Eat Out: CNY @ Tao's Restaurant

Happy Chinese New Year! This year is the year of the:

DRAGON

祝你龙马精神 ~!

On Chinese New Year eve, my family and I decided to spoilt ourselves. Since all our relatives are overseas for CNY, there's not much point cooking a CNY dinner for only three people, is there? We went to Tao's Restaurant, where one can experience a fusion of Asian and Western flavours as well as modern and traditional twists in their food.

Their menu is a multi-course selective set menu, so we get to choose our entrée, soup, main and dessert. It was also a special menu just for CNY. We went there for lunch, so our choices were much more limited compared to the dinner service. But we still had trouble deciding what we wanted to eat. All the choices were so tempting!

First Course: Starters

A plate of miniature dishes made from the Chef's hand-picked seasonal ingredients.

The waiter told us to start from the left dish first, and finish to the right. Interesting, I've never been told how to eat my meals before, haha.

Tomato in red wine vinaigrette. It had a sweet-savoury taste.

Next was the pickled calamari. The calamari was so fresh, it was almost crunchy. Even my brother, who usually hates raw food, finished his happily.

The potato salad was creamy and well seasoned. The person dicing these potatoes into tiny uniform cubes must be some pro knife skills.

Second course: Entrée

Each of us ordered a different one, so we get to see what each dish looked like. =D

Raw beef tataki with Wa-fu dressing. Wow, don't you just love the chinese character on the side? Summer (夏) for the season in Melbourne right now.

Kaiseki style sashimi. I had my first taste of caviar and sea urchin! But the winner in this dish was definitely the scallops. Absolutely melted in my mouth.

Marinated chicken with ginger onion.

Third course: Soups

Steamed assorted meats in Chinese casserole. Also known as 'Buddha Jumps Over Wall' (佛跳墙)

Korean style seafood consommé. Flavoursome and spicy, with well done seafood like prawns, scallops and generous meat from a crab claw.

Fourth course: Palate cleanser

A refreshing drink of mango nectar, a cool relief after the steamy soup.

Fifth course: Mains

Hot stone sizzling steak.
Salmon with pumpkin sauce.

Pan fried duck with red wine vinegar sauce.

Korean BBQ pork chop with mustard paste.

Sixth course: Rice of the day

Sakura ebi rice. The rice is tasty enough to eat on its own. The small spoon on the side is just adorable. Although my brother expressed his frustration with eating with such a small spoon, lol.

And finally, seventh course: Desserts

Crème Brulee.

And... hahahaha. Guess what this is? A potted plant for dessert??

Home made mint ice cream with chocolate soil. Such genius and playful presentation, keke. My Mum and brother had a good laugh watching me eat out of a garden pot. But I know their secretly jealous of my dessert, mwahaha. It was deliciously creamy, paired with the coarse texture of the cookie crumbs, so lovely!

The entire meal came to $48 per person, which was actually pretty reasonable given the quality and quantity of our meal. We were very impressed with the elegant presentation, faultless food, romantic ambience and attentive service. The waiter even pulled out my chair for me! * squeal*

So this ends my very first degustation meal, with hopefully more to come! Maybe with every special occasion we shall go to fine dining instead, haha.