I've been re-reading an entertaining book by Ruth Reichl, food critic at the New York Times in the 1990s. "Garlic and sapphires" unravels her tale of traversing the New York restaurant scene. We see her world through her behind the scenes tales of how to prepare yourself for a food review (from choice of compansions to disguises to know what experience a "real" customer gets), food reviews reproduced from NYTimes and even some of her recipes. Its a delicious read for a foodie but I think the most important tip I picked up is that she never reviews a restaurant she hasn't visited more than 3 times, usually more. I truly experienced the importance of this repetition last night at Tru.
I had recommended a restaurant to a fellow foodie at work who was meeting up with a friend from out of town. I'd been to Tru twice before and was impressed with the Thai and Vietnamese cuisine served in a modern, funky decor. The servings were generous, tasty with lots of different herbs and spices and best of all, prices were reasonable (one walked away paying less than $300 for a full meal). I'd visited the much acclaimed Lotus shortly after and still found Tru trumping.
On my third visit last night I was disappointed. We ordered two of my previous favourites, including the duck and lychee salad and deep fried barramundi. On my first visit, the duck and lychee salad was a small hill with roast duck tossed with sweet lychees, tossed with thin slices of spring onion, garlic and a slight hoisin dressing. The deep fried barramundi came upright, the skin scored with thick cuts to make removing the flesh easy, then generous serving of sweet tangy chilli gravy. Tru must have been doing some serious accounting because this time the salad was half the portion and the barramundi looked like a much much younger relative of the last one we had, and felt like it has been in the oil for a tad too long ... we also tried out the coconut crepe with crab meat (lovely crab meat but not sure about the sweet chilli dressing), pad thai (not the most exciting version I've had) and some vegetable curry (delicious but in hindsight perhaps we should have opted for something more exciting like the lamb in taramind sauce).
When the the waiter came around with the bill later and asked "how was your meal", I couldn't help but tell him my disappointment with this particularly experience ... I appreciated him asking but it seemed that he wasn't quite prepared for my answer because he continued smiling and nodding and didn't really seem to understand that we didn't find the meal that great.
Maybe Tru had an off night. I might have to traverse back one more time just to find out! But for now ...
Overall: 2.5 of 5 stars.
2/F, Grand Progress Building, 15-16 Lan Kwai Fong, Central +852 2525 6700
