Ochacha and dinner at Eastin hotel
Ochacha at The Gardens, Midvalley
Their signature cake, the Matcha Azuki cake..................
....was a complete disappointment.
Rule #1: Never lie to your customers. Ever. Because they'd get extremely pissed.
Waitress: This is our signature cake. Green tea with redbean.
Me: Hmm...I don't know. I've read previous reviews stating that the redbean taste overpowers the green tea taste in such a way that you can barely taste any green tea at all.
Waitress: Ohhhh no, no. You can taste the green tea, definitely.
Me: Really, now. Alright; I'll try one then.
Despite my better judgment, I bought the disgrace of a cake. There goes RM9. If I cross analyze the cake, it's actually composed of redbean paste coupled with cream and green tea flakes, in rather awful proportions, if I may add, in such a way that (like other reviews have stated) completely masks the green tea taste. The only thing you taste is the redbean. Redbean. And cream. Not green tea. Redbean. I tried dissecting the cake, thinking that I might somehow be able to salvage the green tea layer, if I excluded the entire slab of cream and redbean paste in between. Even then, there was no green tea taste. Spongy, yes. Green tea flavour, no. Obviously they haven't skimped on the colouring, but stinged heavily when it came to the flavour. Shame, for a shop that claims to "specialize" in green tea products. It's sad, seriously. The green tea cake in Melbourne was at least 10x better than that glob of green colouring.
Total points?
False impression/deception: -5
Green tea flavour: -5
Presentation: +1 (By nature, I'm rather picky with presentation, but it wouldn't look good if your total score was a negative, now would it?)
Pic above: Green tea latte (top) and green tea soy milk (bottom)
The green tea latte isn't too bad. It's on par with the one from Starbucks. Unfortunately, since you're running a shop that specializes in green tea, I expect a little more. It doesn't leave such a good impression when your green tea latte's on equal grounds with Starbucks.
As for the green tea soy milk? No green tea taste. Mild at best. I could taste the soy milk, but what happened to the green tea? This one can probably give the one from Surry Hills, Sydney, a run for its money - they're both equally bad.
Recommendations for Ochacha?
Negative.
Unhappy customer? Affirmative.
Note that the smile was BEFORE I bit into the green horror.
Ochacha interior
Dinner at Eastin Hotel
Okay, I'm not ashamed to say that I didn't bother even looking at the restaurant's name as I walked in. After all, it's not my first time there. I don't mind as long as the food's good. And heck, it's the only Chinese restaurant in the hotel. Went to celebrate mum's birthday, expecting good food. We ended up ordering the set menu since everyone was lazy to scan through the menu. This was what we were served for RM78 each:
Starters: cawanmushi and a little "moneybag" at the side.
The cawanmushi wasn't too bad, with basically some sharkfin soup overlaid by a layer of steamed egg and mushrooms. While the "moneybag" was alright, I found the fact that it was jampacked with meat a little less appealing, when compared to the ones I've tried in Hobart and Launceston, where the flavour and overall texture had a better balance.
Next was the sharkfin soup. Not really my cup of tea, especially since the pepper taste was a little too strong and had masked most of the soup's original taste. What a waste. I'm not too sure about the order of this dish. It was relatively filling, and it may've been a little better if it had been served towards the end instead.
The marinated pork dish was probably the best dish among all six courses. There was a nice balance between the traditional herbal taste and the slight tinge of sweet sauce. If I had one complain about the dish, though, it'd probably be the fat. I'm aware that some may actually like the tenderness provided by the fat that accompanies the lean meat, but I'm not a big fan of that. The juicy taste of the chewy yet gelatin-like substance of fat together with the well-marinated lean meat....well, hmm....
Next was the crispy cod fish. I can't quite remember the name of the sauce that they used, but it reminds me of a certain Thai sauce that's quite commonly used with tofu. Not too bad, but to be honest, deep fried codfish just isn't right. The thing about codfish is...the oil. It's always the oil. It doesn't matter how crispy it tastes, or how the creamy texure was there to begin with - deepfrying codfish always leaves a slimy, oily taste.
The mushroom fried rice was the secondlast, right before dessert. Under normal circumstances, I'd say that it tasted like it was dehydrated, but given the fact that it was placed right after the codfish, I'd say the lack of dryness/lack of oil was quite a welcome. It was so-so. It didn't leave me disgusted, but on the other hand, it didn't make me crave for more.
Dessert was the longan and strawberry served in the usual syrup, intermingled with clear jelly. It's the typical kind of dessert you'd get at the end of a wedding dinner (plus some strawberries and jelly).
Random teapot pic :P
The Mom ^^
The Dad (lol @ the kungfu hands XD)
If anything, the each of the courses were served at an appropriate pace, and the service was generally good and timely, with affable staff. The atmosphere was generally pleasant and serene, with minimal background noise (unlike the buzz you'd get at a typical chinese restaurant elsewhere).
Value for money? Probably not. But hey, you pay for the ambience, the presentation, and the services in addition to the food.
Their signature cake, the Matcha Azuki cake..................
....was a complete disappointment.
Rule #1: Never lie to your customers. Ever. Because they'd get extremely pissed.
Waitress: This is our signature cake. Green tea with redbean.
Me: Hmm...I don't know. I've read previous reviews stating that the redbean taste overpowers the green tea taste in such a way that you can barely taste any green tea at all.
Waitress: Ohhhh no, no. You can taste the green tea, definitely.
Me: Really, now. Alright; I'll try one then.
Despite my better judgment, I bought the disgrace of a cake. There goes RM9. If I cross analyze the cake, it's actually composed of redbean paste coupled with cream and green tea flakes, in rather awful proportions, if I may add, in such a way that (like other reviews have stated) completely masks the green tea taste. The only thing you taste is the redbean. Redbean. And cream. Not green tea. Redbean. I tried dissecting the cake, thinking that I might somehow be able to salvage the green tea layer, if I excluded the entire slab of cream and redbean paste in between. Even then, there was no green tea taste. Spongy, yes. Green tea flavour, no. Obviously they haven't skimped on the colouring, but stinged heavily when it came to the flavour. Shame, for a shop that claims to "specialize" in green tea products. It's sad, seriously. The green tea cake in Melbourne was at least 10x better than that glob of green colouring.
Total points?
False impression/deception: -5
Green tea flavour: -5
Presentation: +1 (By nature, I'm rather picky with presentation, but it wouldn't look good if your total score was a negative, now would it?)
Pic above: Green tea latte (top) and green tea soy milk (bottom)
The green tea latte isn't too bad. It's on par with the one from Starbucks. Unfortunately, since you're running a shop that specializes in green tea, I expect a little more. It doesn't leave such a good impression when your green tea latte's on equal grounds with Starbucks.
As for the green tea soy milk? No green tea taste. Mild at best. I could taste the soy milk, but what happened to the green tea? This one can probably give the one from Surry Hills, Sydney, a run for its money - they're both equally bad.
Recommendations for Ochacha?
Negative.
Unhappy customer? Affirmative.
Note that the smile was BEFORE I bit into the green horror.
Ochacha interior
Dinner at Eastin Hotel
Okay, I'm not ashamed to say that I didn't bother even looking at the restaurant's name as I walked in. After all, it's not my first time there. I don't mind as long as the food's good. And heck, it's the only Chinese restaurant in the hotel. Went to celebrate mum's birthday, expecting good food. We ended up ordering the set menu since everyone was lazy to scan through the menu. This was what we were served for RM78 each:
Starters: cawanmushi and a little "moneybag" at the side.
The cawanmushi wasn't too bad, with basically some sharkfin soup overlaid by a layer of steamed egg and mushrooms. While the "moneybag" was alright, I found the fact that it was jampacked with meat a little less appealing, when compared to the ones I've tried in Hobart and Launceston, where the flavour and overall texture had a better balance.
Next was the sharkfin soup. Not really my cup of tea, especially since the pepper taste was a little too strong and had masked most of the soup's original taste. What a waste. I'm not too sure about the order of this dish. It was relatively filling, and it may've been a little better if it had been served towards the end instead.
The marinated pork dish was probably the best dish among all six courses. There was a nice balance between the traditional herbal taste and the slight tinge of sweet sauce. If I had one complain about the dish, though, it'd probably be the fat. I'm aware that some may actually like the tenderness provided by the fat that accompanies the lean meat, but I'm not a big fan of that. The juicy taste of the chewy yet gelatin-like substance of fat together with the well-marinated lean meat....well, hmm....
Next was the crispy cod fish. I can't quite remember the name of the sauce that they used, but it reminds me of a certain Thai sauce that's quite commonly used with tofu. Not too bad, but to be honest, deep fried codfish just isn't right. The thing about codfish is...the oil. It's always the oil. It doesn't matter how crispy it tastes, or how the creamy texure was there to begin with - deepfrying codfish always leaves a slimy, oily taste.
The mushroom fried rice was the secondlast, right before dessert. Under normal circumstances, I'd say that it tasted like it was dehydrated, but given the fact that it was placed right after the codfish, I'd say the lack of dryness/lack of oil was quite a welcome. It was so-so. It didn't leave me disgusted, but on the other hand, it didn't make me crave for more.
Dessert was the longan and strawberry served in the usual syrup, intermingled with clear jelly. It's the typical kind of dessert you'd get at the end of a wedding dinner (plus some strawberries and jelly).
Random teapot pic :P
The Mom ^^
The Dad (lol @ the kungfu hands XD)
If anything, the each of the courses were served at an appropriate pace, and the service was generally good and timely, with affable staff. The atmosphere was generally pleasant and serene, with minimal background noise (unlike the buzz you'd get at a typical chinese restaurant elsewhere).
Value for money? Probably not. But hey, you pay for the ambience, the presentation, and the services in addition to the food.
posted by Sean Im at 6:37 AM
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