The time of the year where birthday celebrations start again! First one usually begins with dar dar / little bee's birthday coz they are Jan babies!
Had wanted to bring dar over to the Pelician but they don't seem to have scampis anymore.
Wooloomooloo has recently been added to the amex palate dining list, decided to give it a try!
Sadly, the first news we got when we tried to order was that the discount does not apply to the ala carte menu. The terms were different from most of the other restaurants i.e. Order 2 mains and get 50% off for two diners. The 50% off applies to their set menu which ranges from $168, $178 to $198. We went for the $178 and $198 one and topped up with 2 sides.
Request to change one of the crab cake starter to the jumbo prawn was accepted with no charge.
Request to change one of the desserts came with a $10 top up.
Overall, service was generally good I guess? But food was served super slow. We started dinner around 7 but only managed to finish by 9.40 pm even though halfway through we were so bored that we asked them to just go ahead and serve whatever they can.
Which reminds me, maybe this is why I have qualms about saying service was good good.
For starters, when I called to book, even thou I specified the amex dining benefits, they did not inform me that it was only applicable to a set menu.
Secondly, I highlighted that it was for a birthday celebration and asked if they could do anything special, they informed me they can only write happy birthday on the dessert. I can't help but compare to lawrys or mortons where a complimentary dessert is offered. But I guess since the dessert came with the set meal, it's already in the course anyway.
Thirdly, when we requested for the rest of the items to just be served, the server asked us "oh, u guys are hungry huh? Of coz, hungry people go to restaurants " I don't really know what to make of this statement. But our food still took some time to arrive.
And while waiting for the mains, we decided we waited too long and were too full already and asked to cancel one of the additional sides we earlier ordered with one server. The other server (the one who said hungry people go to restaurants) came back and seemed to try to say it's already being prepared or something but he will check on it. And after waiting some more, he still came back with the two additional sides. When we asked (considering we did wait further) " oh I thought we cancelled it " and he replied " nvm abt it, I will buy u, don't worry abt it "
Somehow that didn't come off as a genuine don't worry abt it, it came off as don't be cheapo I can waive off the item.
Which while we are here for the 50% off, we were honestly really quite full by then. Even as we mentioned we were quite full already, he continued to ask us " oh how full are you? " which we answered very full.
In any case, I wouldn't say that guy was terribly rude but somehow we just felt a stab of sacarism which we were not intending to let it affect our night of good catch up.
The other servers were really polite, helpful and welcoming so I guess overall service was good.
Food wise was decent, some hits and some misses.
The complimentary bread loaf....
Oysters that came from one of the set meal...
The oysters were fresh and yummy.
Tuna with scallop...
This was really good! Reminded me a bit of the twg lobster salad because of its outlook. Tastes really good!
Truffle beef salad...
This was yummy too! A good portion of warm tender beef with truffle, very good!
Smoked salmon with mini triangle toast...
Like any other smoked salmon.
Crab cake!
Which was pretty good! A little small but pretty good!
Jumbo cocktail prawns...
I really really wanted to order this because the last time we had these at Mortons, it was so damn good! The ones at mortons left a very long lasting impression! This one here today is a big but the texture is not so good. Felt like there was some skin still stuck to the prawns and wasn't succulent. In Chinese (Hokkein) we call it cha cha.
It was at this point we felt that the food was taking too long to be served and requested for the items to be served faster. We get it that maybe for fine dining people may generally want to slowly enjoy it but I guess it's just not for us.
Next up in the set menu is the fish...
One was salmon and another I can't recall what it was. The fish was ok.
Then came the sides that we ordered .. truffle mac and cheese...
This one can fight bedrock's mac and cheese! I used to say bed rock's one is the best, this one can fight! Bed rock one is drier while this one is wetter. Both good in different ways!
The other side we wanted to cancel because we were too full was the creamed spinach which I didn't take a picture of.
Our steak came awhile later....
The fillet mignon
The Australian wagyu...
Both were decent but didn't have a punch. The wagyu was better than the fillet mignon.
If I come back I probably will want to try the prime rib instead. So amex please go talk to wooloo to get the 50% on their ala carte menu instead!
And finally for dessert!
The manager above in the pic gave really good service. He is one of the reasons why i will swing towards saying they gave good service. He took notice that I like my drinks with a lot of ice and he kept replenishing it for me, very attentive!
The dessert we changed was the apple crumble which was decent.
The warm chocolate cake was decent too.
