When I entered The Deanery, I thought I went into the wrong restaurant. The first floor was actually a bar. There were men and women in their swanky business suits, laughing with their drinks along with the swanky music. Am I missing something here? I looked for a server to check my booking. "Are you dining upstairs?". I definitely hope so. Good thing I was.
The "upstairs" is actually their dining area with their cellar. The entire setup was masculine and dark. I'm not sure why I called it masculine. Maybe its the dark wood. Maybe its the high-backed tough looking leather chairs. Maybe its the soft, intimate yet bright lighting. Maybe it's the light blue water glasses that accentuated the tables.
There were several points as to why I don't like where I was seated. My left side was the cellar wall where I can see the bottoms and tops of the wine bottles and my far right was the flight of stairs down to the bar. Next was that the cellar door was behind me, so everytime someone went in to get something, the door closed with a bang.
I think something was "off" that night. Or maybe I had high expectations. Don't get me wrong. There were a couple of good elements. Like for example, the Emmerich Knoll Austrian white wine was crisp and superb. The surprise appetizer of celeriac and Jerusalem artichoke soup with brown butter jelly on a crisp bread was sweet and excellent. The presentation was also top knotch. That was a good start to the meal. The bread selection was also good. I particularly loved the pancetta bread roll. It was really tasty and it was seldom that restaurants give so much thought to their bread as an opening number to their meal. Good effort.
Entree: Blue swimmer crab, sweet corn variation. Ok. I wasn't expecting this to be a blue swimmer crab salad. The sweet corn variation came in three elements to the dish: the sweet corn cream, sweet corn pasta and bits of sweet corn in the crab salad. The first thing that put me off about the dish was that the crab salad was too salty. The crab was fresh but I think that the crab flesh could be used in other forms aside from becoming a salad. The sweet corn cream was good, however, and it captured the essence of sweet corn without being fake.
Main: Venison Loin, bittersweet chocolate sponge, beetroot, parsnip. For the record, the chef or person who had thought of this dish must have the talent and guts to pull it off. This dish was either a hit or a miss. For me, it was a miss. Again, all the elements were presented and executed deliciously, but when combined, I'm not sure what I was missing. The bittersweet chocolate sponge came in the form of a cake. I dont' think that was a good idea. The beetroot came in 3 forms: a beetroot pickle, roasted beetroots, and beetroot sauce. The parsnip were parsnip puree and parsnip strings. The venison was cooked perfectly pink. But the chocolate and beetroot and parsnip didn't accentuate each other. It's too earthy, too starchy and too bland.
Dessert: Coffee savarin (pronounced was sava-rahn), caramelized witlof, chicory, bananas. This was also a strange dish. The coffee savarin, that is sponge cake to you, was too bitter. There was no hint of the delicious coffee flavor I came to love. The chicory came in forms of a cream and jelly. After tasting it, I'm still not sure what chicory is. The bananas didn't help at all. The elements separately, were again, good but eating them together, I just didn't quite get it.
I'm not sure if it's my lack of experience in tasting, in food, in the technicalities of culinary but my mentality is that food should and always remain, good, if not great, tasting, or else, it just defeats the purpose of organizing and orchestrating a great meal and dining experience altogether. I left The Deanery with a slightly confused tummy.
The "upstairs" is actually their dining area with their cellar. The entire setup was masculine and dark. I'm not sure why I called it masculine. Maybe its the dark wood. Maybe its the high-backed tough looking leather chairs. Maybe its the soft, intimate yet bright lighting. Maybe it's the light blue water glasses that accentuated the tables.
There were several points as to why I don't like where I was seated. My left side was the cellar wall where I can see the bottoms and tops of the wine bottles and my far right was the flight of stairs down to the bar. Next was that the cellar door was behind me, so everytime someone went in to get something, the door closed with a bang.
I think something was "off" that night. Or maybe I had high expectations. Don't get me wrong. There were a couple of good elements. Like for example, the Emmerich Knoll Austrian white wine was crisp and superb. The surprise appetizer of celeriac and Jerusalem artichoke soup with brown butter jelly on a crisp bread was sweet and excellent. The presentation was also top knotch. That was a good start to the meal. The bread selection was also good. I particularly loved the pancetta bread roll. It was really tasty and it was seldom that restaurants give so much thought to their bread as an opening number to their meal. Good effort.
Entree: Blue swimmer crab, sweet corn variation. Ok. I wasn't expecting this to be a blue swimmer crab salad. The sweet corn variation came in three elements to the dish: the sweet corn cream, sweet corn pasta and bits of sweet corn in the crab salad. The first thing that put me off about the dish was that the crab salad was too salty. The crab was fresh but I think that the crab flesh could be used in other forms aside from becoming a salad. The sweet corn cream was good, however, and it captured the essence of sweet corn without being fake. Main: Venison Loin, bittersweet chocolate sponge, beetroot, parsnip. For the record, the chef or person who had thought of this dish must have the talent and guts to pull it off. This dish was either a hit or a miss. For me, it was a miss. Again, all the elements were presented and executed deliciously, but when combined, I'm not sure what I was missing. The bittersweet chocolate sponge came in the form of a cake. I dont' think that was a good idea. The beetroot came in 3 forms: a beetroot pickle, roasted beetroots, and beetroot sauce. The parsnip were parsnip puree and parsnip strings. The venison was cooked perfectly pink. But the chocolate and beetroot and parsnip didn't accentuate each other. It's too earthy, too starchy and too bland. Dessert: Coffee savarin (pronounced was sava-rahn), caramelized witlof, chicory, bananas. This was also a strange dish. The coffee savarin, that is sponge cake to you, was too bitter. There was no hint of the delicious coffee flavor I came to love. The chicory came in forms of a cream and jelly. After tasting it, I'm still not sure what chicory is. The bananas didn't help at all. The elements separately, were again, good but eating them together, I just didn't quite get it.I'm not sure if it's my lack of experience in tasting, in food, in the technicalities of culinary but my mentality is that food should and always remain, good, if not great, tasting, or else, it just defeats the purpose of organizing and orchestrating a great meal and dining experience altogether. I left The Deanery with a slightly confused tummy.
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