We used to come here a lot in the past, since its early days when Mr Steak had started the ALL YOU CAN EAT TASTING MENU around 3 years ago. Back then the price was $268 plus 10%.
2 years ago it was $298.
Now in 2008 and 2009 it is $328. Plus 10% surcharge. Unfortunately the quality has gone very very much downhill and I HOPE management of Mr Steak can reflect on this, because it used to be one of my favourite all you can eat restaurants.
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$268 Stage 1
During the opening days at $268, the crabs were fresher. They used to say it is French 'bread' crab from memory, but now it is the Scotland's crab? Nowadays the crab reeks of frozenness and even the crab roe does not have much lingering taste from the freshness it once held?
All meat dishes were served with Bean or Carrot Purees to accompany the meats as a complement. This extra preparation was already gone by the end of the $268 period, unfortunately.
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$298 Stage 2
At this stage, there was still fresh crabs, even if the other seafoods like whelks and prawns weren't that good and seemed too frozen. At least the price was still good, and the Wagyu beef short ribs were still good and there was also Thousand Layer Wagyu option.
The normal Sirloin beef was also quite good and I think it is Australian not American, going by the taste.
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$328 Stage 3 - NOW
First of all, I want to say that service here is very good lately. One of the girls working there is so polite and does everything really well, and other people like the manager and other girls are always quite good on occasions. Now, back to the food.
Please remember, the food nowadays is around $60 dearer per person, but there has been reductions in menu as well as quality.
The seafood on numerous occasions were no longer as fresh, even a bit 'mui mui dei'.
The thousand layer wagyu is no longer available.
The sirloin steak is tough and chewy, not much meat taste compared to before.
The biggest disappointment is the Wagyu Short Ribs. In the past, this dish had a lot of the unique wagyu beef fat taste, even if it is not 100% wagyu but an F1 mix breed.
Nowadays, the Wagyu short ribs are overly marinated in Salt, Pepper as well as some type of Mediterranean spices. Has anyone ever noticed that when eating here, the Wagyu short ribs are ALWAYS BETTER when nearer the end of the night closer to 9:#0 or 10pm and during last order times? That is because, the latter batch are not as marinated and masked by spices. The early batch of beef has probably been marinated from the night before and were uncooked leftovers, and the meat texture has already changed. Hence I always try to order more of the Wagyu ribs nearer the end.
The Wagyu short ribs nowadays have absolutely no wagyu fat taste, which is usually slightly sweet. I suspect these are not even Wagyus at all to be honest. The manager said that's because these are non 100% Wagyu from Australia, so she said of course they are not as good as Full Blood Aussie wagyu or normal Japanese Wagyu (which are mostly imported from Australia anyway, but these high quality Australia wagyus are not exported to Hong Kong.) Fair enough, but even usual F1 50% Wagyu x 50% Angus/Hereford beef have a distinct wagyu taste. Here, this taste is no longer apparent and in fact tastes like normal Australian beef short ribs.
The fat does not melt even after cooking, meaning most of it is not mono-unsaturated fat, which is usual in Wagyu beef genes. Any person who understand beef will know that even normal Australian or Select/Prime Grade USA or Canadian beef still have a lot of fat and taste in usual Short Ribs anyway, due to the body part.
So I suspect that they are cheating a little bit.
Not to mention the so called Kurobuta Roast Pork here has a bad smell on each occasion but not the unique fatty taste of the usual Berkshire/Kurobuta porks from say the Kagoshima area. Obviously, fair enough, I shouldn't expect too much for $328 plus 10%, but PLEASE MR STEAK, don't give us pork that is 'ARD ARD DEI'.
As such I will no longer come to dine here as things are just going backwards - even if the desserts and service are excellent.
I will recommend Mr Steak A-La-Minute instead, as over there in their other Buffet style shop, at least the Wagyu has good wagyu taste and there are many more selections of how you want to eat it.
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