Merlion

Came here for a private event, so yes we did have reservations for 50+ people. I have never been in here so it was pretty neat going in and seeing the big Mermaid-Lion (Yes, I am a fool for never having realized that hybrid name :P ) . There was a live band performing and they were quite good.

I had the prefixed menu.
Food:

Red Wine: Decent quality from some random California vineyard; I’ve had better for cheaper price.

Roti: Pastry with sauce, very good and on par with Layang Layang. (edit — just looked at the price, holy moly that is at least 3x Layang Layang’s for the same taste)

Tom Yum Soup — Definitely a different soup than I have ever tried, sort of spicy with a kick. has seafood (oyster and octopus). Hard to describe since I can’t really compare it to anything.

Chicken dish- The chicken dish reminded me of an American fusion with Asian food — There were peas, mushrooms, cooked in a starchy sauce and held together in a circular ring of fried taro. I don’t like taro that much, but won’t dock it for this dish but overall it was “OK”.

Sizzling Beef – Had some of my mom’s: Sizzling black pepper beef is cooked with basil and green beans. Too much meat and very salty.

Desert – didn’t have any, but it was ‘ice cream with sausages’ apparently.

Service: MY GOODNESS the service was atrocious. We got in our food orders at around 7:30 PM, and everybody started getting the roti and their entrees around 8:15PM. Unfortunately for Merlion, they served everybody (lots of older Asian folk, which I presume do not have yelp accounts) EXCEPT me, with my food coming in at around 8;45PM. Piss poor. I was hungry at 6:30 already with a voracious appetite, and they had to do this to me :(. Keep in mind they already know about our huge party.

By the time 9:30 rolled around, I had to attend another engagement. Did not get to try dessert, even though I have quite the big sweet tooth. Massive disappointment.