Our initial plans to have a lackadaisical quiet evening at home were inadvertently shelved when the sister tempted us to dine out with J, herself and B. After blasting like over twenty smses back and forth, we finally agreed on a dining venue - Satsuma. But two SMSes later, L threw a spanner in the works and suggested Turquoise Room. It sounded like a good suggestion since G and I had never been there and since she had many times suggested but never got her choice, we decided to skip Satsuma this round and reserved the Turquoise Room.
The place is located within the serene Gillman Village, a stone throw away from Little Bali and the first thought I had as I walked into the spartan patio-furnished restaurant was... 'Rustic. Hmmm, charming'. Perhaps the only betrayal to its modern existence would be the floor to ceiling glass wine cellar which boasts a wine selection wider then the food choices available within the menu.
We brought our own bottle, which alcoholics will be pleased to know that corkage is a mere $10 if your dinner bill comes up to $80 - Q.E.D.
The sister lunged straight into the appetiser section to claim our starters for the evening - the bread platter, calamari and beef carpaccio.
Though the wait for our food wasn't long, I would have to say I was truly disappointed at the quality of the food that night. I don't claim to be a Connoisseur of food of any cuisine, and when I crave for Italian, any ol' bread and pasta fare typically suffices. So when I comment as fairly as possibly about a place's servings being below par, you can more or less assume the worse.
From our choice of appetisers, I liked the bread platter the best. But, considering most average and upper class restaurants serve bread complimentary and with more standard then this, I won't classify this a compliment to the chef.
Among the five of us, we share three different types of pastas - crabmeat linguini, white wine lobster linguini and seafood penni and a beef tenderloin and grilled lamb cutlets.
After the appetisers, we were already not expecting much. Its a good thing we lowered our expectations, that way the disappointment we experienced was already buffered a great deal. The crabmeat and seafood pastas were only mediocre. The lobster linguini was inexplicably tasteless and just when we thought it couldn't get any worse, we popped the total of three morsels of lobsters and discovered a new level of 'rubbery -overcooked'.
Our wine and best starters of the night
B and his Moby Dick t-shirt and our crab-meat linguini
Needless to say, we declined desserts. The sister kept apologizing profusely for the poor recommendation, although disclaiming that she had earlier in the car ride over warned us not to expect too much. Next time I'll have to set a clause that she makes all qualifying statements and comments before any reservations are made. =0p
Turquoise Room
Gillman Village
7 Lock Road, 108935
Tel: 64733655
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