Don't bother

There's the saying 'don't judge a book by its cover'.

Today I learnt, you also shouldn't judge a restaurant by its appearance.

I'd read a review of Aioli, located in one obscure corner of Boon Tat Street, which described the place as serving rustic Provencal food.

So I arranged to meet dimsumdolly there today for lunch, as it's not too far from her office.

It was a gorgeous place, with walls of various hues of fuschia, turquoise and amber. A little pond sat at the back of the restaurant, with sunlight streaming in from above. It was clean, classy and also welcoming. It's got a fabulous look.

The $19 set lunch options looked quite decent.

* A soup of the day - French onion or seafood - or a stuffed tomato with pesto sauce.

* Fettucine with pesto sauce, couscous d'agneau (a lamb stew with couscous), seafood pasta and a charcuterie (cold dish platter of parma ham, saucisson, cheese)

* Dessert of the day

I had the seafood soup and platter, DSD went for the stuffed tomato and lamb.

The soup was presented in a lovely shell-like bowl. The stock was flavorful and there were clams, a prawn and squid. However, it needed more salt.

The tomato was stuffed with couscous and raisins. Not too bad, except that DSD said the waitstaff should've mentioned there was couscous, since that was to be part of her main course as well.

While waiting for our next course, there was a stench of old socks in the air. We couldn't figure out where it was coming from, then I noticed a dish of mussels at the next table. God it smelled like it'd been sitting in a trashcan full of polluted murky seawater for days. I'd never known mussels could smell that bad. Amazingly, two of the women at that table ate several of the shellfish before they asked the waitress to remove the dish from the table.

Thank god we didn't order the seafood pasta, which came with mussels!

Main courses were a huge disappointment.

DSD said her lamb stew tasted like soup kambing, but bland. And while it was chockful of vegetables, there was only one miserable piece of lamb, as well as a sausage.

Mine was worse. There were two slices of parma ham, five slices of saucisson, TWO slices of cheese and plenty of pickles. It would've been a better meal if perhaps more cheese and parma ham were provided. When the waitress placed the plate in front of me, she even asked if we'd like more bread. Of course.

And then dessert of the day.

It was a fruit platter.

I was well, a bit speechless. I still am. A fruit platter?

There were several things that could be learnt from this outing.

* Service areas should be hidden away. Customers don't like to see where your extra cutlery lies, don't like to see where the waitstaff slices the butter for the bread. Absolutely unnecessary.

* Serve all the parties at the table at the same time. Don't make me wait for my starter, main course, dessert, while my dining companion gets presented with hers. It then becomes a question of: should she eat first and let me watch or should she wait until my meal comes, by which hers might get cold?

* If your shellfish smells bad, don't think your customers won't notice.
It also made me wonder if the cook had a cold. Or perhaps he doesn't bother tasting dishes that exit his kitchen.

* Being charged $3 for slices of baguette and only finding out about it much later.

* Offer something other than fruits for dessert. Unless you're in Japan, where fruits can be a luxury. Even ice-cream would be a better choice.

However, there were also some things I like about the place

* Plenty of water by the table. I hate to keep hassling waitstaff for water/tea refills.

* Presentation of the food was good.

* The design of the restaurant, as previously mentioned.

* Service was quite good, despite there being only one waitress and about 5/6 tables to handle.

Aioli is a beautiful restaurant in a quaint location. Pity about the food. Very unsatisfying. See photos and DSD's take on it here.


(I think I have to head to Sebastien's soon. And have some of their beef bourguignon or duck confit. It's been too long!)