we trudged over to the gallery hotel from chinatown on friday evening. even though i had made prior reservations at zenden, the place was almost empty. (probably 2 or 3 other tables filled?)

so anyway we had:

Oven-baked Scallops and Prawns - coated with a saffron seafood cream served with steamed fragrant rice sauteed with asparagus and mushrooms

Mixed Grills - grilled beef, chicken, pork sausages and bacon served on a bed of herb tomato and curried garbanzo peas toped with black pepper sauce

Banana Flambe - serves 2

my partner had the ovenbaked scallops and prawns and he loved it. i had some of the scallops and prawns and i thought it was done very well. the saffron seafood cream was not too rich, and tasty enough. it complemented the entire dish very well. so because it wasnt overly rich, you dont get the sense that youre being stuffed (like sometimes how some carbonara sauces can be too rich - just to drawn an analogy) he also loved the rice - which i thought was saffron rice but i think was just white rice covered over with the safforn seafood cream - which goes to show that the particular cream was very good. portion wise this wasnt very big - but i think it is nevertheless decent enough sized, you wont over eat.

i had the mixed grill - essentially for want of a better choice. and i think that this was not a good choice. i got them to change their black pepper sauce to mushroom sauce and i think that sauce clashed with their curried peas. in fact the curried peas and sad looking tomato slice did not sit down well with me. the meats were pretty much tasteless (think chicken and grilled beef) the sausage was okay (but if i may remind you we dont exactly know what kind of meat goes into a sausage and most of the time its just stuff they cant sell like ears, nose, tail well you get the drift) but the bacon was a very odd choice especially when it was served soggyish limp and had quite some layers on fat on it. So anyway that was a miss. I ended up giving most of the meat (except the sausage and bacon because my partners too healthy to eat crap like that) to my partner. the dish also came with wedges which sadly was one of the better items i had on the plate.

we thought we would go for dessert and asked for their banana flambe. this dessert was sadly disappointing - they basically flambe the bananas in front of you in a pushcart thing - so hey you see fire and all that but i thought our server lacked finesse and essentially the bananas tasted like goreng pisang without the skin, and the ice cream it was served with was clearly one of the cheap variety. also, because they took quite long to transport the bananas in their frying pan to the plate with ice cream, the ice cream had already started melting. i dont like having melted ice cream, nor having to wait for my food. but i would say they deserve the cost of the dessert for the sheer effort it entailed!

one of the things i did not like about the restaurant is how they place a bottle of mineral water next to your glass on the table, giving the impression that thats the only water they serve, or make you feel like a total cheapo for asking for tap. in any case, we opened a bottle, which cost us an additional $2.40. which objectively is okay, it could have been some outrageous price of $5 (think a can of soft drink at al qasr) but we're not people who need to drink bottled water at our meals, you know.

ambience was great. i would recommend this for a romantic date in a heartbeat. although i do think their flute player who played the flue accompanying cd music (think pop music) was a little weird. she could have just gone classical, you know. service was attentive and polite. so we left a small $5 tip atop the 10% service charge. quite a pity there was like so little people there on a friday night, but all the more perfect for a nice cosy date.

Came here for a dinner meal on a Sunday night, and the place was almost empty. Heard though that its more crowded during lunch hours.

3-course set meal was available, comprising of a starter/appetizer, a main course and lastly a dessert. Menu had a good variety of dishes to choose from, even containing an Asian food section. I chose the 'Salmon and Oriental Tofu' as my appetizer, and didnt expect the smoked salmon to be spicy when it came. Tasty though but nothing special to rave about. Next up was the main course and I had the Medallion Beef Flambé. Definitely this was the dish to remember for the night, particularly for the Flambé cooking display in front of my table and I thoroughly enjoyed and savoured it. Wrapped up the meal with premium triple choc ice-cream for dessert.

A nice, quiet ambience, with quality food and good service. Price of the set dinner was reasonably priced at $34+++ considering that dinner at similar places elsewhere would have cost much more. Worth a return visit in future!

The salad was excellent, the one you pick the ingredients and toss it yourself. The shrimps was fresh like ooomph.

Not many choices but it was nice. Really... it was nice. Even as I'm sitting in my office desk I can remember back in the day I was munching the prawn salad...

I just wish they have caesar salad... which they don't...

But hey, cheesecake's good. Dessert's fine, only no ice cream. But overall, no complain.

I would be happy to bring my clients here again...

The plate was pretty with pink and purple. In fact, the whole hotel was kinda colourful. A cheerful environment sure whet up my appetite... I woke up early on a Saturday morning just to come here to eat lor...

Anyway, the semi-lunch concept meant that soup, fingers food, salad and desserts were free-flow. However, for the main course, ya got to choose from dory fish, chicken or stewed beef.

Read more to see what they have!

http://fun-hideout.blogspot.com/2007/10/zenden-gallery.html


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Came here about a year ago but I only write reviews for recent visits. Went there again today for lunch with 7 others.

Lunch (Mon-Sun) is a semi buffet with a limited starter and dessert menu. Price is $23++ for adults and $18 for children before discount. After discount, it is only about 20/14 each. used to be $20++ but that was last year I suppose

Dinner is a la carte but they have a $33+++ set - starter, main and dessert. Also good value as it is less than $28 after discount!!

Starters:
Couple of salads, smoked salmon, prawn salad, roast beef, mushroom soup (the soup was nice with lots of mushrooms), some roast tandoori chicken, you tiao - not a huge spread but consider the price...

Mains:
Pepper sirloin, Rosemary chicken with mustard sauce OR pan fried dory.

My chicken was nice and tender, with good chips and a very pleasant mustard sauce which was slightly tart.

Those who had steak said it was really good. About 200g I reckon.

Dessert:
Fruit, a selection of cakes, lychee.
Coffee (freshly brewed) and tea included.

Service:
Very good indeed. When you arrive, everybody gets a bottle of 500ml VODA water ($2.40). I decided to decline this and they came with ice PUB water without me asking. $2.40 for 500ml is certainly better than $8-9 for 750ml that some restaurants charge.

Ambience:
Modern (steel look) and very nice indeed. Quiet with high ceiling.

Value:
9/10 for lunch for sure.