I still remember the title of my post about Restaurant André is "Simply Magical". It is definitely one of the most memorable dining experiences from my early days of getting into appreciation of gastronomy. Thus when I heard about Chef André Chiang back with a new creation, Bon Broth, I make it a point to come here, despite the difficulty in getting a reservation due to the popularity of the place. And I'm also very excited about the concept of letting the broth takes the center stage where one enjoys the ingredients cooked with the broth, without any sauce. Well, I’m in for a disappointment.
The interior of the restaurant is very impressive and classy, with soft yellow lights, 2 huge U-shaped high tables each surrounding a giant bronze cauldron-like structure in the center. It gives that impression that something big and exciting is brewing. The broth counter looks like a posh bar counter with wine glasses lining the shelves illuminated by yellow lights.
So the experience starts with introduction of eight types of broth and all of them sounds so good. From the tangy sweet Taiwanese Sauerkraut, Signature with a blend of zest and spiciness, earthy Herbal, Satay, sweet Japanese Suki, Hokkaido Collagen to Mala, it is actually difficult to make up a choice. I can opt to try 2 types of broth before deciding on my choice of broth. I try Sauerkraut and Herbal, and both are oh-so-good. At this point in time, I'm so excited to enjoy food cooked with the broth here. In fact, I'm so impressed with the broth that I sort of decide to come back again to try the other broths. That will change afterwards.
After choosing the broth, I get to choose whether I want the Premium or Deluxe set. I set my sights on the Premium set because of the ingredients featured, such as lobster, abalone, tiger prawns, scallops, duck breast, beef and pork, are so luxurious. I really want to try how such premium ingredients taste with such awesome broth. The presentation is so impressive, with the ingredients served in Japanese wooden boxes. To make things even better, I can request the service staff to deshell the prawns and lobster for me. So this thoughtfulness really adds points to the experience.
Everything is good when I first start with putting in the processed ingredients, like dumplings, prawn paste and tofu. They are very tasty, enhanced by the earthy flavour of the broth.
The meh part comes after I eagerly cooked the duck breast in the broth (for approximately 40 seconds as recommended, I think, actually I can't remember the exact timing suggested by the staff at the start of the meal–too many timings suggested for different ingredients already) and pop it into my mouth, I know I don't like it. The strong gamey taste of duck is totally at odds with the flavours of the broth. And duck cooked in broth does not have that smooth texture featured in grilled or smoked or carpaccio duck.
Things get slightly better with the beef, but it didn't get me go "wow", like another hotpot restaurant did for me with their pork belly. The beef goes quite okay with the taste of the broth and features the perfect texture, but the strong meatiness doesn't match excellently with taste of the broth. The pork fares the best in terms of matching the taste of the broth, but due to the lack of marbling, it lacks the smooth texture pork belly has.
As a seafood lover, I'm definitely most hyped up about the seafood. The clams are so briny sweet and tender, enhanced by the taste of the broth. In fact, the clams are, surprisingly, the stars of the seafood repertoire. The other more luxurious seafood, such as abalone, scallop and prawns, are fresh and nice, but not exceptional. There is nothing special about them that makes me choose to dine here over other restaurants.
And the lobster is the biggest disappointment because it looked so good when first presented but the texture left much to be desired. Maybe I had cooked it for a bit tad too long, which is two minutes? As said, I can't remember the recommended timing, and the staff looks to be too busy to be repeating the information everytime I want to start cooking the food. At this point, I'm kind of wonder why lobster is included in the hotpot set since this seafood is very delicate in taste and requires precise cooking to get that tender, moist texture.
To make it worse, the connective tissues in the lobster meat are so tough that I can't eat the meat piece by piece. Three quarters of this huge chuck of meat are connected by the tissues! I even can't tear up the tissues when I try to rip it up with my canine and molars like a barbarian. So I end up stuffing the whole huge lobster body and tail into my mouth and slowly chew on the chewable part, all the while hoping that I will not choke on the meat when shallowing the meat. This is one of those few times where I feel depressed that a generous amount of meat is served.
The restaurant adds a nice extra touch where patrons can bring home the raw vegetables if unable to finish them on spot. But with exception to the mushrooms, which I can easily finish, the other vegetables are not my type of vegetables that I want to eat anyway. So I put all the vegetables into the broth to be spared of the troubles of bringing them home. The mushrooms are very good, as expected. The other vegetables still do not get elevated to "I don't like this vegetable but I like this vegetable here" status. In fact, I give up on getting another bite into the lettuce and bak choy because they are so huge and fibrous, reminding me of the horrors I had with the lobster. And since I don't like these vegetables, I see no loss in letting them sit in the broth.
Actually, this brings up another sentiment of mine: hotpot is best enjoyed with ingredients of one's choice. Really. With tasting menu or omakase at restaurants, the ingredients are prepared by chefs to bring out the best in the said ingredients and negate the negatives of the ingredients, which is why I got lots of moments where I love the dish despite it being made from ingredients I don't like. But with hotpot, boiling is the only cooking method, counting only on the flavours of the broth is not enough to be a game changer. And this experience proves just that.
To be fair, the broth yielded from cooking all the premium ingredients tastes amazingly awesome. It is so full of distinctive harmonised flavours that it is the best soup I have cooked. The experience does give me the impression that the broth is the main character, not the ingredients.
By the way, the impressive looking wooden boat filled with ice and seafood fails as time goes on. The ice melts and seeps through the gaps between the wooden panels of the boat to flood my table. And the ice water from my neighbouring patrons also flow to my side. One of them starts cleaning up the water while apologizing for the flooding, with the staff no where in sight. Imagine spending so much money to end up doing part time cleaning and apologising for something that’s not his fault. I appreciate his courtesy to do so, but the people who should apologise is the service staff, who did not do that.
The dessert looks interesting based on what I saw when it was served to the patrons beside me. But I don't have the chance to try it since by the time I'm done with the hotpot, getting the attention of the busy staff seems near impossible that I don't see the point of staying in this place any longer. In addition, I heard the staff asking the patrons if they want dessert to which they accepted. So if the staff is not going to extend the same kind of courtesy to ask me about it, why should I spend more to get the dessert?
I admit that I got the reservation time wrong and arrived 30 minutes late. Maybe that is why the staff seem to be in a hurry to get me to leave? But I had tried my best to finish the food fast, and I was actually done with the hotpot before the patrons who had started before me. There are other small details that makes me feel like a sore thumb there. Being repeatedly ignored as several staff members pass by right before me, this is not the kind of service I expected for such high price tag. The staffs are generally polite and respond to requests but "not all patrons are equal here". But I need to say that the service staff in charge of the broth counter is exceptionally good, she is friendly, engaging, precise and patient in introducing the different kinds of broth.
Overall, if there is option to buy packets of the broths, I will definitely buy a whole bunch of them to enjoy them with ingredients of my choice and in the comforts of my home, with top notch service for myself, finishing with a splendid dessert from a quaint patisserie.
Thoughts: The Broth is the Star! But overpriced for this standard of experience.
