good wine and have good food.

dinner at gunthers! which is a new french restaurant opened by the Garibaldi Group.

being undecided on which of the very expensive starters to choose from, i picked e tasting menu! which is like a assortment of dishes.

thus, my meal for the night includes the following:

1. angel hair pasta with caviar.

beautifully aromatic, not too oily and the caviar simple melts in your mouth. I swear i could still smell that pasta in my mouth after the whole dinner.

2. panfried fois gras

served with a fried cherry, the fois gras was crispy on the outside, soft in the inside. unlike some 3rd rate fois gras, this is totally devoid of the fishy smell that simply turns you off. the nuts scattered on the outer layer of the fois gras helped to relieve some of the fatness

3. bamboo clams served with mushrooms and tomato

close frens know i actually hate tomato. but this tomato is so sweet and nicely fried, it doesnt have a hint of the sourness you'd expect. plus the usually tough bamboo clams were cooked to near perfection, allowing easy slicing and munching. major goodness!

4. braised veal with mashed potatoes

the veal (which is baby cow, slaughtered before having chance to experience adulthood) was deliciously juicy, and hardly required any slicing. just a simple pull of the fork and it came loose! the mash potatoes were served without the gravy you see on most, and yet tastes so much better!

5. apple tart( or pie )

served in a paper tie slice similar to a pie, it was piping hot and extremely delicious! none of the oily, sickening feeling you get from eating common apple pies, and crispy to the point of being heavenly!

6. coffee

served in a petite lil cup, and white or brown sugar on request and hot milk on the side, it looked promising. but yet! a little too medium bodied for my liking. the coffee served at menotti's, which happen to be their subsidary company was better.

and the wine for the night! Cos D'Estournel 1982.

the vibrant red of the wine undermines its age, yet betrays the variety at a glance. at first taste, it displayed loads of dark fruits, toasty oak, mocha and dark chocolate. full bodied effort that retains its strength even after all this years. As the dinner went by, the oak gave way to ripe red fruits and a more subtle approach, displaying more sweetness, as if it was a different wine!

and truth to be said, while the food was heavenly, it did have a price to match. the food i had amounted to a total of 125, which is exclusive of 7% gst, cess and service charge. and of course the corkage of 50 buck.

service was machine like efficient. the moment your glass of water or wine is running low, the waiter zooms in with a bottle of cold panna or the decanter to refill it. systematic, and traditional style of prioritising the ladies and waiting for everyone to finish and clear the course is perfect to a fault. definitely a grade A service.

for the side info, grade S, to me means the waiter is friendly, and chats with you, offering personal advice and making some small talk. makes you feel as if its an old friend. the service at gunthers was so perfect, i could barely make out one waiter from the other!

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