The restaurant game is played between two people, ideally over three rounds. It can be played over two rounds but the danger of a draw is higher.
The rules are simple. Each player gets a menu and makes their selection of starter and main, the winner of each round is the person who ordered best. If after the first two rounds there is a draw, do not worry, because the third and best round is following shortly. The desert round is so often the decider on the overall winner of the restaurant game, unless your opponent is so intimidated by your game-playing skills that they order the same thing as you in the final round, tsk.
A few nights ago I lost the restaurant game, absolutely and completely. Without question I got my arse kicked.
Can you tell I don’t like losing the restaurant game?
For dinner we went to Pearls and Caviar, a restaurant/lounge here at the Shangri La. Despite the pretentious name, it trumps any other form of dining this hotel has to offer. Incredibly opulent and beautifully decorated, it is a seafood restaurant and definitely one for those special occasions. The menu is also a little pretentious (the main dishes are described as ‘pearls’ with the non-seafood items being ‘land pearls’) but very, very good.
To start with O had soft-shell crab that came with some tomato salsa and a polenta cake. It looked absolutely stunning. I was convinced he had won the first round until we each took a bite, at which point my scallop carpaccio with lemon zest, artichoke and pomegranate gave me that first point. It looked very boring on the plate – just a flat square made up of the carpaccio with a couple of bits of artichoke – but the taste was incredible! There was enough pomegranate pods (or is it seeds?) to have one with each bite and that was just perfect, any more and it would have been too sweet, any less and the sourness of the lemon juice and zest along with the artichoke would have completely overpowered the scallops. Delicious! O’s was ok, but despite looking very impressive the tomato salsa was quite plain and the polenta cake was crumby whereas I like my polenta smooth. The first point was mine!!!
The second point, oh how I weep for you! This is where, despite actually winning the first round, I picked so horrendously that O was declared the out and out winner on the spot, never mind what happened in the third round. *sigh*
I dithered about for ages with my order. I was initially drawn to the ‘pearls and grains’ section of the menu where the seafood was served with pasta or rice of some description and I was torn between the risotto negro with lobster or the langoustines with angel hair pasta and chilli. Then I noticed that that section was particularly small (merely a third of a page) compared with the ‘charcoaled pearls’ section (a full page!) and decided that since the charcoaled page was so extensive this must be what they make most often and so is probably where the best dishes are to be found, rather than the smaller sections which they might make less often and so might not be as good. I went for hallowayu (a New Zealand white fish) with saffron sauce and gnocchi with some asparagus on the side. O went for the langoustines with angel hair pasta.
Oh the disappointment when the plates arrived – mine was a couple of sad looking fillets coated in a curried flour and then lightly fried (the fish was perfectly cooked, mind) with a too heavy sauce and the gnocchi was basically mashed potato vaguely shaped into little dumplings and also drowned in some kind of rich sauce. O described it as a fancy fish and chips and he was absolutely right. His dish was glorious to behold and to taste. The langoustines were fresh and delicious. The angel hair pasta was black with a perfect mix of garlic, chilli and oil.
We both went for the chocolate desert which was a nice brownie (though the menu said fondue and I was disappointed in the lack of that), a bad chocolate chip Um Ali (I’ll have to explain that one another time), a fantastic scoop of cookie ice cream and a heavenly chocolate truffle encased in milk chocolate that looked like a small, brown bar of gold.
I know where I went wrong. I broke two cardinal rules of ordering by going against my instincts and not ordering locally. Always order local, Anna! Always order local.
A.
The rules are simple. Each player gets a menu and makes their selection of starter and main, the winner of each round is the person who ordered best. If after the first two rounds there is a draw, do not worry, because the third and best round is following shortly. The desert round is so often the decider on the overall winner of the restaurant game, unless your opponent is so intimidated by your game-playing skills that they order the same thing as you in the final round, tsk.
A few nights ago I lost the restaurant game, absolutely and completely. Without question I got my arse kicked.
Can you tell I don’t like losing the restaurant game?
For dinner we went to Pearls and Caviar, a restaurant/lounge here at the Shangri La. Despite the pretentious name, it trumps any other form of dining this hotel has to offer. Incredibly opulent and beautifully decorated, it is a seafood restaurant and definitely one for those special occasions. The menu is also a little pretentious (the main dishes are described as ‘pearls’ with the non-seafood items being ‘land pearls’) but very, very good.
To start with O had soft-shell crab that came with some tomato salsa and a polenta cake. It looked absolutely stunning. I was convinced he had won the first round until we each took a bite, at which point my scallop carpaccio with lemon zest, artichoke and pomegranate gave me that first point. It looked very boring on the plate – just a flat square made up of the carpaccio with a couple of bits of artichoke – but the taste was incredible! There was enough pomegranate pods (or is it seeds?) to have one with each bite and that was just perfect, any more and it would have been too sweet, any less and the sourness of the lemon juice and zest along with the artichoke would have completely overpowered the scallops. Delicious! O’s was ok, but despite looking very impressive the tomato salsa was quite plain and the polenta cake was crumby whereas I like my polenta smooth. The first point was mine!!!
The second point, oh how I weep for you! This is where, despite actually winning the first round, I picked so horrendously that O was declared the out and out winner on the spot, never mind what happened in the third round. *sigh*
I dithered about for ages with my order. I was initially drawn to the ‘pearls and grains’ section of the menu where the seafood was served with pasta or rice of some description and I was torn between the risotto negro with lobster or the langoustines with angel hair pasta and chilli. Then I noticed that that section was particularly small (merely a third of a page) compared with the ‘charcoaled pearls’ section (a full page!) and decided that since the charcoaled page was so extensive this must be what they make most often and so is probably where the best dishes are to be found, rather than the smaller sections which they might make less often and so might not be as good. I went for hallowayu (a New Zealand white fish) with saffron sauce and gnocchi with some asparagus on the side. O went for the langoustines with angel hair pasta.
Oh the disappointment when the plates arrived – mine was a couple of sad looking fillets coated in a curried flour and then lightly fried (the fish was perfectly cooked, mind) with a too heavy sauce and the gnocchi was basically mashed potato vaguely shaped into little dumplings and also drowned in some kind of rich sauce. O described it as a fancy fish and chips and he was absolutely right. His dish was glorious to behold and to taste. The langoustines were fresh and delicious. The angel hair pasta was black with a perfect mix of garlic, chilli and oil.
We both went for the chocolate desert which was a nice brownie (though the menu said fondue and I was disappointed in the lack of that), a bad chocolate chip Um Ali (I’ll have to explain that one another time), a fantastic scoop of cookie ice cream and a heavenly chocolate truffle encased in milk chocolate that looked like a small, brown bar of gold.
I know where I went wrong. I broke two cardinal rules of ordering by going against my instincts and not ordering locally. Always order local, Anna! Always order local.
A.
An Update on 25th February 2010
O and I went back to Pearls and Caviar, for the third time, last night and I have to say I was desperately disappointed.
The menu has changed completely and is now impenetrable and unappetising to say the least. Gone are all of the options for seafood with rice/pasta, the interesting sides (now you have a choice of two kinds of rice, courgette "fries" in batter, a salad and mushrooms), the grilled fish section and the pages and pages of interesting looking creations.
Last night we were faced with a tiny menu in which we struggled to find anything that we wanted to eat. Far too many dishes came with unnecessary and off-putting experimental pairings and I was not able to finish either my starter or my main course.
Do not go to Pearls and Caviar, unless they change their menu back.
I do have it on good authority that the lounge bar of Pearls and Caviar serves very good tapas, so it would seem that all is not lost.
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