Thursday, March 11, 2010

Mandarin Grill

Last weekend I went for one of the most expensive meals I've ever had in my life. Here's how it started.

I wanted to catch up with Xes for dinner.

Xes is a lawyer and a good friend of mine. He's a good lawyer too. So me and a lot of the other Nuffies bug him every day for help on legal advice and he even gets down to doing some legal work for us sometimes ... for free. You know how some lawyers can be very calculative about their time.

Heck I have an Aunty that I will call here Aunty Elizabeth. Now Aunty Elizabeth was a really successful lawyer in her days. One day many years ago I asked her for some legal advice and got some very vague answers.

When I wanted to go into the details she insisted that I speak to a proper lawyer about it and refused to say anything more to me. Like each word that leaves her lips is worth RM10 or something that she won't even share any advice with her nephew.

I've met lawyers just like Aunty Elizabeth and lawyers who are on the other hand always very helpful to share their knowledge of the legal world. Xes is the latter. He's the best and he's the kind of friends you want to keep.

So I wanted to go somewhere nice and I asked Boss Lepton for a suggestion. I said I wanted to go somewhere nice, slightly fancy but not over the top. Boss Lepton suggested "Mandarin Grill" in Mandarin Oriental. I thought okay... won't that be a little expensive but I trusted him when he followed on to say "No lah... not that expensive".

When I walked into the restaurant I began to like it already. I liked the ambience.


Felt really grand and exclusive.

The waiters too were really friendly.

Then I opened the menu......
and my whole night changed forever!

I remember some blog reviews saying that the steak there was supposed to be good. Naturally I looked at the steak prices and the cheapest steak cost RM115 while the most expensive steak cost something like RM460. Not to mention, that was just the cost of the steak. Not inclusive of any sides.

I took out my mobile phone and Tweeted to ask my followers if I should get the hell out of there and run... RUN and DON'T LOOK BACK!!!

This is me getting ready to bolt!

But nobody replied me so I decided to stay.

Princess tweeted too.

Soon Xes arrived with his beautiful girlfriend Angeline and we started dinner.

We didn't order any appetizers for fear of adding on to the already impending bulge of a bill but the chef from inside the kitchen probably took pity of us and gave us a small helping each of complimentary pumpkin soup.

It was fantastic!

After some chatting and all, the main course came soon enough.

To enjoy our main course, we didn't just use any knives. The waiter opened up a case of all sorts of custom steak knives and got us to pick them.

They steak turned out to be really really really really really good.

I asked everyone how they thought their food was and they all loved it.

Princess.. in going with her 'cute' image decided to go for the cute food. She ordered a little baby Wagyu burger that I could've sworn was on the Kid's menu if they had one.

Then came the time to order dessert. Xes has a sweet tooth. Actually he has sweet TEETH. So we ordered a Creme Brulee to share.

And cake with ice-cream.

Both were lovely!

To top it off, at the end of our dinner the chef gave us yet another complimentary treet!

Macaroons!
The bill at the end of the night. RM1,200 for 6 people.

I'm glad we didn't order wine. Probably the last time in a looooong time that I can afford to eat in a place like that but I had a good experience. Thanks also to the chef that kept giving us all sorts of complimentary stuff!

Good food, great service and fantastic company!

21 comments:

Gypsy On The Move said...

OMG! I was shocked at the amount! That was a total bomb. Wonder if anyone actually go and dine there.

TianChad田七摄影 said...

Take it as a different motivation =) Makes urself earn more money with Nuffnang expanding wider and larger =D

Luckily it is nice to eat right?

KY said...

hohoho i'm going there next monday to freeload, the food blogger style. :P

jfook said...

omg, It's so expensive. This is equivalent to one month salary of average people in M;sia.

Lisa! said...

Haha! I guess like you say it is worth it for such a lovely night :)

Genova said...

one pop is equivalent to an entry level dslr.

Unknown said...

Hi Tim,
This is "the definition" of dining with finesse. A high price to pay to satisfy the gastronomic demand. The end of the day, Princess and you would reflect and think," Been there,done that.."
Sometimes a meal is not only to satisfy our hunger, but instead, an experience by itself. In this case, definitely the latter,yeh?

swit@kon said...

WOW!

u paid 1,200 ok. sure you guys deserved some complimentary stuff. oh i am in love with the macarons.

Wilson J Q Quah said...

I can feel I'm gonna be hated.....

Nana Yamashita said...

Bloody expansive... :'(

I can feel your wallet crying in pain... XD

ZhiLi said...

rm1200 for the legal fees. worth!

xes said...

ZhiLi: hehe yeah! worth it!

ahbing said...

RM1,200 to buy a lawyer, that's a really good deal. hahaha. Can a few more times tim....

Unknown said...

wow.....

Chang said...

1200 for meal.. definitely an experience worth to remember. lol

JD said...

1.2K for a good meal is definitely worth it! Although me won't be doing it so soon. Haha.

doesnotexist said...

well i think ur lawyer's fee would've been something more if he did charge so think of this as something all of u guys get to enjoy together and a great time and great gastronomic experience ;p

i bet u guys had the whole place almost to urself so XDDD and i'm sure it's a meal befitting a princess (cos she cute!!!btw this is a compliment!!!)



lucky ^ ^

Boss Stewie said...

gypsy: yah! got.. saw a lot of expats there

tian chad: ah nuffnang's gonna have to grow much much bigger in order for me to afford these kind of meals

ky: wah lucky you! influential food blogger

jfook; yah.. really ex man

lisa: yeah really a lovely night so i guess i can't complain

genova: yeah it is :(

wan: yeah that's true... the experience is something we paid for and it certainly makes more sense after we add that in.

swit: yeah the chef was really really nice to us... hehehe

boss: yes boss.. u in trouble now!

stella: yes... i was crying in pain.. not my wallet.. but me... AUGH

zhili: hahaha yeah if u look at it that way

xes: haha dude

ahbing: yeah.. that's another way of looking at it

em: yeah

chang: yeah really expensive experience...

jd: yeah me too

cette: hahahhaa i'll pass ur compliment to princess. and yes xes charges big fees

Rebecca Saw said...

Gasp!
*all thoughts of tryin this place flews out the window*

But I'm sure xes appreciates the gesture ;)

SGRMSE. said...

MACAROONS!!! big YUM.

You look really good in black, FYI.

Anonymous said...

May I make a suggestion? If you really like to dine & wine your clients / supporters / friends at places like this, you should get a hotel membership. These fancy restaurants are meant to cater to hotel guests and members, who get a hefty discount. RM200 a person is actually not expensive at all, but with the discount, you'll probably pay only RM100 a head... in the long run, it's worth the price of the membership... seeing that you're the head of an advertising firm and all...
(My apologies if I sound presumptuous - just trying to be helpful)