A Bee Disappointing. A Great Date Night

It was date night for us!  My parents took care of Asher, so we had a night out in town!  We decided on something we've always enjoyed, but don't get to do much of nowadays - dinner and a movie.

Our show was at Cineleisure, and Jon noticed that there was an Applebee's nearby.  Applebee's is special to us cos it was where we dined together the first night I was in New York when I visited Jon during our exchange.  We remember fondly the great food and the excellent signature dessert Apple Chimi Cheesecake.  I still remember that we sat by a window and watched the snow fall as we ate. 

BUT.  The Singapore Applebees is such a poor imitation of the real thing.  It was an absolute disappointment.  First, they don't even have that famous Chimi Cheesecake.  Jon asked the waiter about it, and he just gave us this blur look.  Then the service was really not up to scratch.  We asked for two glasses of warm water as we began our meal, but they only came near our final bites and after many reminders, plus a beverage mix-up.  They somehow thought we meant two bottles of Hoegaarden?!?!  Twice!

Then the food.  Oh.  Gosh.  A classic case of misrepresentation.  I didn't have a camera with me, but it's probably not worth taking pictures of anyway.  I ordered the ribeye with parmesan shrimp.  In the picture it showed a steak an inch thick with a lovely yellow cheesy sauce drizzled over succulent prawns.  I know one shouldn't trust the pictures in the menu.  But really.  At least try to live up to it.  The steak that came was hardly even 1cm thick!!  I had asked for medium-rare.  How can you possibly medium-rare a 1cm steak??  It came rare.  Bloodly and uncooked.  I told the waiter I wanted it cooked a little more, and reminded I prefered medium-rare.  They took it away to cook some more, but Jon and I gave each other looks which communicated that we knew they were probably gonna just cook it right through.  Seriously, but the time you sear the meat enough, the insides would be all cooked!  And as we predicted, it came out well done.  In terms of taste, I honestly prefer the steak the Western stall at Redhill market sells.  It's probably the same, or thicker, than the Applebee's steak too.  And it only costs $6.  The Applebee's dish was $39++!  If it came out as it looked in the menu, and tasted better than it did, it would probably have been a fair price.  But for that, it's wayyy expensive! 

And I haven't even talked about the quite uncheesy sauce, the small and over-cooked shrimp, the over-singed vegetables, and the overly big serving but underwhelming mashed potatoes.  I had just made a some mash the night before at home, and I think even that tasted better! 

Jon's starter trio was a lot smaller than expected.  And to compensate, they gave a huge serving of much too salty tortilla chips.  Thing is, the tortilla chips were meant for dipping into their spinach and artichoke sauce.  But then...there just wasn't enough sauce for all that tortilla. 

Then there's the image mismatch.  Applebee's calls itself a 'neighbourhood grill and bar', but they served up the steak and starters on dainty rectangular plates.  I guess it's a difference of opinion, but I think that a more appropriate way to serve everything would have been on thick heavy round plates, diner style.  Plus, the big plate just served to accentuate how small the starter trio was. 

The bill came up to $89, and for what we had, it was definitely overpriced. 

As we walked around 313 Orchard, we found ourselves repeating as we passed each cafe/bistro/restaurant, "the food is probably better and cheaper in here!"

Anyway, the night certainly took a turn for the better with the movie Date Night (how appropriate huh?).  Maybe it's cos the issues are salient, we had SUCH a good laugh in the theatre.  I absolutely loved the show :)  Haven't laughed so hard for a long time.  Perfect for a relaxing and light-hearted night out!  I shan't spoil the plot.  I shall just say that if you have kids and have been married for a while, this is a good show to watch.  And by the volume of the laughter from the rest of the audience, and looking at the demographic, I don't even think being married or being parents is a prerequisite to enjoying the show.  So I thoroughly disagree with the review in the Business Times that the show was a dud.  Perhaps the guy is a real grouch.  So there.