The Connoisseur Concerto and My Pocket's Huge Hole

Got a birthday treat from The Connoisseur Concerto- 50% first meal and 30% 2nd meal during bdae month. So Kia-su me actually waited till everybody was present (usually Fridays as Jo is off during Fri) to enjoy the 50%. We headed over to TCC at Velocity as it was the nearest to us.

I got myself a Mushroom Tortellini Al Arabiatta which is basically some tortellini (ang moh wanton) drenched in  tomato sauce. The tortellini was delicious! it was juicy and was cooked to perfection, a pity the tomato sauce was a tad too sour for my liking. 

Mushroom Tortellini Al Arabiatta

Mum ordered the Red Hot Chicken Spaghetti which lived up to its name, red hot. The spicy pasta was alil bland and the sauce was on the watery side. Despite the tasty chicken, the spaghetti did not wow anybody.

Red Hot Chicken Spaghetti 

Jo ordered the Pan-seared Chicken Breast with Shogayaki Sauce; Shogayaki is basically some fried/grilled ginger sauce (shoga means ginger in Jap). The chicken breast was nicely done as it wasn't too dry; I thought it went pretty well with the Shogayaki sauce as the sauce was little sweet. On the whole it wasn't a bad dish but who orders a chicken breast in a restaurant?? lol just sayin..

 Pan-seared Chicken Breast with Shogayaki Sauce 

Jie (who arrived the latest despite working at Novena Square) ordered the Seafood Aglio Olio. The pasta dish came with a plumped up scallop, 2 prawns and 1 squid which was pretty pathetic for the price. Honestly, I don't really know how you can screw up an Aglio Olio so this dish wasn't bad but wasn't fantastic, in my humble opinion.

Seafood Aglio Olio

Finally, Dad's main course- the Penne Mama Mia. In general, TCC's portions are small for the price (it's always relative); however Dad's main is the exception. Nope, contrary to what you may be thinking, Dad's Penne Mama Mia is mega small or maybe we just eat alot.  The penne was ok, nothing great and so does not deserve its name Mama Mia.

Penne Mama Mia

I think it would be foolish to dine at TCC and not order their drinks, hence we got ourselves some unique drinks. I thought this was pretty interesting- Marble Cheese Coffee. Nope there wasn't any marble effect but  still tasted pretty good. Think blended coffee cheesecake and there you'll have it- the marble cheese coffee :)  I think this might very well be the highlight of my dinner.

Marble Cheese Coffee

Jie ordered a Frosty Bailey's which tasted like ice blended mocha with a shot of bailey's. Not too bad but I would have preferred it to have a higher concentration of Bailey's.

Frosty Bailey's

We ordered the Cappuccino Cheesecake Dream for dessert, thinking that they are connoisseur of coffee. We couldn't be more wrong, I think secret recipe's espresso cheesecake would own this anytime, hey! my mum's coffee cheesecake (recipe gotten from Catherine Lau) would give this cheesecake a run for its money. 

Cappuccino Cheesecake Dream

I read about the dark devotion and told my fams that it is a must to order. Upon ordering, we were told it would take around 15 minutes, Ok that just raised my expectation even more as I expected it to be all hot and gooey and flowy. NOPE! this really sucked. I think my molten poten cake, despite all the boo boos, would have beaten this flat (or so says my sis, bro and dad). I was pretty disappointed with this dish as it was totally over baked! 

Dark Devotion

When it came to payment, my jaw dropped $153!! ok, then again we did order alot, but the portion's so small! So anyway I thought I could redeem my birthday treat via the TCC loyalty card and so I whipped my loyalty card out when the bill came. To my horror, the waiter insisted I produce the card that they mailed out. I was like "Holy F^&*)*&%! I threw it away!" (ok I didn't say that out loud) so long story short, I paid $130 as TCC members get 15% discount. 


Like seriously how the hell am I suppose to know that I have to keep the card! OK fine, it's written haha but still?!! shouldn't all these birthday shit be electronized and synced with the membership card. Yes my negligence, and I paid the price for it but hey TCC! you should fully utilize whatever electronic database system etc. you're using.

The card that I'm suppose to keep

Despite a hole in my pocket I still had a great time. I don't really spend much on shopping (most of my clothes are jie's haha) but I spend loads on food; especially when its with my family. Somehow dining with fams is priceless :) I'll most prob return to TCC if there is a promo or if there's a special occasion or if I'm craving for their drinks.