2 May 2012 - Carousel, Royal Plaza on Scotts

Had always wanted to visit Carousel, but never found the courage to part with the dough. Made a last minute decision to head there for dinner this day. Glad that he had called up the restaurant for the dinner reservation, for the place was packed. Also, because Carousel's certified halal, about half the patrons there were Malays. A signal that this' a good place for the next food gathering with his Muslim friends? $62++ (Sun through Thurs), $75++ (Fri, Sat). A quick check online showed that the weekend dinner would offer King Crab legs, different varieties of oysters and some special grill counter.

Let's get straight to the food, and that means going to the seafood counter first. 

Pot of lobster halves, but with claws removed to another end of the counter. He noticed that these were smaller than those that he bought from the supermarket previously.

Just beside the lobster pot was a whole salmon, which got cleaned really fast. 

The other side of the seafood counter offered scallops, snow crab legs, flower and mud crabs, lobster claws, mussels and oysters. No cold prawns were offered during weekday dinners, it was replaced by prawns in herbal soup, where the chef would cook live prawns according to the demand.

He started with lobster claws, snow crab legs and scallops...

 

...while she fetched a sharing plate of freshly shucked oysters. These were very smooth.

And guess what? Those lobster tails came with yummy roe! However, the chef left the sand vein intact, leaving you to remove it on your own. He was left disappointed by the texture and flavor of the flesh, the best way of having crustaceans is probably still steaming them and having them hot, with melted butter dip!

 

Plate of lobster claw, snow crab claw, mud crab claw and scallops with roe. Found a few claws with meat too tough (issue with freshness or cooking time?), but generally they were fine.

Her plate of claws and mussels.

Not to miss out of the well-sliced sashimi either. Salmon, sword fish, yellow tail, tuna and octopus.

 A serving of grilled crab from the other end of the restaurant.

Serving of herbal soup with two prawns. Soup was really good at the beginning of the buffet, but towards the end, it got too salty to drink.

And then it was dessert time, creme brulee. The custard was rich, and the thickness of the caramel layer was just nice.

Chocolate and bread puddings. More fattening richness.

Pecan and vanilla ice cream. Took his time to savor every bit of the pecan ice cream, rich in flavor and aroma.
 

Service wise, the staff were tireless. The restaurant's birthday troupe kept marching past and singing over and over again for about 8 tables. Just happened to have so many birthday celebrations, haha. Such motivated staff, commendable indeed.