Restaurant: The Cookbook Kitchen

Another day in Eastwood, another day of trying out a different food place.

I don't really remember how I heard of The Cookbook Kitchen but I'm pretty sure I heard from somewhere that they serve good food. The chairs and lighting of the restaurant gave me an impression that it is a Chinese restaurant but yeah I was wrong. Their service is probably a 2.5 out of 5. Although they informed us that it would take 20 minutes to serve our order, I didn't think that the soup will be served together with our main dish so my main dish had to sit for a few minutes while I finish my soup. Their staff is pretty knowledgeable and prompt but some of them are not really very accommodating.

I ordered Cream of Tomato (lower right) for my soup. Although it's name said "cream", I really did not find the soup to be creamy enough. I thought that the flavors should have been balanced more because I tasted more sour flavor than anything else - the cheese on top helped a bit to neutralize the sourness of the soup.

I ordered Walnut Crusted Fish with Mango-Ginger Sauce (upper left) for my main. Although the fish was cooked perfectly, I thought the walnut crust was too thick that it overpowered the flavor of the fish (there were several bites where it was all walnut that I could taste). Maybe they could have crushed the walnuts finer to lighten the crust of the fish. Good thing the mango-ginger sauce was packed with a lot of flavor. My husband ordered Parmesan Crusted White Fish (upper right). Again, the fish was cooked perfectly and it was very well flavored with herbs and spices. I just thought it was a little bit too oily and the thyme flavor was a little bit too strong at times.

Overall, the place is ok - good and clean resto, mediocre service and flavors that can be balanced better. I probably will come back to try out their other dishes but it's not really one of those places that I'd be too excited about trying again.