Drool Blog #4: Pretty Food look-alike

Yes, I have skipped drool #3 for #4. No, it's not because I can't count. I guess I might enter a post-dated #3. Well, till then....

The eve of the GST hike seemed to be a season to be jolly.... ermm... I mean... jolly seasons where you hear more ka-chings, and see longer queues of happy shoppers in more and bigger shopping bag? Shoppers were more reluctant than ever to leave the mall even when the stores switches off the lights in the fitting room.

When we stepped into Vivocity, at close to half past 5, the LMMM quickly detected the huge crowd in the mall and suggested we either do a really early or really late dinner. It's really aint that early dinner as half past 5 is my dinner time on a normal workday. Sticking to it is almost a no-brainer.

We thus embarked to shop around for cafes without queues, and found this place called White Dog Cafe. As we browsed the menu at its entrance, the service guy stepped forward and said their "food is quite good" (quote & unquote) in all earnestness. Unwilling to be wet blanket to that earnestness, we decided to let the White Dog feed us...

Ambience suited for class gatherings, the place has a casual chic. It is also one of the place that serves water in bottles.

Fine, that's not something worth raving about.... but then again, if you'd compare to the snob restaurants who won't spare me a drip of the tap water when I am paying service charges... to see a bottle of water served without question was generous. And I liked that bottle feel. The now-defunct Dome at Wheelock was the first place I've had water served in those bottles. Guess it kinda brought back some memories.... and I have always thought it is the practice of casual italian to serve water in those bottles. ... not sure why, but it gave a comfy feeling.. whatever...

As usual, we decided not to overeat and ordered some appetizers, a main, and a dessert. We thus ordered a dish of Sauteed mushrooms, and Salmon & cheese bruschetta for appetizer. Duck Confit was the main dish (something different from the usual fish and chips, although it's suppose to be one of the chef's recommendations). And (regretfully) we chose Brownies Galore as desert over warm chocolate cake with vanilla ice-cream.

The food came pretty. Okay, not the four dollars mushrooms sauteed with garlic though. (No pictures for the mushrooms, cos they didn't come that pretty enough for us to take pretty pictures of it). Just use your imagination.

However, the taste of the food was a tad less promising than the look of it.

Salmon & Cheese Bruschetta ($7.90)

The salmon & cheese mushroom bruchetta had big slices of smoked salmon on bread, and olive oil dribbled on it. However, there was no traces of any cheese. The bruchetta also fail as bruchetta. It looked like.... ermmm.... confectionery bread that I take for breakfast.... (although they claimed it's whole-meal. I take cheap white bread.). The side salad would also do better without the lame thousand island dressing, but with (my fave) balsamic vinegratte.

Duck Confit ($19.90)

The Duck Confit was a tad hard at certain parts, and (not trying to mimick Zhang Ziyi) too salty. Wikipedia says that Confits are preserved meat in their own fats. That duck probably had high salt content in its fats. Overall, it was less palatable than it looks.

The Brownie Galore was the most disappointing. Personally, I feel that the food had been mis-named. It should be called Ice-cream Galore.

Brownie Galore ($10)

There were only litters of brownies below 4 scoopful of ice-creams. We felt that the name was a little unjustified and misleading. Nontheless, service-wise, the cafe do score some points. Dishes were promptly whisked off, and there was no need to remind to serve dessert even with the huge dinner crowd.

Food's not that fantastic for the palate, but I guess it's passable. Well, let's just say I might return again if we have a class outing or something, someday...

Address: No 1 HarbourFront Walk #02-131/132 Vivocity