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2012-10-30
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As the title states, it was girl's night out on Saturday and having decided that we all wanted to go for a nice dinner before pre-Halloween celebrations, we ended up booking at Intercontinental hotel's Steakhouse~ 6pm found us being led into the dimly lit dining room and we were seated by the windows which offered a decent view of the water. The layout of the steakhouse is more of a square, with the tables set out along the sides of the square, leaving the centre of the room open for their renow
6pm found us being led into the dimly lit dining room and we were seated by the windows which offered a decent view of the water. The layout of the steakhouse is more of a square, with the tables set out along the sides of the square, leaving the centre of the room open for their renowned appetiser buffet table. Their menus are quite interesting, at first I thought we were being presented with a standard book, but upon opening, it was actually a double screen listing out the menu in an electronic fashion. Very techy, but as the surroundings grew darker, the brightness of the screen became a bit harsh on the eyes.
Bread was served first. A simple assortment of dark rye, sourdough, baguette, sesame lavosh and parmesean crisp in a cone shaped basket. Unfortunately the bread was not served warm, but it was of decent quality. I liked the lavosh bread most, crunchy with the toasted sesames giving a nice flavour.
We were also served a small bowl of parmesean crisps with pumpkin dip, the crisps were fine, shattering nicely with a light pressure, but I found the pumpkin dip to be a little bland.
I was the only one that ordered an appetiser, but I was very glad I did as the lobster bisque was quite marvellous. Smooth and rich, the flavour of the bisque was intensely concentrated with a few bite sized pieces of lobster hidden inside. I really liked this, as it was not overly salty and it was served piping hot which was definitely a plus for me.
It was quite amusing that we chose to go to The Steakhouse, despite two of us being non-beef eaters, but that was not a problem since we discovered that The Steakhouse does other items very well too. Originally, I was not going to order steak either, as I had a very solid recommendation from a reliable source that the Sea Bass was worth trying, but since J and S decided to order the Sea Bass I picked the centre cut filet mignon (12oz) instead. H was definitely going the steak route choosing the special of the day which was Nebraskan aged beef (14oz) and C chose the organic Welsh lamb racks. Prior to serving the mains, a slim rectangular rack holding 8 shot glasses of different types of salt was placed on the table. The Steakhouse is renowned for this, as it gives diners the opportunity to try out the varying flavours of salts from around the world, intriguing, but I do not think any of us used it on our mains. Us meat eaters were also able to choose our own knives which gave a personal touch towards the whole experience.
Our mains soon arrived which was accompanied by a waiter proffering a tray with a wide selection of different types of mustards. I picked the seeded, dijon and honey to be my choices for the evening. When my filet mignon was placed in front of me I was stunned at the size and a little worried that the thickness of the cut would result in the meat not being overcooked. How wrong I was. The knife cut through the filet like it was cutting butter and one slice into it revealed a gorgeous pink hue. It was so so tender and perfectly seared so that the juices were locked into the meat. Very good~
H's aged Nebraskan steak had a stronger beef flavour, but I found the texture to be overly chewy. It did not seem to bother H though as she managed to finish the whole steak with ease.
I tried some of J's sea bass and I can really understand why this was recommended to me. It was perfectly cooked, the snow white flesh firm, but easily chewed and it carried a wonderful buttery flavour which I think was largely attributed to the natural oils of the bass. I really enjoyed this and probably ate about a third of J's dish
C's lamb was remarkable too, cooked to her requested medium rare, it was tender with no gamey taste at all. Coupled with mint jelly, it really was a winning combination
In addition to our already generously sized mains, we ordered four sides to share: Creamed spinach- wilted spinach in a light cream. It was not as heavy as I expected it to be and it probably was the side I enjoyed the most.
Black truffle mashed potatoes- this was not smoothly blended as it was slightly lumpy, but the black truffle aroma was there.
Steamed broccoli with garlic- this was exactly its namesake. Nothing really special, but gave us our required greens intake.
Garlic mushrooms- the mushrooms were very fleshy with a pleasant chewy texture, it was fragrant from the garlic oil, but lacked a little in the salt department.
We did not order desserts, since we had other plans for indulging our sweet tooths, but overall it was a highly satisfying meal~ Recommended!
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