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2012-08-22
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I have been hearing about AMMO for quite some time already, and made my reservation a month in advance, and kept my hopes high for the experience. So I packed and left work on time on Friday, and went with my boy to AMMO. The venue was rather reclusive, situated at the former Explosives Magazine Compound, and embraced with a style of surreal and metallic settings. A set of chandeliers were hung delicately on the high ceiling. We were seated near the middle of the dining hall with great anticipat
While we were discussing the choice of food and the decor, the servers came at least twice to ask if we were ready. I believed that might be required by the management. I am a sales myself, and reckon a good sales must understand how to pick up hints from clients and discover their needs. If the customers were busy chatting and looked they needed some moments, it would be best not to intrude into their conversation. AMMO exemplified casual dining with quality, thus the menu was kept simple. We decided on everything and finally ordered.
We were offered a bread basket. Well, bread was neither hot nor warm, just a little better than cold. One was an olive bread and the taste was not covered by balsamic even I dipped quite a bit in. Bread is usually the first bite for a customer in a restaurant, and it does leave the first impression to the overall experience also.
To start with, we ordered two appetizers - Slow Cooked Egg, with Toro, sea urchin and Roman zucchini sauce and Scallop Mille-Feuille, with Green Asparagus, paprika and sea urchin sauce. Slow Cooked Egg always topped my favorite list of appetizers, and I had high expectations on how this dish would turn out, since the other ingredients seemed to be quite unconventional to go with the egg when compared to the more popular choices, i.e. truffle, asparagus. I tried to cut a bit of the egg, let the yolk ooze out and ate it with the sea urchin and toro tartare. Well, it was a waste to have the toro served minced instead of having the whole piece as I could not tell whether it was toro or just regular tuna now. I put in the three and started to savor, pity that I could just separately taste toro, sea urchin and a non-warm slow cooked egg. I must say I was a little disappointed. The three ingredients did not blend in and stimulate the palette.Then we moved onto the Scallop Mille-Feuille. Keeping our hopes high, it was indeed a pretty dish when it was placed in front of us. Two scallops were separated by thin sheets of mille-feuille. The sheets were supposed to be a little crispy, but were already a little sort when we started eating. Scallops were not juicy enough and overcooked for a tiny bit. But the paprika and sea urchin sauce brought up the taste of the scallops.
When the pasta was served, it was quite thoughtful of them to have arranged the portion into two. First we had Angel hair with uni, tomatoes and garlic chips. I liked this dish among the rest of the dishes for the night. A little spiciness was sprinkled and stimulated my taste buds telling me I wanted more. I enjoyed the rich and sweet flavor of uni mixing with angel hair.The other pasta was a lighter one - Tagliolini with Winter Truffles. Pasta was al dente, and I was a fan of tagliolini and its chewiness, while my boy found it a little too dry as the sauce was rather minimal. It was a simple nice dish but would be better if the smell of truffles could be amplified even more. I loved how the portion was well controlled so we could leave room for two desserts.
I had another stomach for desserts and we had Tiramisu and Pan Fried Brioche. Tiramisu was so-so, loved the creamy mascarpone cheese, the espresso was not too strong and just right for my liking. The brioche was a surprise. It was a good one! Hot and Warm it was on the outside, and reminded me of a thick French toast. It was such a relish to eat with melting Vanilla ice-cream!
It was a lovely dinner at a fantastic location, like a hideaway from the city. Food is not bad but I believe dining is not only about the food, but the whole journey you go through at the restaurant. The experience would be extra-ordinary if the service could be smoother. Servers were a little overattentive before we ordered but they seemed overly busy when we wanted the bill. I guess AMMO is still in its infancy stage and it is acceptable there should be room for improvement. I do hope when I come back again, I would give a smile for its rating!
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