Restaurant Week at Private Affairs

And it is restaurant week again! This time round, I met dar for lunch at Private Affairs.

Let me just start with all the bad stuff. When launched in March 2010, Restaurant Week was supposed to be about showcasing quality cuisine from top restaurants at an affordable price fixed price. But this time round, I was comparing the regular set lunch menu and the menu offered during Restaurant Week for a few restaurants accredited with the Dining City star where there is an additional charge of $15 for lunch and $20 for dinner to cover the cost of the high quality food and service at these restaurants. In some places, the menu is exactly the same! And it costs like $2-$4 more during Restaurant Week! It is starting to feel like a scam this time round.

But anyway, I take this as an occasion to meet dar for lunch near his workplace. Alas, we did not have a good dining experience. There were just 3 wait staff for the fully booked lunch session. Out of the 3 staff, 1 male waiter seemed to be young and inexperienced, it was as if it was his first time serving. He forgot that we were not served our bread (which was measly by the way), and our appetizer was served first instead.

That was not all. After our appetizer, we waited more than half hour for our mains to arrive. And the next table who ordered much later than us (as the last person is the group arrived late and they ordered late) had their mains served before us. I think there was a problem in the kitcen, namely the foie gras. The remaining tables who arrived later than us all have their foie gras served very much later after ours was served. A huge batch of foie gras was served all at one go from the kitchen, so I would assume that that there was a problem with one batch of foie gras.

All that being said, I must give credit to the kitchen. The food was good. I had the foie gras as my appetizer. And I loved it more the second time round. Maybe it was because the portion was bigger and there were actually extra ingredients given (mushroms?). Well, we did pay $3 more than the usual lunch menu price.

And this was the main dish I had which we waited for more than half an hour for. My miso cod fish with spiced eggplant salad. Loved it!

The hubs was so pissed that he asked for the dessert to be served when we were served our mains. But of course, the dessert didn't come so fast. Though he did ask or the bill when the dessert was served. I think the waitress was shocked. Haha! Anyway, this was the green tea creme brulee with earl grey tea sorbet. The creme brulee didn't come with the usual burnt sugar coating on top which I thought was rather strange. Maybe it was an oversight! Gasp!