David Garrison's reviews (22)

• Not Recommended! Primotable by Jstone (BFC) Primotable 高桌牛排馆（外滩店） almost 4 years ago
  • Taste: 6
  • Decor: 9
  • Service: 7
  • Overall: 7

  To put this review into context, I've done 14 Restaurant Week meals and 11 reviews and only one has ever been negative. Primotable has the potential to be an excellent restaurant, but they're not there yet.

  Dining City needs to update Primotable's address - the address provided is actually for a large complex of separate buildings - the restaurant is on the fourth floor of the mall located at the Bund Financial Center.

  Atmosphere: Sheer elegance - everything is immaculate and the staff are impeccably dressed. It's a shame to stick a fancy restaurant in a shopping mall without a view, but everything inside the restaurant is great. They can't change the lack of a view, but I do wish they had soft music playing instead of silence.

  Food:
  -Bread: The bread balls were dry and not particularly special in any way. The raisin nut bread was moist and I wish I could buy a loaf of it so that I could have it for breakfast each morning.

  -Scampi Carpaccio With Kaluga caviar ,Citrus Australasica &Smoked Yellow Mustard: This was the most frustrating dish of the evening. The presentation was in my Top 3 for meals eaten, the ingredients were high quality, and the scampi carpaccio was light and refreshing... but the dish was ruined because the mustard is so overpowering that it hides the flavor of everything else. I love cheap fast food as much as the next guy, but it was a travesty to make such a delightfully elegant dish and have the only thing you can taste be hot dog condiment.

  -White Asparagus Soup With Sauteed White Asparagus Dice & Mascarpone Cheese: There was nothing "wrong" with the soup. It tasted good, but just good. I guess I was disappointed that it literally just tastes like what I can throw together at home in 15 minutes; it was good, but there nothing special that elevated it.

  -Pan-fried Blood M7 Wagyu Beef Sirloin Steak With White Asparagus Tips, Carrot Of Orange Puree & Black Truffle Sauce: The puree was okay - it was just carrot with no frills. This was my first time having Wagyu beef and I don't know if it's actually not that impressive or it was the restaurant. The steak came rare instead of medium rare, and I had to eat it cold between the rareness and because I was served before my friend and had to wait out of politeness for five minutes until her dish arrived.

  -Three Kinds Of Ice Cream Glass: This was just three scoops of ice cream. The vanilla bean was okay, the strawberry was good, and the hazelnut was great.

  -My friend differed from my orders with the risotto (served in a lobster) and the chocolate cake. Both were presented nicely, but just good.

  Service: Everyone was friendly and attentive and easy to communicate with. The reason I took off 1 1/2 stars is because a major restaurant sin was committed: they served my entree five minutes before my friend, meaning that I had to wait out of politeness, but between the steak being under-cooked and how small the pieces were, my dish was cold by the time her food came. I know this is China, but if you're going to be fine dining, you serve everyone at the table at once. This was obviously a problem in the kitchen.

  Primotable is frustrating. They're an elegant restaurant... in a mall. They making an amazing scampi carpaccio... but mask the flavor with a cheap condiment. They present a soup as fancy... but it's something you can easily make at home. They offer the most expensive cut of beef in the world... but can't cook or time it to order. They can make a nice-looking dessert... that's just decent. If Primotable charged the Restaurant Week average of 288 CNY, I probably would have grumbled a bit, but cut them a lot of slack with a 4-star review. Unfortunately for them (and for my friend and I,) they dared to charged 210 CNY more, meaning that we paid nearly 1,000 RMB (before drinks) for a meal that was just... okay. I don't want you walking away from this review thinking the food is bad - it's not. It's good, but that's also a problem - it's nothing special, and it's definitely not worth the price. Hopefully they can turn things around.