Stellar at 1-Altitude: Decent Food but Brusque Service

Having dined at Stellar before, I had high hopes for Restaurant Week 2014, as my previous dining experience had been a delightful one replete with excellent food and great hospitality. While the food at restaurant week was decent, I was utterly dismayed by the brusque and rude manner in which the server served my dining partner and I.

To start off, the amuse bouche (a fried, bite-sized treat whose ingredients I cannot recall) tasted pretty interesting. The gelatinous film made of green apple was quite unique as well.

Amuse Bouche

For the appetizer, my dining partner had the stellar sushi while i had the French duck breast. The duck breast was mediocre at best and slightly tough. Also, the accompanying salad, which purportedly comprised of orange, pear, pickled cherry and coppa cracklings, was flat and tasted as though some diluted soy sauce had been sprinkled onto the salad carelessly. In addition, the sushi was pedestrian, with the rice being of the kind that one could easily find at a supermarket's sushi counter. Given Stellar's repute, I had definitely expected more.

French Duck Breast

Stellar Sushi

For the mains, both of us had the poached milk fed veal fillet which was of medium doneness (probably sous vide). Thankfully, the veal was pretty good as it was tender and succulent. Kudos to Stellar for that.

Poached Milk-Fed Veal Fillet

Lastly, for dessert, we had both the Rose de bain roulade and the chocolate moss garden. While the former did not have any distinctive flavours, the latter was impressive, as the chocolate soil had a tinge of saltiness and added to the texture of the dish. In addition, the chocolate moss garden was well-composed and topped with a scoop of orange blossom sorbet that cleansed the palate. Hence, for us, the winning dish would have had to be the dessert.

Rose de bain Roulade

Chocolate Moss Garden

Although the food was pretty good, service, on the other hand, was appalling and rather preposterous. Upon my arrival (my dining partner had arrived earlier), the server tried to hurry us to order without even giving me time to peruse the menu. Furthermore, he suggested in an impudent manner that ordering was "actually very simple", as everyone who dined in pairs chose to have one of each option for the three courses. To top it off, he clanked the wine glasses down on our table and did not even bother to let us taste the wine, ending off with an insincere "Enjoy" before walking off. Lastly, the bill was delivered to us before we called for it, something which we deemed rude and unnecessary as we were already done with our meal and had no intention of lingering on.

All in the all, the preposterous service left a stain on Stellar's escutcheon. Given that the server was a rather highly-ranked personnel (the manager, maybe?), his poor service left a terrible impression that will make me think twice - no, thrice - about ever returning to dine at this establishment.