hey! it’s truffle season at the star, and participating restaurants have created truffle based dishes to celebrate the season (runs from 7 june to 6 august). c and i went to the star a few weeks ago to try out a few truffle dishes, and balla is 1 of the 2 restaurants we visited.
when we went in, we were greeted by an amazing sight of the kitchen. everything looked really clean and spotless. the restaurant was quite packed, as expected on a friday night.
we were given our menus but the only menu we looked at was the truffle menu. these are the specially created dishes for the truffle season; you can either get the 4 course degustation for 120pp or order the dishes individually. calculating the prices you would get a $5 saving by ordering the degustation compared to the 4 dishes separately!
we placed an order for 2 dishes off the truffle menu. i was really surprised when the waiter looked at me and said “is that all? you can order more later if needed” which seemed to imply that we didn’t order enough. we were asked if we wanted still or sparking water and we opted for the still.
the water and bread hit the table soon after. the bread was very delicous, with the the rosemary version being the best. all types had crispy crust. the dip provided was olive oil which was delicious with the bread. interestingly, when the truffle dishes arrived, the waitress came and took away the olive oil dip even though we still had bread on our plates.
we ordered the seared scallops which was paired with cauliflower puree, crispy jerusalem artichoke and black truffle ($26). i understood where the waiter was coming from in terms of serving size; it was tiny! the scallops were good but not the best i’ve had. the artichokes were crispy and good but i wasn’t a fan of the cauliflower puree. truffle taste was mild. at $26, 3 scallops just isn’t enough and i definitely felt like i haven’t eaten much!
the second dish we got was the tagliatelle ($36). we were missing the great pasta we had in rome (we will post more about this soon!) so wanted to get the truffle pasta. the tagliatelle came with black truffle and reggiano. pasta was perfectly cooked, sauce was really buttery and rich. however, truffle flavours were mild and the serving size could’ve been bigger for the price we paid.
when we got the bill at the end, i was shocked to see that we were charged $9 for water. this is the most expensive water we have paid for, and to top it off, there was a 1% surcharge for paying by card. was it a good experience, and does the food taste good? yes! but be prepared to spend.
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