Valentine's Day Dinner at The Cliff

We celebrated V-day not on the actual day itself but on Saturday.

I could hardly wait to knock off from work yesterday coz we were supposed to head for The Cliff. I planned to treat kh to make up for all my lack of gifts over the years.

I was surprised (or rather tickled) by these in the car.


I always tell kh never to buy me flowers on V-day coz I would rather he gives me the money instead. Such a hopeless unromantic girlfriend right?

My suay mouth… Now, he has become such a hopeless unromantic boyfriend. He really doesn’t gimme flowers anymore lor. Hahaha… When I saw these in the car, I immediately asked if he had bought those in school to support his friends who were selling them and he went guffawing away.

You know how I knew? The red roses were about to wither, the bouquet was amateurishly wrapped and the single stalk of pink rose was tacky. Moreover, he’s those kind who always buys things to support his friends.

I’m gonna bring the roses to work to pass to colleague A (the one with the green iguana) who is into extracting essential oils.

Off topic a bit…

On V day, there were 4 bouquets sent to our HQ. While all the ladies were crowding round the bouquets and admiring them each time they arrived, hopeless unromantic colleague A proclaimed that roses are best appreciated when they are changed into essential oils. He even requested jokingly that they could pass him their roses if they did not want them!

I’m sure he would be very happy with my roses. =)

Back to last night’s dinner.

I love the place. Perched on a cliff overlooking the South China Sea, the beautiful water features, walkway and the gentle breeze lent a hand in creating a romantic resort-like ambience. This alfresco style restaurant is a “heaven for connoisseurs of fine seafood and wine”.

The beautiful walkway


The Valentine’s set

[Click to enlarge]

My initial intention was to try their steak (as recommended by jw). However, we opted for the 6-course Valentine's set just so that we could sample more food. What to do? We are typical yao kwees. What was so unique about the Valentine’s set was that every course, whether sweet or savoury, had a hint of chocolate in it. The waitress assured us that it won’t be too sweet and chocolatey.

The great ambience




Bubbly champagne on the house


Starters


I had no idea what that was as it wasn’t part of the menu. I thought I heard the waiter saying “foie gras mousse” but I may have heard wrongly as my whole mind was filled with foie gras at that time.

Fresh oysters


This wasn’t in the set meal. At $13.90 a piece, the oysters were slurpilicious! The first time I ate raw oysters was in Perth and those were good. Most of the raw oysters I’ve tasted after that often gave me the compelling need to swallow them quickly without much chewing and wash them down with water. I could never take more than 3 raw oysters as I could not stand the bloody, metallic taste. However, these oysters have what was described as a smoky finish. With a squeeze of lemon and a touch of mignonette, each oyster was oozing with richness. Being firm and slippery at the same time, they slid down the throat smoothly. Heavenly!

Meditarreamn spices and olive oil


These were dips to go with the bread. Simple but delectable.

Mint Chocolate Muffin


This isn’t the usual chocolate muffin. It reminds me of a tiny burger. The muffin part isn’t chocolatey sweet and the middle portion is savoury.

Seared Foie Gras




I LURVE foie gras! Yes, I know how cruel it is to the goose but I really like the springy texture of foie gras which soon melts into soft, buttery smoothness on the tongue.

Pan Seared Langoustine




Okay non-foodie me didn’t know what Langoustine was before this. I thought it was prawn and popped the whole thing into my mouth. How I regretted it coz I felt like I’ve just chowed down lobster in a few seconds. While I was lamenting over my few seconds of gastronomical pleasure, kh was cutting up his langoustine and savouring every morsel by the minute. The caramellised fennell was lip smacking! Kh finished every bit of them just with fork and knife. I could not pick all up without a spoon and did not attempt to wipe my plate as clean as his.

We waited a long time for our main course to arrive and chomped on bread in the meantime. During the 2nd course, kh and I decided that we had to go for supper after the meal. However, the wait time between each course certainly sped up digestion and soon we weren’t hungry anymore.

Chocolate Braised Wagyu Beef Cheek


This was our main course but it was the same size as all our other courses. It was served with 24 karat gold and risotto. Just a few weeks ago, I was shocked to learn that gold is edible. Few weeks to now, I was shocked to find myself eating gold. It was also my first time sampling wagyu beef. I’ve always read about wagyu beef and have been dying to try them out. It wasn’t what I’ve expected. I don’t like beef that’s too tender. I prefer to chew my juicy steak. The taste was great but I soon got sick of the texture and had to pass the rest to kh.

Warm Chocolate tart




The crust of the tart is very hard as it had to act as a cup to hold the alcoholic liquid chocolate in the middle. What we did was to bite a “hole” in the cup and sipped the velvety chocolate slowly. The egg-looking chocolate on top of the passion fruit coulie was cocoa sorbet which felt like ice cream. I didn’t know it was cold, popped the whole thing into my mouth and nearly died. It was so cold that my molars hurt like shit.

All Grown Up "Hot Chocolate"




Shooter glasses filled with chocolate shavings were brought to our table. After which the waiter poured warm milk into the glasses and told us that the milk had vodka in it. That explained its name. We took a bite of the walnut fudge that was served together, found it cloyingly sweet and threw it into the glass. The drink tasted great after that.

A pot of tea to end the taste of French flair



We dined from 7.30 till 10.15. No wonder the French take so long to finish a meal.

The bill came up to $529.65.

As mentioned earlier, I said that I was treating kh but at a place like this, it doesn’t look nice when the lady pays. He also didn’t wanna appear like a xiao bai lian and insisted on paying coz the meal was too expensive. However, I was equally emphatic as I was already prepared to splurge on him. Finally, the decision was to go half-half. Little does he know that I’ve just transferred the money to his account. =P


Food: * * * * 1/2
Exquisite modern French flair with small portions and long waiting time in between. Go only if you can afford spending 3 hours on a meal.

Ambience: * * * *
Breezy alfresco dining with comfortable setting. One would definitely feel totally at ease.

Service: * * * * 1/2
Warm and friendly. Not uppity at all. Minus ½ star for their grasp of English. I had a hard time discerning what most of the staff were saying.

Price: My most expensive meal after Morton’s. I think it’s worth every single cent. Anyway, splurging on fine dining once in a while is fine. The most eat good hawker food for the next few months lor.


This is no hell's kitchen!


They worked so neatly that I told kh he would never wanna see me cook in the kitchen.

Gifts from the restaurant


The deep red roses are beautiful and I will be passing these to colleague A too.

Spa gift




The beautiful loo











Oh yes, my ring has finally made its way back from New York after resizing (Aside: So dumb rite? Must send all the way to NY for resizing). Now it fits my finger like how Cinderella's foot fitted her glass slippers. It can only be taken out by rubbing soap.



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