Marriott: American Grille
Compared to Carmichael's at Hilton, this place was a lot busier and I was glad we had a reservation. After the host led us to our table and gave us menus, we sat around for ages before our waitress finally came by with bread. After asking her a few questions about the menu, she disappeared again and didn't come by for another 10 minutes. So we started munching on the bread and chips while we waited. The bread was alright, but the chips were way too hard and salty.
Since I knew I would be ordering meat for my entree, I decided to get a refreshing starter of spicy prawn and avocado salad ($14.50). In reality, it wasn't very spicy at all apart from the slightly heated tangy vinaigrette. The combination of papaya, avocado and prawns was tasty, but the prawns weren't very fresh and tasted like they had just come out of the fridge. By the way, the portion size shown in the picture below is only half of the actual salad. The kitchen had thoughtfully separated our order into 2 dishes.
I stared in awe when the oven roasted rack of lamb ($28) arrived. It was indeed a full rack; one of us got 7 ribs and the other got 8. The juicy and tender meat was served with lots of potato gnocchi and seasonal vegetables. The gnocchi was a bit too doughy for my liking and the veggies were too hard and crunchy, but at least the lamb was good.
The meal concluded with a banana creme brulee ($7) served with a chocolate-dipped biscotti. At first I thought the lightly torched banana slices on top made up the banana component of the dessert, but the creamy custard itself was also full of banana flavour. Tasty! I also enjoyed the dulce de leche and passion fruit sauce on the side. I think the bland biscotti should have been left out though, because it had a distinct stale taste as if it had been sitting in a cardboard box for months. I almost never leave a dessert unfinished, but I gave up on the biscotti after a couple of bites.
Despite the not-so-fresh prawns and biscotti, the rest of the food was quite tasty. However, I'm not tempted to come back because the service was really slow and inattentive. It was a waiting game from the start — waiting for bread, waiting to order, waiting for the next dish, waiting for the bill. The environment was also rather noisy. I didn't feel like I was having dinner at a fine dining restaurant in a hotel. The overall experience wasn't very enjoyable, so I'd much rather dine elsewhere next time.
Since I knew I would be ordering meat for my entree, I decided to get a refreshing starter of spicy prawn and avocado salad ($14.50). In reality, it wasn't very spicy at all apart from the slightly heated tangy vinaigrette. The combination of papaya, avocado and prawns was tasty, but the prawns weren't very fresh and tasted like they had just come out of the fridge. By the way, the portion size shown in the picture below is only half of the actual salad. The kitchen had thoughtfully separated our order into 2 dishes.
I stared in awe when the oven roasted rack of lamb ($28) arrived. It was indeed a full rack; one of us got 7 ribs and the other got 8. The juicy and tender meat was served with lots of potato gnocchi and seasonal vegetables. The gnocchi was a bit too doughy for my liking and the veggies were too hard and crunchy, but at least the lamb was good.
The meal concluded with a banana creme brulee ($7) served with a chocolate-dipped biscotti. At first I thought the lightly torched banana slices on top made up the banana component of the dessert, but the creamy custard itself was also full of banana flavour. Tasty! I also enjoyed the dulce de leche and passion fruit sauce on the side. I think the bland biscotti should have been left out though, because it had a distinct stale taste as if it had been sitting in a cardboard box for months. I almost never leave a dessert unfinished, but I gave up on the biscotti after a couple of bites.
Despite the not-so-fresh prawns and biscotti, the rest of the food was quite tasty. However, I'm not tempted to come back because the service was really slow and inattentive. It was a waiting game from the start — waiting for bread, waiting to order, waiting for the next dish, waiting for the bill. The environment was also rather noisy. I didn't feel like I was having dinner at a fine dining restaurant in a hotel. The overall experience wasn't very enjoyable, so I'd much rather dine elsewhere next time.
WEll, from the outside, the American Grille doesn't look that fancy. It's just attached to a hotel. =)
ReplyDelete8am over here, and I'm looking at your oven roasted rack of lamb and am instantaneously craving meat........... Sigh...... Is it as good as or better than Stepho's?
Yes but when a restaurant is part of a hotel, you usually have higher expectations for the service don't you? :P
ReplyDeleteI've never tried the rack of lamb at Stepho's and I haven't been there for years, but I wasn't particularly impressed with their food. Good value yes, but I never thought the food was that great.
The rack of lamb is their best dish.
ReplyDeleteWell... Remember.. where did we go... Griffin's, was it? for Dine Out last year? And we were terribly disappointed too.