Sear - Not what it's cut out to be

For our family's reunion dinner, we decided to have a non-Chinese meal, in view of the heavily traditional meals that awaited us (looking forward to that, yo!). My younger sister suggested Sear as she loved her previous visits there and a steakhouse is always a thumbs-up option in our family.

I thought about withholding my comments since the company and happy occasion outweigh the food. However, ignoring the quality of the meal and saying that, "All is great in La La Land!" would be doing a disservice to paying customers.

The family tried almost everything off the set lunch menu but I only took pictures of the dishes that KW and I had.

As soon as we sat down, we tore into the complimentary herb bread, which offered a good start to the meal.

You don't need to be born with a silver spoon or travel far and beyond to know what a chopped salad is - just google and click on the "Images" tab. Sear's chopped salad was really more of a mesclun salad as opposed to a chopped-up chopped salad. While it might not seem like the most interesting option out there, with four days of intense feasting ahead, it wasn't the worst option as well.

I was more than thrilled when the waitress placed the steak tartare before me. Doesn't it make a pretty picture? After tossing together the pickles, shallots and chives and aioli, the very finely minced tartare was unfortunately overwhelmed by all that mambo jambo. The accompanying paper-thin toasts served little purpose as the slightest pressure caused it to shatter even before the tartare made it pass your lips.

Instead of the steak frites, I decided to do something different and had the Fish of the Day - a seared yellowfin tuna served on top of a stewed rice that resembled a paella. To say that I was disappointed is an understatement. Kindly put, it was serviceable - I was hungry and it was food. But five medallions of tuna as an additional cost of $12? Ouch! I feel the burn sear.

To be frank, the only consolation is the steak frites that my dad ordered looked pretty sad too. We have all truly been spoilt by our Valentine's Day meal.

Probably the only thing with raving about was the Sear burger. I felt the love when KW offered me a quarter of his burger. A juicy, gratifying stack of mashed avocado, wagyu mince and aioli hugged snuggly between a soft bun. Highly recommended!

I didn't have high expectations for desserts but they were above average when you take into account the entire meal.

The chocolate mud pie consisted of an intensely chocolatey mousse (yay for that), chocolate cookies crumbles and a creamy chestnut ice cream. Chocolate, crunch and ice cream, check check check.

The cinnamon donuts were dense and served lukewarm, but I loved the citrus curd and lemon ice cream for it reminded me of my childhood "Spilt" (now called "Solero") ice cream.

All in all, it was a decent meal and though I didn't try their steaks, I am not exactly motivated to try them out, especially since we stocked up on more Wagyu beef MB4. Woohoo!