Mood: Flustered
Reading: Tropical storm Vince heads toward Portugal
Currently listening to: Ride - The Vines
Quote of the day: "Instant gratification takes too long." - Carrie Fisher

[EDIT]: Looks like one other person DID write a review of our evening out - welcome back to the world of active blogging Chen Hoe! ;p

(Please note that his url has changed somewhat)

Some of the guests, along with said lady, were gushing about the decor and ambience of the venue. I have to agree on that point, the setting was pleasingly quaint. Quite a number of nooks and crannies around for the romantic couples who want some privacy. The restaurant itself was spacious - our private dining area came with its own bar and lounge which was rather comfy, but short on sofas to seat all of us. Good thing there were tidbits served on the lounge table, because the meal took a while to arrive.

The waiter took some of us upstairs to have a look and the rooms there were even more spacious. YC was suggesting that it would be a good choice for office functions. The most intimidating room even has its own CD player. The waiter explain, a number of times, to us that every piece of furniture can be rearranged to suit the function.

I was expecting the restaurant to be crowded, but it seems there were only 2 other couples dining there during our 3 hour-long culinary experience.

I had the lamb which was amongst some of the best I have had, but I felt the portion was somewhat meager - the latter opinion apparently shared by most of those present. Dessert was definitely not shabby but fails to compare with the ones available at Cafe Cafe... [Read more]

[/EDIT]



Ok, quickly now, its late and there's plenty of work yet to be done...

Apologies in advance for the bland writing!

Friday

Got off work relatively early and hit the gym and then went to the Shangri-La Hotel to pick up Boon where we hung out in his room for a bit catching up over cigs (hey, its been two years). Dashed back down to Hartamas to pick up Vikram and we went down to the local kopitiam for dinner (mmmm... fried kueh teow with venison and raw egg...). Sneexe joined us there as well while Chen Hoe spent the better part of an hour circling around the area in a futile search for parking.

Being a bit aimless that night what with the majority of people being down in Singapore and all we spent a fair amount of time (actually, the time it took Chen Hoe to look for, and ultimately give up on, parking) and we ended up at Bangkok Jazz... Where, once again, Boon wasn't allowed entry because of the sandals he was wearing - which is, oddly enough, EXACTLY what happened the last time he came down. :p

So we left Chen Hoe and Sneexe there and went back to the hotel and, after ogling the elevator's poster of two rather fetching Filipino lasses from the local band performing at the Shang, we discovered - much to our boyish delights - that they were performing live, short skirts and all, at that precise moment on a stage atop the hotel bar...

So... 30 minutes, a beer, and some primo seats later (right... *ahem*... 'under' them at bar of course) we rejoined a baffled/bored Chen Hoe and Sneexe back at Bangkok Jazz for the remainder of a night filled with wine, jazz, and some pretty exemplary exemplary singing from the live act (i quite liked her take on 'Knockin' on Heaven's Door')...

Saturday

Extremely busy day with dance practice in the morning and French class in the afternoon.

Bleh.

Anyhow, we had dinner at Top Hat! Most of the usual bloggers were suspiciously absent so i guess its up to me... 20 people in all showed up for the event (with another one or two showing up later as well) and, i must say, the private room was VERY nice - complete with our own private bar, a two for one happy hour beer discount, a small lounge area, and what may have been the biggest table i have yet seen... ;)

Alas, the food was somewhat lacking that night. :(

I can't speak for the others but compared to my previous outings to Top Hat i was pretty disappointed with the quality this time around. It might have been a combination of being in a large group with only one chef cooking but... still. Reputations are at stake dammit!

Anyhow, i shared a seafood sampler appetizer with Boon. At RM30 (making it the most expensive appetizer there) and coupled with the generally accepted belief that anything that has the word 'sampler' in it equates to 'many choice samples of said food' we thought this would be a safe (and hopefully filling) bet.

We ended up with two small prawns, a tiny piece of lettuce (ostensibly with crab in it) and a top hat filled with... something. Divide THAT by two 6 ft guys and you'll also come to the conclusion that this was a less than auspicious start to the evening. A far better, and popular, choice that i would recommend would be their signature 'Top Hats' - 12 hats, in a sizable bowl, for RM10.

*sigh*

When it came to the mains i wasn't much better off... I had the cod, which - while being tasty - also had the unfortunate side effect of causing me to continuously pull fish bones from my mouth. Charming.

As for the much vaunted lamb... well, according to those who ate it its, i quote, "...not too bad, but not really worth the RM60 tag. In other words, nothing really special. Lah."

Recommendations? Go for the beef stew. Not only did it smell divine and look substantial (bread and all) but it also had the benefit of being one of the cheaper items on the menu.

Dessert was great though! But then again, i've always had a soft spot for mud cakes... Heck, i tried everything and they're ALL good. Just make sure you try the crumble! :)

Final verdict time. Despite the rather lacklustre performance, i think it may be worthwhile to mention that i might be a tad harsher in my judgement than i would normally be... After all, this would be my 11th time eating there. Still, thats no excuse for a drop in the quality they previously offered (its been downhill for a while now), while maintaining their high prices. If anything, just go there for dessert. Service was good though and the decor was pleasing, and they even offered individual billing - something that always scores a lot of points with anybody organising a large dinner outing!

Anyhow, we ended up at Cynna as planned and - wow - i quite liked this place! It had an interesting atmosphere to it, what with the constantly shifting patterns from the big screen on the wall, rose petal strewn tabletops, and yuppie crowd while the drinks were reasonably priced. That, and the cheong-sam clad waitresses provided for some nice eye candy... ;p

Heck, Boon and i even got to meet two former Miss Malaysias that night - thanks to a certain friend from work who happened to be there at the time. I'm going to let Boon describe the exact event but the one word that springs to mind when i look back would be:

Awkward.

(And how!) :p

Ended up at Alvin's place after that for nasi lemak and coffee... then called it a night at around 5am.

Sunday

Great Sunday as always... :)

Woke up and hit the driving range with Vikram, Chen Hoe, and Sneexe at about 1pm, followed by lunch at my favourite MSG laced pork mee place down in Taman Tun. At this point i just have to say this - kopitiams seem to be quite a revelation to Vikram... *snicker*

Anyhow, came back home and had a good two hour badminton session with Ken, Al, Sneexe, Jo Lyn, and Chen Hoe followed by our usual 100 Plus orgy down at Le Deli. (Wow, this Sunday badminton thing is really starting to take off!) :)

In the evening i went down to HELP with Jo Lyn (thanks for the tiramisu!), Vikram and my ma to catch the final showing of Company Of Shorts. It was interesting, but three straight hours of overly/deliberately 'artsy' shorts can get a bit trying... Still, there were a few that were of particular interest! Here are my picks:

Sometimes Love Is Beautiful

"The laundry girl and motorcycle girl have been best friends since childhood. Over the years their relationship has changed somewhat. The laundry girl is two-timing her boyfriend; the motorcycle girl continues to help keep it a secret. The motorcycle girl remains single and the laundry girl continues her search for true love. Or maybe due to some unforeseen circumstances the girls will continue to keep their real feelings from each other and remain best friends."

Interesting movie because of the title. It basically looks at the downside of love - the people who cheat, the breakups, the witnesses to the breakup, passionless sex... all filmed in a slow, meticulous, even banal way. Vik was confused by the title, but its really how you just look at it - what the movie was trying to portray were the altogether too common scenes of love we bear witness to these days... and just trying to say that, in spite of these, sometimes - sometimes - love can be beautiful.

Its Possible Your Heart Cannot Be Broken

"A black comedy about the innocence and disintegration of love."

This gets a mention because it was actually FUNNY at most parts (says a lot about the night's topic huh?). Basically, its filmed in that classic 'confessional' way where two parties to a relationship document the events and their feelings from their perspective(s) to the camera (which then portrays the events from each ones point of view). Hilarious, yes. Quirky even. But original, no. Still, the standard of writing was better than the others...

Flower

"From a passionate lovely young girl to an old wrinkly weak woman, grandma doesn't have much time left to live. There is one thing she wishes to do while she's still alive, which is to experience the happiest moment of her life again."

I liked this one because it was... well... insane. Erm... its pretty hard to describe but lets just say that grandmama's got a few problems with her memory which leads to some pretty surreal scenes. Oh, and mucho respect to the young actor who had to kiss and go to bed with her... *wink*

Company of Mushrooms

"Company of Mushrooms is the name of a pizza. Not everyone likes pizza and not everyone like mushrooms. Even if you like pizza and mushrooms, it doesn't make you like a pizza top with plenty of mushrooms."

I couldn't have put it better myself. ;)

Still, this was the most professional film of the lot, with some great acting, dialogue, and filming. Worth watching!

In other news, Monday sucks.

Right, off to bed.