Christmas lunch @ Melt: The World Cafe

[ Jay Zhou 周杰倫 - 东风破]

Had my first divisional outting today - Christmas lunch at The Oriental's Melt: The World Cafe. The restaurant had a very nice ambience to it - nothing too posh to make you uncomfortable, neither was it too casual. The staff were very alert and polite which, you know, is always a bonus. Even the PRC waitresses spoke reasonably good English (mind you, not Singlish but English). The spread was very comprehensive. There was really A LOT of dishes. Let's just put it that 2.5 hours is not enough time to sample EVERYTHING (that is if you don't get tummy-ache from the massive amount of food). Like all things in life, there's always a "but". The thing with Melt is that despite the assortment of dishes, not everything is tasty. In fact, less than half of the mains could be labelled as "yummy". Then again, perhaps I was thinking of Le Papillon as I ate my lunch. Or perhaps the fact that Morton's was just next door somehow influenced my taste buds. It's not too bad a place to go for the spread. You know, sit-down-and-wack kinda affair. I think the lunch buffet that I had at Pontini was better. At 8+++ more, I can have free flow of wine some more. But the thing is that Pontini's spread is just strictly italian, so it boils down to what kinda cuisine you're after. To me, it's beyond the spread. The quality of the dishes matter too. So if I wanted Japanese buffet, I might just head to Kuishin-Bo instead. So ya. Sometimes I can't understand why would people patronise a place like Melt. Not that it's horrible but if I break it down, Melt doesn't seem all that worthwhile a place to have a meal.

Speaking of Le Papillon (Qing has been giving me pointers on how I should enunciate correctly), I'm bringing her for Degustation on the 12th next month. I practically threw her a file of restaurants that I've shortlisted from my research. This reminds me that I'm suppose to pass that file to Iris who wants to treat Mr Barbarian to some good meals when he visits her early next year. The reason why I'm bringing my sis to such a good meal is that besides taking it as a birthday celebration, it'd give her a taste of the good food that I'm having in Australia. I can't leave my dear sis out of the finer things in life right? Lucky I only have 1 sibling, if not I'm going to be so broke. How I wish she's in Australia with me, I'm sure we'll have fun mugging, writing our essays and enjoying ourselves. Sigh. Too bad lah. Who ask her boh chee to go ANU.

*Nudges Qing*
"Eh, maybe you can do your honours in ANU (like Alex) aye?"

Christmas is around the corner. Who and how are you spending it? Single friends of mine, if you have something happening, don't leave me out!