Andly Private Kitchen, Leederville
Every aspiring chef will want to have his own restaurant as part of his life's achievement and for one chef, Andly Li, that dream has come to fruition in the form of a Private Kitchen in Leederville.
Booking of the place was really easy through a txt message that was sent to Olivia De Almeida, the Managing Director of the Andly Private Kitchen. Olivia asked us some detailed questions such as whether we like to eat spicy food or if we have some ingredients that we want to avoid in our dishes. Hubby and I made a list of ingredients that we didn't want to have in our meals, such as cucumber, olives and abalone.
Upon entering the premise, we were mesmerized by the decoration of the venue, especially with every little detail that was purposely put together to bring out the fusion of old Ancient China with modern atmosphere. There was a set of calligraphy brushes, huge pots with ancient looking scrolls, praying altar and hanging birdcages that reminded us of the old Chinese market. The choice of cushion, table and crockery were well thought of as well. The curtain added to the atmosphere and feeling of being in someone's private home.
Olivia informed us that we would be served one entree, three mains and two desserts for our special dinner.
Mango Pudding, Deep Fried Scallop on Strawberry and Sweet Chili Sauce and Wasabi.
The mango pudding was very tasty. The shell of the scallop was crunchy.
The entree was deep fried scallop put on top of strawberry and sweet chili sauce, accompanied with a tiny dollop of wasabi and a small cube of mango pudding as the palate cleanser. It was a beautiful dish as the fried crumbs covering the scallop wasn't oily at all and we could taste the firmness of the scallop still.
This is the very tasty coral trout, our first main dish of the night!
Our first main of the night was one of the reef fish, the coral trout! Our coral trout came with the honey mustard sauce on the left hand side and spicy Hunan's red chili sauce on the right hand side. The fish was moist, white and firm with crispy skin. There was a small mussel as well as a small slice of watermelon served together with the fish. This was one dish that we really enjoyed eating on the night.
For our second meal, we had steak. I ordered medium rare and Hubby ordered medium for his steak. Both were cooked perfectly that we could taste the tenderness of the beef. The dish came with smokey bbq sauce, mayonnaise, baby carrot, roasted mushroom and asparagus. I really enjoyed my steak without the sauce and didn't use much of the sauce at all. For Hubby, this dish was a real highlight of the night.
The third dish was the one that really surprised us especially when we saw the Chef brought out a huge bowl of Snow Crab! The snow crab was cooked in beer with a controlled temperature to ensure sweetness of the beer. Afterwards it was then mixed in with Sichuan peppercorn and some chili. Olivia came to check whether it would be okay for us to use our hands to eat the dish. Fortunately we didn't mind it at all and we thoroughly enjoyed our meal, but we can imagine some people might not like to be so hands on with their meal especially during a special dinner date.
We were quite full after our third main but looking forward to our dessert at the same time. Desserts were carrot cake and pistachio ice cream with cookies and cream. Our pot of green tea was replaced with a small pot about the size of the fist filled with Oolong Tea. We were also provided with a small cup and the whole thing reminded me of the Old Man's Tea or Taiwanese Tea Ceremony (laoren cha).
Andly Private Kitchen is definitely a good option for a special night out and the venue is really fitting for small function or business dinner with clients. The minimum price for the degustation dinner is $100 per person and it goes up to $500 per person. We were so impressed with everything that we experienced from the food, atmosphere and personalised service. Every detail was executed with intricate care and the quality really shows, definitely a place we'd love to come back to and recommend.
