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2009-06-27
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http://jason-bonvivant.blogspot.com/Since I tried Fire before I decided to try the Kitchen at the W Hotel. It was a Friday night and it was pretty packed when we arrived. This place offers buffet dinner 7 days a week and from my observation, most people were here for the buffet. The decor at this place is very "hip" if that is the right word to use. Also, it is better than the Fire for the fact that it is more spacious and higher ceiling as well. However, it was pretty noisy when we were there.
Since I tried Fire before I decided to try the Kitchen at the W Hotel. It was a Friday night and it was pretty packed when we arrived. This place offers buffet dinner 7 days a week and from my observation, most people were here for the buffet. The decor at this place is very "hip" if that is the right word to use. Also, it is better than the Fire for the fact that it is more spacious and higher ceiling as well. However, it was pretty noisy when we were there. Another interesting thing I realized was that 80% of the customers were females. Interesting indeed! Maybe I will come back later for their Sunday Champagne brunch !
On top of the standard a la carte menu, there were other special items menu as well; but abit confusing because the descriptions provided were pretty confusing especially the extra wine package that goes along with the buffet selection. Anyhow, I was not interested in the buffet but instead their Canadian beef specials. What so special about Canadian beef special? Nothing really but it was how they offered it that sparked my curiosity. Before we ordered, they served us some breads. Although I like how to serve it on a wooden bread board along with the olive oil and vinegar, they slices of bread were not very fresh.
We ordered the following: (1) Bruschetta, (2) black cod + white bean mash + beetroot relish and (3) 950 grams Canadian bone in ribeye with a choice of 3 sidedishes out of 12. O yeah, 950 grams ! I shared it with someone else of course ! For those who followed my blog, you know how picky I am with steak, however, the fact that it came in at 950 grams helped me to decide.
(1) Bruschetta
Honestly, bruschetta to me is a fairly easy dish to make and a safe choice to order in terms of quality. However, the bruchetta here was disappointing. There were very little diced tomatoes and the bread they use was just wrong. Maybe there are several types of bread that can be used to make this dish, but I am used to Baguette / French bread. I think it was Focaccia that was used but the problem was the size and thickness of the bread. Too thick and too little toppings. One thing I like about this dish was the dish itself. It was served heated. A nice touch but would be better if the bruschetta was good too.
(2) black cod + white bean mash + beetroot relish
My friend ordered the black cod and according to her, the fish was pretty fish. A fair dish indeed. I liked the plating of the dish for some reasons, I found it pretty attractive. The plating sauce was beetroot sauce which I think was a good combination with the fish. One thing my friend commented was that the fish was rather oily but I think it was the fish oil. OMEGA 3 ! yeah !
(3) 950 grams Canadian bone in ribeye
It was HUGE !!! I though it was just a gimmick but it was HUGE. Good that I was sharing with someone so I did not have to eat the whole thing on my own. Did I mention it was HUGE? I think it was intended to be shared. I ordered it medium-rare but it turned out to be close to medium. I guess it was the thickness of the steak that made it hard to cook to perfection? Is it a good excuse? I don't know but since my friend was okay with the steak and how it was prepared, I was okay with it as well. The meat quality itself was pretty good. In terms of side dishes / sauces, out of the 12, I picked red wine jus, roasted kipflers and spice grill eggplant. The wine jus was light, the grill eggplant was abit cold. The roasted kipflers on the other hand were pretty good, fresh off the broiler. In terms of overall experience, the Fire is indeed better in my opinion.
Likes:
* Environment (casual)
* Nice silverware / dinning ware
Dislikes:
* brushette (bread too thick, too little toppings)
* environment can be noisy
* service abit slow (maybe due to the serving of buffet - pick up of dirty dishes)
Original Blog Post: http://jason-bonvivant.blogspot.com/2009/06/kitchen-w-hotel.html
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