View Rooftop Bar - disappointing food

Got invited to a birthday dinner at The View Rooftop in the G-Tower in March. They'd asked me to emcee the dinner and sing a song I'd previously written for the brithday boy about his winning the Melbourne cup four times. Lenglui also sang a song I'd written, a spoof on Kander and Ebb's "Cabaret" entitled "KARAOKE"  to help get everyone revved up and boosted to sing with the Karaoke later in the evening. There was also to be a Pole Dancing display which turned out to be most enlightening.

The Rooftop Bar's location is very good, on the corner of Jalans Ampang and Tun Razak and with a great view across Ampang and the south west of the city. You can also see the red tail lights of all the traffic caught in the Tun Razak jam reflected in the Intermark building, which looks quite arty and brilliantly vivid and alive. Though the open concept of the Rooftop might allow things to get a bit wet if a storm comes in and blows the rain through the bar. Though presumably they are prepared for this kind of thing.

Aperitif was a most pleasant William Lefebre Chablis whilst the red was something Italian. These wines would be served through the night. The cuisine was to be a five course degustation of Italian fine dining. 

The food pretty much failed for me. The Baker Chef's canapes were stodgy and tasteless, though the Happiness crab that followed was pleasant. A melange of crab and lightly scrambled egg gave a lovely lightness on the palate and matched the Chablis quite well. The Longevity Soup was forgettable, but the recently unfrozen prawns were not. Both the main courses were pretty grim - the lamb shank had that "lamby" quality though the beans and Ciabatta were very good. Maybe it would have been better had an Oxtail been paired with the Pomodoro gravy. The fish was overcooked and also "fishy" in taste, lacking a degree of freshness and texture that I think one can expect from a presentation ostensibly billed as "fine dining". Mine went pretty much untouched. Dessert was swiftly consumed. I think it was all right.

On came the Pole Dancers and they were the highlight. All my preconceptions of sleazy guy lechery were dispelled. These girls are real athletes. The strength and grace needed for the choreography of sliding up and down a steel or aluminium pole is huge. All the ladies watching were going "wow". The men were mostly disinterested. I now have real respect for these girls. There's a lot of training needed to execute this style of dance. Impressive. 

The birthday boy's family sang their party songs and I ended the evening with the usual "Pang Yau" song, which means "Good Friends" and is always a good way to get people going home happy. 

In sum, would be a great venue for an IWFS function. But the food quality has to improve quite a bit before a food tasting could be recommended to the committee. Would also have to look out for the rain.