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2012-10-05
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Meeting C and her fiance R for dinner, C had made reservations for us at Armani Aqua situated inside Charter House. I have to be honest that I was not expecting much from this dinner, as just by hearing the name of one of the leading fashion houses being involved with culinary arts it just did not seem to make sense. However, I am glad to admit that they proved me wrong, well in some aspects anyway.After being greeted by the hostess outside the restaurant, the blackened doors slid open revealing
After being greeted by the hostess outside the restaurant, the blackened doors slid open revealing a dark corridor with the undertones of red lighting. The sides of the corridor were lined with full length mirrors which added to the mysterious atmosphere giving me a feeling that I was being led to attend a magical ritual or something similar... yes I am getting carried away haha.. But it was quite cool and a little freaky at the same time. At the far end a second set of doors slid open, and I was pleasantly surprised to see quite a large and open dining room, dimly lit with yellowish mood lighting. The decor of the room was modern with Japanese touches and the addition of couches inside the restaurant just gave it a very casual and chilled environment. Not at all uptight as I expected it to be.
The menu was of fusion where one half of the menu was dedicated to Italian cuisine and the other half was Japanese. We ended up picking dishes from both styles and ordered enough to share between the three of us.After ordering we were served a bread basket, warmed Italian styled bread to be exact with a mixture of sun-dried tomato foccacia, grissini, white rolls and I think they also had olive bread too. This was accompanied with olive oil and good quality balsamico which to me is a definite plus in my books. Since I had just had a big meal earlier in the day, I passed on the bread, but C and R seemed to enjoy it.
Our amuse bouche was of Japanese nature, a small cup of kelp immersed in a light vinegary broth. It was pleasantly slimy with the slight crunchiness that only fresh kelp exhibits and the sourness of the broth helped whet the appetite.
First to come was our deluxe sashimi platter. Absolutely stunning in appearance. A large plate filled with an assortment of botan prawns, otoro, tuna, salmon, yellow tail, uni on cucumber (which was very thoughtful as it made for easier transportation to the plate), clams, raw wagyu beef and a large salmon and avocado roll wrapped with daikon. Everything was very fresh, but the stand outs for me were definitely the otoro and salmon which just melted in the mouth. The wagyu beef was quite good too, with a slightly chewy texture and it filled the palate with a rich beef flavour as the marbling gradually dissolved.
When dining with C, we always order greens and this came in the form of a scallop carpaccio salad. It was good, but nothing special. The scallops were soft and tender and the bed of greens were fresh. It was a little bland for me though.
For mains from the Italian side we chose a lobster and squid ink tagliatelle with lardo. It certainly looked striking with the boldness of the red lobster contrasting sharply with the inky pasta. The translucent skin surrounding the pasta had us pondering what it was, but upon tasting we realised it was in fact lardo. Despite the attractiveness of the dish, it was fairly disappointing. The dish was served lukewarm, and although the tagliatelle was cooked well, it was lacking flavour.
The wagyu beef fried rice was significantly better. A generous portion of piping hot fried rice with the mouth-watering aroma of melted fats from the wagyu. It was cooked perfectly and we could really taste the wok hei in the rice. Simple, but so satisfying~
For desserts, they did not have a dessert menu, since they were in the midst of changing menus so the waitress gave us some recommendations on what to order. We ended up picking three. First was a napoleon with custard filling topped with raspberries. I only ate the raspberries as I had already partook in a fantastic napoleon during lunch time, but C and R seemed to like it enough.
The next dessert was named the passion fruit cloud. A pale yellow rectangular block topped with strawberries and strawberry sauce. It was very light and airy in texture with a faint sherbet tang. Not really my cup of tea though.
The final dessert was focused on the element of sesame and this was amazing~ It was made up of seven parts and they all involved the ingredient sesame. There were biscuits, sponge cake, black sesame ice-cream, sesame crisps, panacotta, white sesame cream and sesame paste. All of these items combined together made for a fragrant and interesting mouthful. I loved how the crunchiness of the biscuits and the snap of the sesame crisps went so well with the smoothness of the ice-cream and sesame cream. Anyone who is a fan of sesame must order this. Definitely recommended~
The whole time we were there the whole place was empty except us and another table. I guess this reinforced the fact that people are suspicious of whether the brand Armani can produce good food. I am glad that they proved me wrong and I do hope others will give them a chance. Thanks C and R for dinner
张贴
