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| - Christmas dinner (again?) at the Hillstone! It was a late decision to finally pick this place, how late? We could only get reservation either at 5:15pm or 8:30pm, yeah... So we decided to be the early birds and arrived at 5:15pm, and wow, this place is quite full, and it's a very mixed crowd at 5pm, you can see family with young children, couples, and friends or colleagues, this has to be good, right?
The restaurant itself is very big, plus a big patio/outdoor seating. Interior lighting is to the dark side in my opinion, but at least the tables are not so close to each other, the seating arrangements were nicely done that you would feel spacious.
After a few minutes of discussion, three of us decided to share the Smoked Salmon appetizer, two had the Hawaiian Ribeye and I took the waiter's recommendation, Loup de Mar it is! So here is a bit recap:
Thai Tuna Sushi Roll - No, we did not order this, yet it somehow showed up on our table when the waiter decided to say it's on the house (but we all know they must have made a mistake on orders), but hey, it's free, we can at least have a try! Interesting enough, this sushi roll had a thinly and a little shinny rice paper wrapped outside of the rice, I assume it can keep the roll stay in shape, and it's a little chewy. This roll was to our surprise, pretty good! It has a taste of coconut, macadamia nuts, jalapeno and avocado. The sweetness and spiciness went well together!
Hawaiian Ribeye - Both medium rare steak came to the table with some 'serious burns', it was later I found out that's caused by the sweet glaze outside of the steak. The steak was cooked well, but a bit too sweet for me, and the baked potato was very big!
Loup de Mar - Grilled Seabass with Butternut Squash over some mariana/tomato sauce, very good combination! However, I personally dislike the presentation of this dish. First, I had expected to see a filet of seabass, instead, i got this center-opened, tilapia looking fish with skin and TAIL, was it all necessary? And the randomness of so many crushed pieces of almonds all over the fish, I guess i shouldn't have too much expectation. But really, I thought you would only see fish tails in Chinese food, lol. The fish was cooked a bit oily, to my guess, because it had the skin on, you just need some extra oil to prevent it sticking on the pan. I was very glad on choosing the butternut squash, with the sourness from mariana/ tomato sauce, it complimented well with the a bit oily fish.
Smoked salmon appetizer - We all really liked this! The fish was so soft that it just melted to your mouse like a salmon-flavored butter. Really wish we could have this before the entree! BUT, our seem-to-be-in-a-rush waiter literally grabbed the plate with 1/3 of fish left, without asking, and took off... excuse me? If we didn't receive the dish until later, at least give us a bit more time to eat!
So this is the order of how we have received our food, the appetizer we actually ordered came 5 mins after the entrees were served.
Service overall was attentive, however, the waiter or kitchen staff first messed up our appetizer order with another table, although we took a freebie, our actual appetizer didn't come till we already started eating the main dishes. Then the waiter took the unfinished dish without asking, and some other helper came to grab my plate, then asked if i was done, it was only 6:30 by the time we were done, why are you guys in such a hurry? I know you want to clean out the finished plates, but next time, please ask before you have your hand on the plate!
With both of the appetizers being very nice, a just a-ok for entrees, and somewhat 'interesting' serving staff, I couldn't pass to give a 3-star rating.
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