Shiraishi, Ritz Carlton Millenia (lunch)

Lunch with sinquanon88. For how much Shiraishi charges, I had expected to leave lunch feeling much more satisfied than I actually did. I'm not sure if this was a bad day for the restaurant but I opine that expensive places cannot afford bad days because they not charge bad day rates. No one comes in paying for your bad day service. And if that wasn't a bad day, I ought to be getting my friends avoid it. Not much of ambience while the food and service didn't cut it. Don't know what had people been paying for.

The lunch menu here run from $30 to $85. I ended up with a Hisago bento ($50) because of a mistake by the waitress. Impressions kind of went downhill from there. Getting a wrong order on a manageable lunch crowd in a small restaurant was pretty bad. Especially if you still tried to argue that you had gotten it it right and I was sure as hell that I had asked for something else. I let the mistake slide because I had been waiting for some time and was hungry. The thought of waiting through a change of order just didn't sit.

I was charged $5 for their otoshi (pickled vegetables). That looked to me to be hefty for a tiny amount of vegetables which I could fit in my mouth at a go. Lol. The Hisago bento came with rice that was laid with tempura fritter bits of prawn and sweet potato. That came with a serving of sashimi, miso cod, soup (a choice of clear or miso), a small salad, some fried tofu stuff and ankimo. Wrapped up with a dessert of fruits (sliced watermelon and mango). Since this was a first visit, I couldn't resist doing an uni test.

rice with tempura prawn bits and sweet potato

mixed sashimi

miso cod

uni gunkans ($30)

Shiraishi for lunch was very pricey. While the food was pretty decent, I didn't feel it was worth what I paid for. To credit where it is due, the sashimi was of fresh tasting and the uni was definitely better than some other place which I've paid more for. Still I left slightly disappointed with the entire experience. For what they charged, I would much rather re-visit Aoki which I thought was a much better deal.