Sunday, January 25, 2009

Straits Cafe @ Rendezvous

Now i know, Rendezvous isn't just about Restaurant Hock Lock Kee (the nasi padang since dad's childhood days) anymore. The 4-month-old Straits Cafe @ Rendezvous reopens like a new-born after an intensive refurbishment project of the hotel.
... where a food tasting session took place.
with compliments.


Well, i thought the traditional-turned-modern transformation was worth the investment. The play of colours worked, and the apt lightings wasn't stripping of comfort or spaciousness.





Toss to the new year. An opening Prosperity Yusheng adorned with chains of auspicious lines to feel hopeful about. Though the dry shreds failed to shine, i found comfort in that luscious salmon morsels and crispy golden crackers pairing.





An extravagant showdown. The Poon Choi ($198 for 5 persons) featured bountiful layers of abalone, shark's fin, scallops, prawns, sea cucumber.... luxurious delicacies vying for every inch of attention. 15 ingredients, 6-hour long immersion, tagged with the chef's efforts and a hefty pricetag. Just a pity blemished by unjust flavour.






Fanciful salads & chilled seafood greeted at the buffet line, adjuncted by a range of condiments and sauces. The DIY Yusheng bar also provided free-flow of supplies for self-assembly. Comes in handy for Lo-Hei addicts who can't get enough of that festive staple.


A couple of them scored. The chicken salad and smoked salmon were adequately seasoned; and i found total delight in those succulently plump and saucey japanese baby octopuses.






Steamed beancurd with prawn mousse in lobster butter sauce was eye-littingly novel to see, yet falling into the love-it-or-hate-it category. Think chilli-less otah paste dressed up in a western suit.




The mediocre chilled somen with unagi and fishy-as-ever tuna maguro sashimi may be worth skipping, but you wouldn't want to miss their salmon sashimi. Voluptuously silky and fatty... it oohs me.







Over to the dessert section, an equal mix of western and asian slices stood. My personal advice: hit the chocolate walnut brownie, tiramisu icecream, then proceed on to the asian players like pandan kaya fudge cake, durian puffs.. or the notably-praised durian penyet.
Steer clear from the 'blueberry cheesecake', big time.
Special thanks to Christina, the marketing communications manager, for her kind hospitality throughout the meal.
Thanks for making my first food-tasting session possible.
Chinese New Year Festive Buffet (28 Jan-9 Feb)
Lunch $38 (adult), $23 (child)
Dinner $48 (adult), $29 (child)
Chinese New Year High Tea (31 Jan, 1.7.8 Feb)
Adult $35, Child $21
Straits Cafe @ Rendezvous
Rendezvous Hotel Lobby Level
9 Bras Basah Road

6 comments:

  1. you finally updated. been looking at this space everytime i online but the same old mario greets me. lol! ahh.. i suppose different people have different taste buds, so yeah. but some of the food was different from the one i had. cheers to the first food tasting eh. haha

    ReplyDelete
  2. btw, did you really post this on 25th? cos i just came "here" last night but the post wasn't out yet, this morning den saw it. haha

    some of the photos were blur, practice more! :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Wow, ultimate food porn! I think it was a wonderful set of photos!reat post! Would love a link to it from our site. Here's how you can create inbound links from our site: http://www.foodista.com/static/blogger%20tools

    ReplyDelete
  4. Guess you have lots of fun... If my intuition didn't fail me, it must have been a great meet-up with Brad and Vicki...

    Was waiting for your new post to wish you and your family a happy and prosperous new year... Hopefully you have collected lots of red packets =)

    ReplyDelete
  5. brad: yupp i will practice, definitely!

    Fen: hi fen, thanks for the wishes. happy cny to you too! (: oh btw actually i didn't go to straits cafe with brad and vicki, it was a separate session =p

    ReplyDelete
  6. O.o... looks pretty similar and around the same time... Thought you were invited to the food tasting too...

    My bad for the wrong guess...

    Yuan had the same problem of blur pictures when using the EOS, think the bokeh effect of EOS is too good le, u might wanna push the F stop alittle while snapping pictures... It does help for his case...

    ReplyDelete

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