Food: Mitzo Restaurant & Bar (Grand Park Orchard Hotel)

Food: Mitzo Restaurant & Bar (Grand Park Orchard Hotel)

Introduction

It's been a while since I did a review, but today's review is going to be focused on something different from the usual lay man fare. Today's review is about some unique dining in hotel restaurants. Hopefully as time goes by, I am able to afford more of these hotel dining and test them for my readers so that you can decide whether or not to come and what you should be expecting!

So for my first review, its the Mitzo Restaurant &  Bar, located within Grand Park Orchard Hotel.

Menu cover

To set the expectations clearly, basically this place is supposed to be a fusion of Cantonese food with cocktail... wait.. one is food, one is drink... what's the fusion there? Ok... so basically, come to this place expecting to eat Cantonese styled food in a non Cantonese like place BUT also you can have some alcohol to drink! Also the styling of the place is hardly Cantonese/Chinese which you can see further down in this review. So I guess in the classification of restaurants this is still considered a fusion....

Food 

So overall, how did the most important aspect fare? Let's split it completely into everything possible

Tasty unique mixed nuts

 Like many chinese eating places in Singapore, the first item on the table are the nuts. Apparently these nuts are not chargable and they are actually mixed nuts if you take a close enough look. It tastes slightly more premium then your usual nuts but was slightly on the salty side if you ask me.

Interestingly, i remember that alcohol is supposed to be taken with nuts so if this is your practice, perhaps this will improve your overall experience.

Mmmmm... roasted char siew

This roated char siew is realy good. The internal portions are soft and juicy which practically melts in the mouth while hte outside skin is crispy! How is it possible to make such differing textures in one dish, this is a question only the chef can answer!

Mmmmmm dim sum, 4 different flavors

A dish possibly meant for two, this dish has 4 different flavors given, one generic prawn wrapped in skin, one siew mai with baby abalone on top, crab roe dumpling and the green version of the siew mai but i cannot really remember what meat it was at this point of time. Taste wise however, its nothing too unique, i guess the ingredients are expensive in itself but no spectacular difference over the usual fare from a dim sum restaurant.

Wagyu beef!! woohoo

Premium beef, cooked in black pepper! Some people are not really fans of this cause it will mute the taste of the meat itself but for me, black pepper makes everything taste better. The texture of the meat its there, soft and tender which is what you would expect from Wagyu itself. There is that fried net thingy at the back that unfortunately, didn't add anything besides aesthetic value to the dish itself although i would imagine some other restaurants are able to fry it and make it nicely crispy to eat with the meat. Not the case here though.

FRIED RICE?? Come Restaurant eat fried rice?

Fried rice, the carbohydrate choice of this meal. Of course it is charged at a restaurant price. That being sad, its quite filling for two persons and the texture of the rice does taste that bit more premium.

Mocktail!

This is the other highlight that yu are supposed to be enjoying over here. In fact within moments of sitting down the bartender actually came over and introduced himself and his menu. In the end, I just told him i wanted something sour, as sour as possible and this was produced, a mixture of orange, pineapple and probably some other citrus things.

Cocktail!

We also ordered a cocktail and for this order, we just requested something that is not too sweet but refreshing. This was the final product.

All in all, for mock/cock tail, as I am not really a professional at this they were pretty ok in the end, but nothing that would make it stand out from some of the other cock/mock tails that I have drunk.

Overall, the taste of both food and drinks, I would give it a 4 out of 5 points as nothing tasted bad and there were some dishes that did taste premium.

Atmosphere

Nice and clean set up, well spaced with cushions all around

As you can see from the overall decor, its very well spaced with a lot of sitting clusters but all the seats won't be too close to each other. The tables are also very wide and there is more then enough space for all your dishes and to sit very comfortably. The waiters are very eager to serve and let you know what is their best dishes are. Its also a very quite place without too much of a crowd when we were there making the place somewhat conducive for a chit chat after the meal.

Has nice light effects and your tables are well lit and big

You can even see the cushions provided at the seats that tells you how much time you should be spending here after the meal itself to just drink and chill. Just like any pub or bar though, there could have the occasional person that is talking too loudly as was our case over there but having a lot of tables helps as you can easily just move to another location and be less disturbed.

Overall, a very comfortable place to dine in giving this place 4 out of 5 points

Price

Unfortunately I forgot to record the price but off hand this is what I remember. 

Dim Sum set - SGD $48

Wagyu beef  - SGD $48

Roasted char siew - SGD $15

Egg fried rice - SGD $20

Cocktail - SGD $20

Mocktail - SGD $18

Total price was $180 nett so since the above numbers do not add up to them, I must have made a mistake in one of the dishes there.

It's quite clear cut that this is not going to be a cheap meal and the cooking method used as well as drink prep is probably top of its class. However I still can't shake off the feeling that i was paying a bit too much extra for not as a significant enough level improvement in terms of the food taste. Hence I would give this a 2 over 5. I will give some recommendations on how to make the entire thing more value for money at the conclusion of this.

On the bright side, this place does have several promotions so do take a look and see if there are any applicable promotions to you when dining there.

Accessibility

With its location being more or less along the orchard stretch and between the orchard and somerset MRT stations, this is a very easy place to organize a meet up and chit chat session with your friends.

Add to it the ability to reserve for a seat as well the lack of a queue which allows you all the way in, there is no problems getting a place to eat here.

Of course being in the orchard belt does make parking somewhat difficult for those who drives, but overall, this place has much going of it in terms of accessibility, winning it a 4 out of 5 points.

Overall

Food : 4 (Good taste in most of the food, but not everything is superb yet.)
Atmosphere : 4 (Very comfortable atmosphere with good service staff)
Price : 2 (Premium food at premium prices, i would still consider this taking a toll on the wallet)
Accessibility : 4 (Very easy to get to, and very easy to get in. Able to reserve for a peace of mind also.)

Overall:  3.5 (Overall, would say this is an interesting experience at a slightly more premium price to pay but may overall be worth it if you like cocktails and a comfortable place to sit and chit chat for a good part of the evening. Its quite a interesting mix of cantonese cuisine and alcohol which makes it unique from other standard drinking places which may be the draw that you need. All in all though, my idea for them to further improve is to market the place as a gathering and drinking spot for friends, and lower down the prices of the food slightly which will be easily made back by people ordering more then one drink while they are there. The atmosphere and seats are already nice and comfortable so they should make full use of what they have.)

That's my review for my first pricey dining spot. Do let me know if you have also visited the place and share your comments!!

http://www.mitzo.sg/

Food: Miam Miam

Food: Miam Miam

There has been quite a recent influx of eating places entering Singapore these days and there are a few that tries to infuse flavors together to give them the winning edge over their competitors.

Miam Miam is one such place that tries to infuse Japanese food with French cuisine! The usual offerings in its menus especially with regards to its main courses are the offerings of about 8 different types of spaghetti which incidentally is supposed to be a Japanese thing, and a few more selections of baked rice and baked Mac and cheese. Apparently Japanese spaghetti is supposed to be thinner than the usual Italian type of spaghetti according to the fun facts on its menu.

So how did the food from this unique place fare? how about its overall feel?

Food 3/5

We ordered two dishes for our dinner there, one of which was the Mac and cheese and the other was some long French word that we obviously cannot pronounce. You will see the name later.

In the case of the Mac and cheese, it's first winning point was that it was served directly from the plate it was baked in. This means that everything was sizzling hot and for cheese this is a great plus point. The pasta texture was just right as in cooked but still springy and the right type of pasta was selected for the cheese because the clam shaped pasta will just directly scoop up the cheese for your eating pleasure. There was also plenty of melted cheese to create the fun cheese strands when you lift the pasta up.

How it looks initially

How it looks after digging in

 The taste was good but being calculating you would find the grand sum of about 5 slices of meat here and maybe about 9 or 10 mushrooms in total! Yep thats the level of details we can go into!
Of course overall its the taste from the cheese and overall i guess you could say it was just filling enough but they really can put a bit more meat into it..

This was the 2nd dish we ordered with the name Souffle De Nuage

Look it looks like some bread

But its really not! its baked rice inside a top of egg that was beaten into some kinda fluff

So this dish, the top layer is actually egg and inside its some bubble or fluff thingy that probably is still the egg with rice right at the bottom. Its interesting that the staff actually came by to remind us to scoop up the rice from beneath and to eat together with the top because that is all there is to this dish. The fluff part was interestingly like eating bubbles which is nothing I have ever eaten before.

Overall, would say that these dishes are not those kind strong in taste with sauces and stuff and is rather mild in flavor. Its more of an experience kind of thing but I would say overall, not so much a tasty kind of thing. Not particularly great in variety also.

Atmosphere 3.5/5

The store floor area is pretty big and the seats are pretty comfortable with good spacing from one place to another. Some sad parts of the experience includes, slight waiting time. The Nuage came about 10 minutes after the mac and cheese. IT was good however that the staff did inform us of the waiting time and even recommended us to share it. You could use the button on the table to tell the staff you had some requests which is good instead of the usual wave hand like idiot method of getting the attention of the waiter.

I did ask the staff for some cheese and tabasco sauce when the mac and cheese came but unfortunately the items only came after i finished eating up the entire mac and cheese. Also another place that charges for water which I still feel is strange in this time and age in Singapore.

Overall, you can see the staff are trying to make the atmosphere here better for the customers but the effect is not significant. Kudos for effort though.

Price 3/5

Why do you charge for water??

So that was our expenditure for the meal which for 2 main courses is pretty ok. Its definitely not cheap, but the amount given is just alright bordering on a bit little. They are cooked and presented in a more unique way then usual so I wont say the price is exorbitant yet but it does not really taste that it is worth the premium overall.

Of course they do have the spaghetti choices for you that might be more worth the money but for the meal we had there this is the opinion.

Accessibility 4/5

There wasn't much of a queue when we got there and we got to our seats pretty quickly. It is also centrally located at Bugis which made it very convenient to get there by MRT and just find the escalator up there.

All in all its a good place to go if you are looking for some baked food or spaghetti and you can just get there, sit for a bit, eat your food and leave. 

Overall

Food: 3 (Definitely unique, but wont say that it was totally tasty, but is edible surely)

Atmosphere: 3.5 (Good attempts by staff to be helpful and attentive, but still lacking in areas)

Price: 3 (Paying for uniqueness, not for taste, nor for volume.)

Accessibility: 4 (Easy to get there and get in)

Overall: 3.4 (Fair enough score to indicate that its a place that you can go once in your life or a year or something to that effect. The food won't make you feel miserable and you probably will enjoy the experience. But like what i said to the waitress when she asked for my comment, the food was interesting, to which she replied "that means it wasn't nice?". You probably can get an answer about the overall experience there. Go ahead go and try it once, but after that it will be mostly up to the individual to consider if you will come back again.)

Try it out yourself and see if you agree with my comment!

Here is the website which is strangely short address name, if you wanna find out more about this place.