Gaia Ristorante and Bar - Restaurant Week Dinner October 2011

I kept missing out on the previous Restaurant Weeks as I was either too late to book it or I was just too busy to make it. So I was pretty excited when I managed to fix 3 dates during the Restaurant Week in October 2011.

Gaia Ristorante and Bar at Goodwood Park Hotel caught my attention as it is connected to OSO Ristorante which is highly raved.

The ambience was invitingly romantic, with dim lighting and cozy booth corners lining one side of the room. Unfortunately, being Restaurant Week, I guessed they were trying to maximize the dining space so there were also tables set virtually back to back, making it quite awkward to have a lovely meal when you could hear the other diners' conversations.

The assortment of bread served was something different from the usual and I liked that.

The set dinner menu priced at $55++

SARDE IN SAOR

I couldn't say I particularly care for the deep fried sardine marinated in onion. Then again I was never a big fan of sardines so it was quite a biased opinion.

MERENDA DEL MAZZAROL

The taste of the panfried ham and ricotta cheese reminded me of spam.

PASTA COE E MOECHE

Finally, something which I didn't mind having. Soft shell crab with tagliatelle. The pasta was al dente, lightly coated with sauce and was quite tasty with the slight crunch of the soft shell crab.

BACCALA ALLA VICENTINA

I chose the cod as my main and I was underwhelmed by the blandness of the fish. Maybe it was the style of cooking from the northeastern side of Italy where the head chef (Moreno Martini) is from. The corn cake, or polenta as mentioned by the server, was totally dull and lacked much flavor.

TIRAMISU

The saving grace of the entire meal was the dessert. Not that it was supremely fantastic but after the few courses of utterly forgettable dishes, this was a highlight. It was slightly wet with the taste of coffee and liquor and made a decent ending to the meal.

To be fair to Gaia Ristorante and Bar, the food was fresh and nicely presented. It could just be that the method of cooking was not to my liking. Or it could be those dishes served for Restaurant Week were not their specialties. In any case, I did not particularly care for the food and doubt I would return in the near future. It was most disappointing as I had such high hope for it.