Having heard people rave about the amazing desserts in Serai, I had to try it for myself.
they had a pretty neat and interesting selection of desserts it was like i wanted to try almost everything because almost everything sounded so interesting and so good. pistachio creme brulee (i'm a sucker for creme brulees. it was love at first bite when i had my very first creme brulee in paris), nutella ravioli (i mean how does this not sound interesting right seeing how raviolis are normally savory-orientedm and i mean nutella, hello?), berry pavlova (you have no idea how many people i've heard talking about the amazing sugar explosion in your mouth of this berry pavlova), Banoffee pie(I'm and avid fan of banoffee pie. back in london, i used to eat like the whole pie, just me, my spoon and dear old banoffee), swiss roll meringue, cempedak cheese cake, i could go on and on.
see what i mean, they aren't classic desserts. they don't do classic new york cheesecake bake, they do cempedak cheesecakes, they don't do nutella cakes, they do nutella raviolis, they have this spin to their menu, making their desserts seem out-of-the-ordinary.
so yes, i had my expectations set pretty high.
the tough part was choosing. we settled for the berry pavlova and the banoffee pie. i mean pavlova came recommended, and banoffee is our all time fav dessert, like i said, me and my tray of banoffee and my spoon.
the berry pavlova-basically meringues layers sandwiching cream and fresh berries in between. maybe because i set my expectations too high, this was a huge disappointment. textural wise, the meringue was a disappointment. it should be a melt in the mouth kind of texture, kind of like a marshmellow-ish texture, but that's not what i got. the meringue was a huge fail. also, the cream was meant to cut through the sweetness of the meringue but i felt like there was a tad bit too much cream. plus i've had the best pavlova elsewhere but i'll save that for another post. so yea, not something i would order ever again. plus for 14.80++ you'd expect more berries, like at least sufficient berries to go with every bite, but nope.
chocolate banoffee pie-banana and toffee, go figure. the classic ones i used to have in uk is a digestive base, topped with banana coated with loads of toffee, and topped with whipped cream. i'm not a fan of whipped cream so i normally scrap the cream aside, so i can't comment on how this chocolate-whipped cream differed from a classic banoffee. there were lots of bananas, but if you notice, there are hollow areas between the bananas, so i kind of felt like they could have done better. there was insufficient toffee either. i guess with so many banoffees i've had, my benchmarks for this is quite high, and this did not make the bar. pricing similar to the pavlova, i guess i just expected more.
but the drink-wise, the honeydew blast was amazing-its basically ice blended fresh honeydews, with lychee and a hint of lime. it was so good, i whacked the whole drink before i could even take a picture of it. trust me. priced at 10.50, i order it everytime i Serai. and if u were thinking of ordering the seraiiced tea which does look pretty captivating, lemon sorbet, lemongrass extract and a hint of fresh mint, i'd suggest otherwise. the previous tops the latter hands down, even price-wise. the serai iced tea is priced at 12.50 and tastes a tad bit weird.
overall, a disappointment. the food-great i mean (for another day), but these 2 desserts, not something i'd recommend. not worth your ka-ching. but that's not to say i won't go back for the really good sounding choco-lava-cake, or nutella ravioli.
serai restaurant,
empire shopping gallery
LG Floor
ss16/1
opening times: 10am-10pm.
till next time,
the unfit from
the big fat unfit foodies.
