Majestic Restaurant - 3rd August 2012

After hearing about the Fat Duck, and following our excellent beef yakiniku meal at Yakinikutei Ao Chan, Jon was inspired to consider bringing us to the Fat Cow! However, upon reading some reviews, he chickened out and decided on a fall back plan and re-packaged it as a “introducing our new member Erap II to all the past presidential lunches”. 

So he decided on Majestic Restaurant…. Wrong choice Jon!

We arrived rather punctually since Dann decided to sponsor the cab fare rather than bring out his E250. 

The overall ambience of the restaurant was unique I would say, and where we sat, there was a large glass hole above head which was actually the floor of a shallow pool which allowed light to stream in.

We quickly got down to ordering our food as Dann (usual standard pattern) pointed out to us that he needed to rush back for a 2 pm meeting. Jon perused the set menu and decided that it was probably better to go for ala carte. We ordered the majestic platter for starters, the peking duck, the white asparagus, the pan seared ribeye in sesame sauce, the soup of the day which was chicken soup, and a chicken rice in claypot which was the special for the day that was not included in the menu.

We were first served our soup, which for the daily soup was quite decent. It was clear and tasty with strong chicken flavour, and Dann pointed out that he could taste the conpoy as well. I was not so sure though. There was something else added, which added another dimension to the chicken flavour, and I think it was a dried herb rather than conpoy. In any case, this was a good soup of the day.

Next up was the peking duck. Whilst ordering, businessman already gave it the thumbs down claiming that the peking duck at this joint was below standard. For the rest of us (save Erap II), we were also not expecting much considering that we have already eaten peking duck in many other establishments including Lei Garden, Royal China, and not forgetting the BML gold standard Peking Duck at Paradise Pavilion for which I shall henceforth provide an acronym of PPPD for this fabulous dish. 

The peking duck we were served was consumable, but really meets peking duck standards by the barest of margins. The duck skin was just slightly crispy, and the wrap was cold by the time my plate was served. The flavour of the duck skin was ok. Overall it would be ok for someone eating peking duck for the first time. But unfortunately not so for the party, and we gave this a slight thumbs down.

We were then served the house specialty starter, the majestic platter. The platter included roast pork, wasabi prawn, softshell crab and their signature sautéed crabmeat, egg and sprouts. The roast pork was average, crispy but not as delicate as what you find in say Lei Garden or ImperialTreasure or even possibly crystal jade kitchen. The wasabi prawn was well cooked; the prawn was large and crunchy. Overall it had good texture and the wasabi sauce that coated the prawn stickily was tasty. The prawn itself however was bland, and I suppose the prawn in such a set-up is really to provide the texture and crunchiness to the dish as a good accompaniment to the sauce. The soft shell crab was really average. No need for further descriptions here, and finally the crabmeat, egg and sprouts served on a lettuce leaf. At least the taste of this concoction is better than its presentation. The egg was just cooked and was very soft. This was mixed with the crabmeat which gave the egg a rich smooth flavour. The sprouts added some crunchiness to the otherwise soft paste like egg. Overall, this dish is so-so.

We were then served the white asparagus cooked in an XO sauce. Jon did not like this dish (guess he expected it to be green!), but I found it quite good. The asparagus was very crunchy and yet was not at all fibrous. White asparagus also has a milder taste than the green variety, and so it was good that it was not stir fried with too much sauce which would have overpowered the flavour of the asparagus. Overall I thought this was one of the better dishes.

Following this was the pan seared ribeye. Boy were we disappointed with this one especially after having what was a fabulously wonderful beef heavy yakiniku lunch theprevious week.  The quality of the ribeye left a lot to be desired and the beef was cut too thinly that it was overcooked. It begs the question that was it possibly cut so thinly and fried because the meat quality was poor? My understanding when I see the word seared is that the meat is browned just enough on the outside, yet leaving the inside of the meat undercooked. In this case, it was really just fried sliced beef. They could’ve used rump for that since the seasoning was quite strong, which blocked out much of the flavour of the beef.

We were then served the residual duck meat from our peking duck that was cooked with bean sprouts. Standard fare - nothing special, no complaints.

Finally we were served the chicken rice in claypot. The dish was served in a magnificent large claypot, with the steamed chicken sitting on top in the centre and surrounded by a perimeter of chopped spring onions. The looks phase was however where the romance with this dish ended. Upon eating the chicken rice, there was a palpable sense of disappointment all round, and we all agreed that this was like chicken rice cooked sloppily and served in a claypot. The chicken meat was nothing to shout about, and the rice was also so-so. If I were blind, I wouldn’t have guessed that the dish came out of a claypot. Put in another way, if our BML chicken rice gold standard SKCR were given a score of 10, this would be a 3.75. Most of us had a bowl each and refused any additional helpings, which was a clear sign of real displeasure at the quality from the party. Only Jon had a second helping I think. As there was more than half the pot leftover, someone suggested to Jon to doggie bag the lot and feed it to his doggie.

Overall, the quality of this establishment has definitely gone down from the time we had our CNY lunch here with the club back in 2010. Back then, we still felt this was a possible contender with some of the more renowned chinese restaurants in Singapore. This however is not to be, and even the paymaster sheepishly agreed that this is a “Not to be returned to” establishment.

The damage for the meal came to S$366 after a 15% card discount. A real rip off for the quality that was delivered. Definitely a thumbs down.

Upon leaving the place, Dann as usual said he did not have his wallet and requested for us to pay for the cab ride back first as he had to leave for his appointment. As there were 5 of us, we split into 2 cabs, for which Collin and me paid S$5.40 and S$5 respectively. As usual, Dann conveniently forgot about paying us back, and only after we remembered and reminded him that he agreed to pay us back on Monday. But just like all debtors of poor creditworthiness, he did not turn up for work on Monday, and absconded to Thailand, returning to work only on Wednesday, hoping that we would’ve forgotten by then again.

Ha! No way Dann, we made sure that his bad debts were made clear to him and for all to see so as to encourage him to become a better man!

By Club Scribe