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2013-12-27
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I reckon Christmas is one of the most festive holidays in the year, I was walking back to the office at 2ish in the afternoon and realized the malls in Central were still crowded with people (everyone was on holiday mood!)For this Christmas Eve, we have made reservation at a new lovely spot in Central - Le Dôme de Cristal. It is a new baby of the Ambrosia Cuisines Group, a collaboration with Louis Roederer Champagne. I have been wanting to see the dome at Galleria, so here we went, for our celeb
For this Christmas Eve, we have made reservation at a new lovely spot in Central - Le Dôme de Cristal. It is a new baby of the Ambrosia Cuisines Group, a collaboration with Louis Roederer Champagne. I have been wanting to see the dome at Galleria, so here we went, for our celebratory lunch.
We took the overly slow lift to the 3rd floor. Right when we stepped into the dining room, our attention was immediately shifted to the white creamy dome with tints of gold at the ceiling. I loved the decor, especially with the very well chosen sofa and table. Quite a lot of the sofas were of semi-circle shapes, which I have always preferred because of its coziness and semi-privacy.
We have already picked its 5-course Christmas set lunch beforehand and just a while after we were seated, we were offered the bread basket. I liked brioche the most among the 4, would be better if they serve both salted and unsalted butter.
To start with, we had two Australian Oysters which were of lighter salinity. They were quite pillowy and creamy. Perhaps it would be a good idea to include the region/ name of the oyster in the menu.
Our appetizer for the day was Slow-cooked Scottish Salmon with Spring Vegetables and Coriander Kumquat Dressing. A slight disappointment in this course. Even if it was made with sous vide cooking, I did not understand why the salmon was flaky and it broke into tiny pieces when I tried to pick them up with my fork. I've had a very decent slow-cooked salmon somewhere else in Central and the meat was not flaky in any sense!
We looked at the menu wanting to know what was for soup, this was when we realized it was Cream of Chestnuts.I was not a huge fan of chestnuts and would try to avoid chestnut cake to the best of my ability, but was told by a server that chestnut was something pertaining to Christmas (guess I was not cultured enough). As we did not have a choice, so yes, we digged in our spoon and had the first bite. Well, it was VERY heavy with chestnuts, I felt like eating a chestnut cake with double intensity. Perhaps it would be a great soup for chestnut lovers.
There were 2 options for main and we picked both and shared. The first was Charcoal Grilled Half Boston Lobster and Grilled U.S. Tenderloinwhile the other was Roasted Challandais Duck Breast with Savory Cabbage & Green Apple Whisky Jus.Originally, I was a bit worried that there would be too much cheese for the lobster; but to my surprise, it was not as heavy as I have imagined, and I could taste the lobster meat with the aroma from cheese. The tenderloin was cooked medium rare and it was very tender. The thin slices of duck were gamey.
We did not have much expectation for the dessert - Hazelnut Pavlova with Chestnut Cream and Vanilla Ice-cream, as the look of it did resemble a typical chestnut cake when it was placed on the table. I got a spoonful of chestnut cream, ice-cream and pavlova altogether and had a bite, ah! It was certainly not as bad as I had imagined. It matched quite well with vanilla and the chestnut cream tasted like real chestnuts (I just disliked the typical spaghetti-like chestnut cream) and I totally accepted it. I managed to finish the whole thing. I discovered a chestnut cake which I did not hate!
We had Earl Grey and Hot Lemon Tea as a wrap-up. Well, before the server served us tea, he was a little confused by the two and sought advice from another server. They discussed and were both trying painstakingly hard to distinguish the two kinds of tea by smelling when one of them finally drew a conclusion. The two pots were placed next to us. We had the first sip, looked at each other and smiled. The two pots were mixed up. I had his tea of lemon while he had my Earl Grey. Well, I did not really feel offended but appreciated their efforts to help out instead.Indeed, this was a lovely Christmas Eve lunch. Would love to come back on different occasion, perhaps drinks and tapas after a gruelling day. I believe here would brighten me up again!
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