Monday, March 21, 2011

Restaurant Week Part 1: Table 66

Its the time of the year again, where a group of casual & fine-dining restaurants participate in a week-long affair, and dish out a 3-course lunch & dinner for a very affordable price of $25/$40 (lunch) & $35/$55 (dinner). In case you are wondering, the disparity in prices is because certain fine-dining restaurants are awarded a special star, and is allowed to add an additional $15 for their lunch & $20 for their dinner sets (think high-class places like Forlino, Yan Ting, Stellar, etc). I missed the past few years' events, so am really glad to be able to enjoy the event this year. It is also a good opportunity to entice new diners (like myself) to try the food at the participating restaurants, because it is now much more affordable for them, as compared to their usual menu prices.

So first up, Table 66!

A small cosy restaurant nestled among the row of pubs and bridal shops along Tras St, it serves Modern European food (which to me, roughly translates to French+Italian+Spanish) at casual prices.

Special Restaurant Week Dinner Menu ($35++)


I am not a fan of bread, so i just tried half of this bread roll, but i think its pretty good! Imagine warm and soft freshly-baked bread (i cant tell what type of bread it is though) served with cold butter? Yup, thats the feeling you get.

Although i was very tempted to try the other starter, i didnt wanna risk trying raw beef slices on an empty stomach yet, so decided to go for the scallop tataki instead. And i was very pretty pleased with my choice. The scallops, although not as huge as those you see in Japanese restaurants, is still fresh and juicy, with the chilli marinade on it giving an exciting "kick" to it. The mound of vegetables below the scallops tastes like a Western take on achar, but its pretty refreshing and goes very well with the slightly spicy scallops. Nice!

Decided to choose lamb over fish for the mains, mainly because i wanted something more hearty, and i m pretty pleased with my choice too. For the 1st time, i was asked on my preferred doneness for my lamb, so of coz i went for medium! When the lamb finally arrived, i must say the doneness of the meat was very good, exactly what i wanted it to be! (I would have tried to take a picture of the gorgeously pink centre if i had a better camera) And there isnt any sign of the "lamb smell" that most people don't like, in fact it tastes like beef! My only grouch is that the surface of the lamb cutlets can be a little less grilled, so it won't taste so hard and burnt. The sweet potato puree and grilled vegetables are well, just accompaniments to the lamb, so just pretty average tasting. All-in-all, definitely one of the better tasting lamb chops/cutlets i have tried so far!

The dessert of the day is Bread pudding with Vanilla ice cream. After being very satisfied with the 1st 2 courses, i was a little disappointed with the dessert. Firstly, the Bread pudding wasn't the traditional one from England which i was familiar with. It just looked and tasted like bits of bread stacked together, stuffed with chocolate and re-baked in an oven, resulting in a texture which was a little too firm and dry. Luckily the creaminess of the ice cream and the sauce helped to soften the bread pudding to a comfortable texture. Secondly, the ice cream is lacking in the fragrant Vanilla taste which can only be brought out using top-grade vanilla pods. This one, although still showing very slight specks of black, tastes similar to a Haagen-Dazs kinda vanilla ice cream?

Overall, for the price i paid, the quality of the food is pretty worth it, and i will consider coming back again to try their other items on the menu (when there are promotions of course!).


Table 66
66 Tras St

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