This new restaurant at the newly refurbished 100AM (what used to be the Amara Hotel Shopping Arcade) is a seafood restaurant with a Japanese twist, serving everything from sushi to teppanyaki with a seafood slant. Because we'd OD-ed on sushi at Ikeikemaru at lunch time, we had more of their cooked food here.
We wanted to order their oysters with citrus vinaigrette, at $13.90 for 6, but they said they weren't available, and suggested the live oysters for $25 for 6 instead. We asked what the difference was - apparently the former are from Japan and the latter from Canada. Anyway we agreed, but on hindsight I wonder if it was a deliberate ploy to push the more expensive ones.
Anyway, this looked impressive but somehow were a bit bland. They seemed to be lacking the briny oyster liquor, which leads me to suspect that they may have rinsed them off before serving.
I was enticed to order the chicken karaage because it was described as having "kimchee essence". It was a bit of a letdown because while it was a decent karaage, I couldn't discern any hint of kimchee at all.
The oyster and garlic fried rice, from the teppenyaki station, was similarly rather lacking in flavour. With oysters, bacon and garlic as ingredients, you'd think it would be quite a flavour explosion, but it was anything but.
The Oyster Maki, which was a sushi roll with tempura oyster and aburi processed cheese, was filling but very pedestrian. Again, none of the flavours really stood out, so I ended up having very little impression of what I ate.
The one saving grace was the Lobster Miso soup, which came with half a small lobster. The miso soup had a nice combination of miso and lobster flavours, and the lobster itself was pretty good too.
A seems to have a better impression of this place than I do. The fact that I was fanning away two flies throughout dinner probably didn't help. At least the service was good, but I don't think a return visit is on the cards, at least not before we make our way through the other dining establishments at 100AM.
A says:
The lobster soup was great and for under $20, fantastic value for money. Everything else was just average; decent for what you pay, but nothing to shout about. Unlike C, I certainly don't mind coming back, but it definitely isn't a top pick.
The Oyster & Crab Restaurant
100 Tras Street
#01-08, 100AM
Tel: 6543-6507
No comments:
Post a Comment