冰火榴槤 - Deep fried Durian Ice Cream atop Mango Puree

Once again sorry to my friend who's been staring at my Cheng Tng Jelly photos month after month in vain hoping for a new post.

So after dinner with him and my dear JC friends last night, I feel compelled to start my return to these pages with my experience with them at the newly-opened The Majestic.

Apparently there's been some hype about the swimming pool that has holes and looks down to the restaurant. My personal take is that it's more interesting for those who are lounging by the pool to look at what's being served up below, since for those dining, it's just like having an aquarium overhead to look at (that hardly seems AS novel), and the fact of the matter is, it's really rather boring, since the hotel is tiny, and the chance of someone beautiful in a swimsuit at dinner time is rather remote.

Anyway, the decor of the restaurant is rather bizarre. The rectangular high street restaurant tables are placed way too close to each other, though the seating is surprisingly comfortable. There is on the back wall what appears to be a rather odd sculpture, evoking for a friend the word "effigy" constantly, and for me, it just seems like someone's nailed old Polonius on the wall. Not sure if it enhances my dining experience.

There's also the strange plastic tube around the chandeliers, with ugly protruding wires, and a ketupat wall. Pardon my intolerance of the decor, it's just that I've been reading way too many interior design books lately.

Despite this, the food did not disappoint. We started with Drunken Chicken (S$8 per standard portion - probably the cheapest thing on the menu with 8 adequate portions) , served on curled up metal spoons, with ginger and spring onion, the dish was proficient.

What was truly inspired though, was the duck foie gras with Peking duck skin and jellyfish. This was served with the Prawn tempura with wasabi mayonnaise (together S$15 pp), on top of a slice of watermelon, but it was the foie gras bit that did more for me. The watermelon was refreshing, no doubt, but I didn't really feel it matched the prawn. The Peking duck skin was crisp and stayed so, despite it lying on the plum sauce (which wasn't too salty, just right to complement the foie gras) and placing a wee bit of jellyfish, foie gras, and skin on the lettuce leaf - definitely a must-try.

We followed this with the shark bone with fish maw soup (S$18 pp) which was thick and sweet, leaving us with sticky lips, something I aspire my home-cooked soups to taste like. However, this might be more for traditionalist Chinese soup lovers, especially since it's quite pricey.

Next up was the lamb chop (S$16 pp) was tender and juicy, served with a particularly eggy carrot cake (cai tau kweh, of course). While I considered while eating, that the portion was rather small, I've definitely had wayyyy tinier lamb chops, and the taste and texture more than made up for the lack in size. (Especially if we take into mind the individualism which I'll come to later).

A friend who didn't care for lamb had the Beef Striploin (S$14 pp) instead, another recommended dish by the menu, but he was far from impressed and stated the meal was unfortunately going downhill for him as he didn't really like the soup either.

Thank goodness then that for him, the meal was saved by (and for the rest of us, enhanced by) the Japanese Seafood noodle (fried ramen) (S$16 per std portion). This was served looking very much like your average ee-mein noodle at the end of your standard Chinese wedding/birthday dinner, but even as it was brought to our table, a woman at the next table couldn't help but comment how delicious it smelt. The noodles were fried perfectly al dente, coated in oil without tasty greasy, and adequately salt and comforting. With chili padi served on the side, it was cleaned up fairly quickly.

Finally we had 3 of the deep fried durian ice cream on mango puree (pictured above) (S$8 pp) and 1 yam paste (or nee) (S$6 pp). The yam paste was entirely disappointing, so give that a miss, but the deep fried durian ice cream was divine. Chunks of durian in the ice cream, with a coating, just like that of goreng pisang made this the highlight of my meal, particularly when paired with the mango puree (actually 杨枝甘露). It's actually rather amusing, since there are several dessert shops in HK that have 杨枝甘露 (Mango Puree with Sago and Pomelo) as a specialty and also usually have a durian speciality when in season, but I never thought how well the two would go together! An inspired pairing.

So did I have a good meal? You bet. The meal came up to S$80 pp which I felt was hardly cheap, but worth the money. Most of the dishes we wanted were served per person, so it all added up fairly quickly. There's 3 degustation menus, one at $65+++, one at $85+++ and one at $125+++. Unfortunately, we were bent on trying several dishes in combination that weren't on any of those menus. But I think the next time I'm back, I'll definitely try one of the menus.

There aren't many tables at the restaurant, so I can see how reservations would be essential.

Definitely saving this number on my mobile phone...