Situated in a black-and-white colonial house atop a hill just off Adam Road, this two-storey restaurant-gallery has all the makings of a not-so-little hidden gem.
7Adam is housed in an attractive space, with black and white furniture and linens in homage to the spot’s heritage punctuated by an eclectic mix of (occasionally changing) contemporary sculptures and artworks.
While they describe the food here as “fusion,” we’re inclined to think that’s a euphemism for confused; incidentally, that also applies to the service, which was at times bumbling, at others, just plain shoddy—blunders like giving us warm water when we’d asked for cold didn’t score them any points.
For an establishment that’s more fine dining than casual bistro (the prices certainly veer towards the steeper end of things), the servers are woefully inadequate; we might have been inclined to be more understanding if they were running at capacity, but they weren’t.
But the biggest disappointment of the evening proved to be the food. Despite being highly recommended by the wait staff, skip the prawn ravioli in lobster bisque ($24)—unless you’re in the mood for poorly-made shrimp wonton masquerading as ravioli—and monkfish in an overly-astringent red wine sauce ($35).
You’ll fare a touch (but not much) better with safer options such as linguine with salted beef, bacon and tobiko ($28), although ours came without the topping of tobiko and had to endure a return trip back to the kitchen (nevermind the lack of an apology), as well as an order of dry pork ribs with pumpkin mash ($37).
Even the wait between courses was considerable. And while the setting is gorgeous, we simply can’t excuse the over-priced, minutely-portioned pedestrian food and underwhelming service. Pity really, because the set-up has so much promise.
