Saturday, August 31, 2013

Lavaedge: decent food, pointless Groupon

Went for brunch at Lavaedge, which used to be the cantina at the top of the hill overlooking MacRitchie Reservoir. What was once an old, ramshackle structure is now this bright, cheerful afternoon tea spot in a garden retreat.

The deal is that it's a semi-buffet. Side salads, some breakfast items, dessert and hot and cold beverages are all free-flow. The selection isn't much but the presentation is quite pretty.

We ordered a salmon steak for one main course...

and this handsome ribeye for the other. Although I asked for rare, this one came on the conservative side of medium. It was no less tasty and the gravy kept it nice and juicy, but I still missed the tang of redness in the meat.

The meal was pricey for what was offered, though. We had a Groupon coupon, but to our surprise it functioned more like a prepaid voucher than a discount coupon. If the order did not exceed the voucher value, there was no refund for the difference. If the order exceeded the value of the voucher, we had to top up the difference. My math isn't that great, but we might as well not have bothered with Groupon for what we paid and got. It would have worked better if we had bought it as a gift for someone else, now I think about it.

Luckily the food and service were decent. Nice view of the reservoir too, in air-conditioned comfort.

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