The Pavillion on Aberdeen St, Northbridge

Rob and I actually had planned to have a nice dinner date on Saturday but then I suffered from a really bad tummy bug on Saturday morning and couldn't eat the whole day. It was a very sad day for me without my food. In fact, my appetite didn't return until Tuesday (on any other day you'd see me eating every two hours (sometimes every hour) - I had to force myself to eat the last couple of days). A little of my appetite came back on Tuesday so we decided to go out for the dinner that kept being postponed from Saturday night. I went to dinner straight from work so obviously I didn't have my camera with me.

The Pavillion is one of those 'fusion' places that attempts to make 'east-meets-west' kinda dishes. I am always wary of these places as I much prefer places that makes authentic dishes, and not bastardised mixed-up versions. But there is a buy-1-main-get-1 free voucher available at The Guide, and we ride past it on my way to and from work, so I couldn't resist trying it. The restaurant itself is lovely. Very nice atmosphere with water features - great for a place to relax after a bad day at work (long story involving a tick and a tetanus shot).

We settled for the seafood platter ($32). It was served with chips, but due to the fragile recovering state of my stomach, we requested the chips be substituted with potatoes instead. After placing our order, I realised that seafood platters invariably always has something battered and deep fried, so we asked the waiter if that was the case. He informed us that the scallops would be battered and deepfried, much to our horror. Aaagh! How can any chef do such an abominable thing! Unfortunately the chef had already battered the scallops when the waiter put in our request not to batter and deep fry it, so we settled for it to be pan fried instead.

The platter was reasonably sized, but we were pretty disappointed with the quality. Too much batter and grease. I think we were most disappointed with the fact that the scallops were battered and fried. Seafood has a very delicate taste, and I believe that you should not make seafood too 'noisy' with too much ingredients, nor overcook, nor coat them with sauce, batter or grease which tend to mask the delicate taste. The prawns on skewers were done pretty good, but the fish (battered and fried) was a little too greasy and overcooked for us. I hate to say it, but the quality of the seafood platter was similar to the food you get from fish 'n chips places. We've had much better seafood than this for a cheaper price too. Rob and I cannot understand anyone's obsession with battering and frying seafood.

We may go back to The Pavillion, but definitely not for their seafood.