Ladies Night @ Greenhouse (Ritz Carlton)

DBS Credit Card has a promotion with Ritz Carlton which will end on 31 July 2009. Ladies Night at Greenhouse where ladies get to enjoy a 1-for-1 dinner buffet every Wednesday. It proves to be so popular that when I called to make reservations in May, I was told they are fully booked for May and June and I have to wait till July for a table.

So I duly made reservations for 2 Wednesday nights for different groups of friends. It turned out that one of the Wednesdays would be Thai themed food as there would be a visiting Thai chef. Ritz called me to check if I would still want to keep the reservations or move it to another Wednesday. We decided to keep it as it would be different from the usual.

The usual dinner buffet at Greenhouse which seemed to have so much more seafood than usual (definitely more than lunch). There was also a "liquid buffet" from 630pm to 1030pm where at $29++, you get unlimited servings of sparkling wine, house red and white wines, house pour hard liquor, chilled juices, soda and mineral water.

I always loved the cream of mushroom soup which usually had truffle oil, giving it an extra ooomph of richness. Unfortunately, it did not seem to be present that night. I liked the cheese breadstick, slice of nutty bread and the date and herb bun. They went so well with the soup.

There were 5 types of sashimi available - tuna, salmon, swordfish, octopus and yellowtail or mackeral. I chose the salmon and swordfish which were so fresh. The raw fish would only be sliced upon telling the chef. I requested for a 2-persons portion in the above pic.

There were so many variety of chilled seafood - mussels, scallops, clams, prawns, crabs, oysters - salads, appetizers, different types of sushi, chawanmushi, cha soba... I had 3 oysters which were freshly shucked and tasted so good. No "fishy" smell or taste at all. After shucking, the oysters were dipped in water or something to remove any remaining brine or grits. The scallop was very sweet too.

My mains - the steamed snapper was sweet and soft and fresh. The braised beef was very tender and just melted in my mouth. Surprisingly I liked the Singapore fried noodles. It was fried just right, not too soggy or hard and the seafood bits in there were lovely. Black pepper crabs were the highlight.

Other dishes included roasted duck, chicken, sambal prawns, sauteed pasta, greens, satay, Indian food, Vegetarian food, cheeses, crackers, breads, and many more.

I pigged out on desserts this time - tiramisu which was soaked with espresso, creme brulee which was so good. The black forest cake was also good. I didn't like the lemon meringue nor the raspberry cake. The chocolate cake was good at first bite. Strangely after I took a sip of the coffee, the chocolate cake did not taste nice thereafter.

The chocolate mousse cup which was so rich and bitter was mind blowing good.

My indulgence - 4 scoops of ice cream sprinkled with almond flakes and chocolate balls and sauce. Caramel, tiramisu, chocolate chip and coffee ice cream. One word - amazing!

Now I can't wait for the next dinner at Greenhouse featuring Thai dishes.