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| - Easily the most disappointing culinary experience of my life. With high expectations, my girlfriend and I were super excited to dine in such a highly regarded establishment only to leave feeling robbed, nauseous and hungry.
We both ordered the tasting menu, hoping to get the full experience and range of the Chef's abilities.
The most delicious dish served to us was the brioche at the very beginning of our meal (we ordered seconds). From there it steadily went downhill. Chef Aprile attempts to wow his customers with the use of liquid nitrogen at every opportunity instead of serving them a tasty, fulfilling meal. It's unfortunate because I'm sure some of you will read this and assume that I'm a closed minded gastronomical buffoon, incapable of appreciating such delicacies, but when your 5th course of a tasting menu is a bland beet salad incorporating foam and dehydrated "beet dirt", one can only be wondering "when am I going to be fed?".
My latest experience with molecular gastronomy was in Hong Kong at Alvin Leung's 'Bo Innovation' and even though he's ventured into the same shock and awe territory as Chef Aprile, I found myself blown away by the intricacies of his flavours, textures and often satisfying tapas. Things that sparked conversation and general excitement about the next dish and how the Chef would dazzle us.
At Colbourne lane I felt like I was just waiting for the ride to be over so I could leave.
It's a beautiful thing when food and art combine, creating something truly memorable. But when your food becomes an array of molecularly broken down ingredients, pretty little dots of puree with zero cohesiveness it just feels like you're doing those things for the sake of proving you can.
$450 (2 tastings, wine + tip) is pricey, but if it's worth it, it's worth it. In retrospect, a hotdog on Front would've made me happier.
PS. Our waiter was fantastic. Too bad we couldn't give HIM the whole bill.
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