Sen5es

Once again I bought another restaurant voucher. This time it was for Sen5es located in the ground floor of the SoHo Metropolitan Hotel. $25 for $50 worth to spend.

I read several good reviews about the place so was really excited on trying this restaurant out.

I decided to go for the "gourmet" buffet at the bakery location which actually turned out to be a breakfast buffet.

Such a HUGE disappointment when I walked into the place. Their so-called breakfast buffet looked similar to a hotel complimentary breakfast. There were those small cereal boxes along with some pastries such as muffins and croissants. But don't think the pastries were part of the buffet actually think it was an additional fee.

There were 3 hot food items which were bacon, scrambled eggs, and one other item I just can't seem to remember. Also there was one bamboo dish with 5 pieces of dim sum inside. I swear there were FIVE pieces since I was able to count them within seconds. What buffet only serves a few pieces of dim sum.

Also there was a cook on hand to prepare eggs BUT don't expect some top notch gourmet eggs here.Your only choice was either sunny side or scrambled. There was no omelette or benedict of any sort. Nothing to add to your eggs such as cheese or mushrooms. It was ONLY eggs.

I don't understand how this is considered a "gourmet" buffet when there were only 4 basic items plus a chef who cooked simple eggs and some cereal boxes. Where's the gourmet part?!!

Guess how much this supposedly "gourmet" buffet cost? $22 per person. Absolutely absurd when you can buy all these items yourself and it would cost less than $20 and still have change leftover.

Once I saw all this I told the hostess that this was not what I expected so was going to return for lunch instead.

Me and my cousin walked out but we were starving since we both haven't ate yet and it was 10am. We stopped by a Timmies and snacked on a bagel since we had time to kill before we can head back.

Around 11:15 we returned to Sen5es for lunch. We ordered the fried lobster & shrimp appetizer, the Charcuterie plate, and the Kobe beef panini. All 3 dishes were an epic fail to me. The Kobe beef was too chewy and completely tasteless. The fried lobster & shrimp appetizer taste like the crab claw from dim sum and the charcuterie plate was just subpar. The portions as you can see were not decent at all.

We were so disgruntled with the food we didn't even crave for dessert. But I think the bakery location is known more for its desserts then its actual food so decided to give it a shot. We ended up choosing the truffles. The flavors that I chose were salted caramel (which the hostess recommended saying that it was their most popular truffle) and white chocolate with vanilla bean and vodka. Both were decadent and the only positive aspect of our meal. Maybe I should have just used my voucher on the desserts rather than the actual food. At least the desserts look more appetizing than the meal itself.

The bill came to around $55. Thankfully I had a voucher because all of this was not worth it at all. Overpriced food with pretentious portions and lack of flavors.

Sadly I have one more voucher so going to try the restaurant location instead hopefully it won't be another disaster or maybe I should just redeem it on desserts since the desserts come with a hefty price tag as well. Guess we will see. Stay tuned for the results.

TOTAL BILL $55...ONCE IS ENOUGH!!!