Michener’s Restaurant
Iririki Island Resort

Apparently Vanuatu has lots of good French-inspired restaurants, but no one has actually mentioned how expensive they are.  Here is one of those famous restaurant, which, to be honest, didn’t live up to its reputation.

Lobster Bisque with Herb Crouton

We had Lobster Bisque for entree (1400 vatu, approx AUD$17.5).  The lobster bisque is OK, although the first bite has a weird bitter aftertaste and it’s slightly fishy, it’s acceptable.  But if I was to be quite picky, we had to spit out bits of fishy scales and the lobster bits, if, they are really lobsters, they are TINY.

Eye Fillet of Beef

Lobster Tortellini

Hubby wanted an eye fillet with homemade truffle  fettuccini & pan fried foie gras, but unfortunately it’s not available.  So instead, he had an eye fillet with creamy mash, asparagas and blue cheese sauce (2400vatu $30 AUD).  Hubby only gave me one tiny bite, perhaps because the beef was actually not bad.  It has a nice meaty flavour, although the beef is not as tender as the Aussie version, probably because they are organic grassfed beef.  The potato mash is nice and garlicky and the blue cheese is subtle, which is great cos blue cheese is not exactly my favourite.

My lobster tortellini is less yummie… very much so.  Hasn’t someone from Masterchef told some contestant that tortellini is hard to make and cook well?  Huh? Huh? For AUD 32, this tortellini is not cooked evenly, or not even cooked thoroughly at all because some bits are too thick and some are too thin.  The filling are quite uneven- some had more lobster, some had more vegies.  But actually I rather have more vegies cos there are some RAW lobster bits inside I think… it’s a bit too dark for me to see but I can taste the slimey-ness.  Yikes.

Kee Wee Bellini

And that’s not even the end of it.  Everything in here works in “Island time”- it took me half an hour, several requests to get my kee wee bellini (kiwi bellini- why bother sounding exotic?).  When it finally came, it’s just clumps of kiwi with sparkling wine- they didn’t even bother to muddle the kiwi- why the hell did that took so long to make?

Chocolate Souffle

Our dessert- chocolate souffle (900vatu, AUD $11) was even worse.  First they bought us the wrong thing- Chocolate marble cheesecake instead of souffle, then when it came, the beautiful presentation hid what lies beneath- melted chocolate.  Yes, MELTED CHOCOLATE.  I don’t want melted chocolate!  Souffle is my favourite- I want my fluffy, warm, lightly sweetened, melt in your mouth goodness!  NOT HAPPY.