Carats & Greens

Its been awhile since I had a date with my boyfriend. By that I mean setting up a time and place just the two of us. This was no ordinary date, after all we were celebrating our 5 year anniversary albeit a few days late. So last night we arranged to meet at C.Club in Pavilion for dinner before catching a movie. I was hoping that since we were going to C.Club that some diamond(s) might have been potential anniversary gift. After I greeted Hunky and sat down, I was happy to see:

1. They had removed the ugly-ass yellow vases from the table
2. A familiar aquamarine paperbag with the initials T & C!

The last time I dined here was quite some time back. I was keen to see if it was as good as I remembered. The service is still impeccable and they have removed some unsightly decoration (See Lyrical Lemongrass' rant and review here. Hey Aunty, they must've read your blog because they've changed the menu paper so all you old folks can read without straining your eyes!). I was tempted to order their kickass homemade ginger beer again but I only just recovered from a never ending sore throat. The ginger beer here is seriously potent, fantastic if you love ginger as much as I do. So much better than the one at Delicious which is just syrup, syrup and syrup. I read somewhere that vitamin C helps absorb iron so I ordered a glass of freshly squeezed orange juice to go with my spinach salad (RM18) instead. Hunky ordered "country-styled" gravadlax marinated home smoked salmon (RM36). Yes, pay attention to what you order because when the salmon arrived, the gravlax was nowhere to be found. Reading the description again makes sense now. Indeed, it was a thin salmon fillet that had been smoked and marinated with things you use to make gravlax. Ahhhh. Needless to say, Hunky was very disappointed that it wasn't gravlax but he did comment that the salmon was very tasty otherwise - "As good as the original". If you've been to Frangipani, you'll find the menu here somewhat familiar as the Chef here previously worked with Chris Bauer of Frangipani. Warm tea smoked salmon, duck confit, lavender lambshank, salmon rossini, etc... And all of them, a few ringgit cheaper. Ahhhh. My spinach salad was a nice portion for a starter. Clean baby spinach leaves dotted with crumbled feta cheese and sauteed mushrooms. It was served with an anchovy emulsion on the side. I guess too many people must've complained about the saltiness.

I ordered the pan seared salmon “rossini” on oxtail stew, topped with foie gras and balsamic palm sugar glace (RM59) again as it was the best dish of the night when I was last here with the girls. When it arrived, it looked the same. Pan seared foie gras resting on a plump piece of salmon and rich oxtail stew lurking underneath. Unfortunately, just as I was marvelling at how good it looked, Hunky's spring chicken (RM35) arrived looking like last year's winter coat on this year's spring runway. Tsk tsk. Surely this can't have been made by the same person? Where mine is polished and refined, this looked half-hearted and cheap. Despite its appearance, the chicken was moist and the gravy, "mild prawn flavoured mushroom broth", was very tasty. It tasted good enough and reminded us a little like Kenny Rogers in the best possible way. My salmon rossini tasted just as good as before except that the salmon was overcooked and that made it quite dry. Thankfully there were some oxtail gravy to soak it up with. I'm pretty sure there was more oxtail before looking at LL's pictures.

We didn't stay for dessert as I was afraid it might just spoil Hunky's mood if he tasted just one more mediocre dish. Thankfully the movie in Gold Class really lifted Hunky's mood. Incredible Hulk was entertaining and reminded me of the tv series I watched way back when I was a wee laddy. Edward Norton has been away too long. This one is so much better than Ang Lee's version which, to me, came off as pretentious. I should know right? It also helped that I could snuggle under the fresh duvet (felt clean and smelt clean!) they provided. How can one go back to pleb class after this? Quite easily at RM50 per ticket! I think last night was the most expensive dinner and date movie I've ever had.

So did I commit some sort of faux pas by opening my Tiffany gift in Carat Club? Who cares! I just thought it was funny to see the blue box lying on top of the C.Club monogrammed place mat. Before anyone gets too excited (after reading The Zhong Luck Club), it wasn't a ring. As much as I am a sucker for shiny baubles and packaging, the shrewd Chinese woman in me would've shouted "WTF?! Buy Tiffany diamond ring for what? Can get much cheaper at Habib/Poh Kong/unknown online source! But er, can I keep the box?" Happy anniversary Hunky and thank you for the lovely gift!

The C.Club is located at Level 6, Pavilion Kuala Lumpur, 168 Jalan Bukit Bintang, 55100 Kuala Lumpur. Tel: 03-2141 3160