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2014-05-12
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Given the one-star status we thought we should go try something new. Even though our friend told us Principal was not that good, but we decided to give it a go still, given the good reviews here on openrice - But then, the whole dining experience at Principal was very disappointing (considering that was a birthday dinner and we did not enjoy the night - perhaps even ruined it a bit...)We had separate menu that night: I had the 10 course "The Principal Experience" ($1080+10%) and my girlfriend ha
We had separate menu that night: I had the 10 course "The Principal Experience" ($1080+10%) and my girlfriend had this 7 course "Cuento Corto" Menu ($890+10%)
I don't even know where to start now ....the food was below par. But even before that, the waiter attended our table was not very professional. I was surprised because afterall it is supposed to be a one-starred restaurant. When we asked about the food and what was inside, the waiter was not sure about many of those; meanwhile we could hardly understand what he was talking about when he put the dishes down in front of us because the pronunciation of the English name / ingredient was so poor (it was too common in Hong Kong, but if that's the case, i'd be more than happy for him to explain to us in Cantonese!)
First dish for me was the "Snacks" (passion campari, mimetic peanut, seame dentelle, Pate bonbon) - they came in alright; and I thought the best is yet to come. But when the second dish, which was the "Uni" (Chawanmushi, sea urchin, sake, dates) arrived, I started to worry. It was not impressive at all, although I won't say it taste bad, but defo not worth the price. My third dish was "Gnocchi" (which consisted of Gnocchi, iberico ham consomme, buttom mushroom) was in this pale yellow looking, almost chicken-stock-like-soup, so bland and boring i found it very hard to finish all (gnocchi is not easy to cook nicely, in my view). At this point, my heart sank half way already.
The rest such as Mackerel, Venison, Blue Lobster, Cod etc..was all mediocre if not boring. The Venison was in particularly disappointing because as a big fan of venison, this is the worst venison dish I ever tasted so far.
It ended with two dessert ("Snowball" - white chocolate, passion fruit, coconut; and "Gianduja" - praline, sweet potato, brown butter icecream) for me but both was subpar again...
Overall speaking there was something very disconnected throughout the whole meal - ingredient was not the best, and it felt incoherent although they tried to make it sounded special, eyt execution failed.
Originally I thought Principal would be similar to Tate Dining Room or even Liberty Private Works given the price range / setups - but being visited all three of those, my feeling is its not up to that level; comparing to those two names, Principal is a lot worse - from food, services to knowledge (of the staff) etc. I will not recommend my friend to try this place if they have not.
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