Indira Appalnaidu (a year ago )
Jack’s Grill Co on Florida Road
For us, Valentine’s Day is more than a celebration of love between two people. It is a celebration of my dear sister’s birthday.
It’s an expression of love and a celebration of her life from the morning to the night.
We decided to go to Jack’s Grill Co on Florida Road for brunch. Our table was booked for 11.30. When we got there, the maître d was setting up the front of the entrance. He seemed occupied. He assigned us a waiter who didn’t make us feel welcome. He failed to debut the menu.
He distractedly took our order for drinks. He was in a hurry. We were seated outside on the veranda, hoping to enjoy the outdoors. It became too warm, and we asked to be seated inside. The section which we were taken to was not yet ready for guests. At that hour, the restaurant was sparsely full. I guess that would have gained momentum with the passing of time and would have filled up nicely with romantics pandering to valentine’s day requests.
Once we were seated at our new table, we asked the waiter make recommendations from the Valentine menu for the day. His response was that we should have seen it on entering. He made no attempt to remedy the situation. He lacked warmth and communication skills. He failed to seat us. I had to find the written menu at the entrance myself.
While we waited for our starters, the maître d, gifted us with a complimentary heart shaped chocolates to coincide with the romantic valentine theme.
Our party of 3 ordered the Sushi platter as that is their all-time favourite dish especially from Jack’s Grill Co as a starter. It was fresh, delightfully flavourful and colourfully appeasing to the eye. It fulfilled all 5 senses.
I am vegetarian. I ordered the Halloumi cheese which was crumbed and deep fried with sweet chilli sauce. It was moist on the inside and crispy on the outside. The waitron removed my sweet chilli sauce before I finished my starter.
For drinks, we ordered mocktails, the Spiced Berry and Citrus Burst. The berry was thick, perfectly pink, and berrylicious. The Citrus Burst was refreshing. Pleasant to look at and taste. I ordered a flat white coffee.
Our mains were tantalizingly plated alluring the tastebuds to salivate. I played safe with my vegetarian selection. It was limited for choice afterall it’s an eat out that specialises in Sushi, seafood, and grills. And hats off to them for dedicating a place on the menu for proper vegetarian cuisine. It was Creamy Veg Pasta. The pasta for the dish should been penne to allow the creamy sauce to trickle into the tube. It was made with Linguine pasta and wasn’t hot enough for the creaminess to be savoured. Some of the vegetables were too crunchy.
My companions chose Prawn Curry and a Prawn and Calamari Platter. Both were disappointed. The prawns were no more than 7 shrimp sized prawns drowning tomatoes gravy. The birthday lady was not a happy diner. The platter came with calami tubes which were rubbery and the prawns didn’t satisfy my other companion either. The lemon taste overpowered the lemon garlic sauce. I rarely see my companions unhappy with their choice of venue. But this experience was an exception to the rule.
Before we could order from the decadent desserts menu we opted to end our experience. Before we left, our forgotten waitron arrived with a bowl of celebratory ice-cream for the birthday lady.
I hope that the business of valentine was the reason for a somewhat disappointing experience. Looking forward to a better experience.
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