It’s that Time of the Year: Christmas Eve Rip-off?

Let’s take a moment to imagine you are a restaurant owner, what is the best time to gain maximum profit?

Valentine’s Day? Nay – it’s just for couple
Christmas Eve? Possible… Couple, Family & Friends! More market there!
Then how would you differentiate yourself from other thousands of restaurants? Well, maybe come up with a ‘Special Christmas Eve Set’ since people are more willing to pay overpriced meals during holidays?
What is the target market there? High-end? Medium range? Low-end?
But how do you ensure the patrons would only order this special set? Christmas Eve Set only on that day?

In the Eve of Christmas, we walked in to AHMO – a fusion restaurant serving ‘Special Christmas Eve Set’ from RM68nett to RM88nett depending on your main course. The place was buzzing with patrons – couple, family and friends. I guess this business plan works! Funny thing was our original plan was to visit El Casa – the Mediterranean Restaurant which used to be in the same location but were closed down and converted to AHMO.

AHMO Special Christmas Eve Set

Christmas Tree!

The Interior

Story of AHMO!

So what is the differentiation of AHMO set? Well, they are fusion! The opening salad was not drizzled with thousand islands or some balsamic vinegar – the dressing actually had some oriental tangy taste in it and I think I could taste lemongrass? Not bad there…

Salad!

Our “Essence of Chicken” soup arrived and it tasted like normal chicken soup – don’t know why but I felt it lack substance. The spring onion kind of made it out of place – I guess this is the danger of fusion of crossing too much into certain line.

Chicken Soup

We ordered the “Roasted Christmas Turkey” (It’s Christmas!!!) and “Pan-seared Emerald Fish Fillet Veronique” for our main courses. The Turkey meat was dry and I didn’t like the texture – the gravy didn’t help either as it was kind of bland and tasteless. I almost grab the tomato sauce just to add flavor to it. There was also some meat loaf or jelly-like stuff with Chinese sausage inside – this was definitely strange to say the least.

Roasted Christmas Turkey!

The Fish Fillet fared better with sweet grape sauce – the sauce surprisingly complimented the fish really well. This main course was definitely better than Turkey.

Fish Fillet!

We had the Christmas pudding with vanilla ice cream for dessert. The Christmas pudding was warm whilst the ice cream cold – a good combination to mix them together. I think they should just skip that Nata de Coco though as the texture didn’t blend well with the combination. Our last course of the day was Lipton’s tea – I guess you could guess the taste by the name itself. =p We did ordered banana milkshake but it was never served – perhaps our order was lost somewhere as everyone seemed too busy.

Christmas Pudding with Vanilla Ice Cream

Lipton Tea

So did the ‘Christmas Eve Set’ worked for AHMO? Well, looking at the crowd that night I would say it worked just fine. The fact that at RM68nett – it was actually one of the restaurants offered at the lowest price. As for food quality – guess they still have room for improvement. So was it a Rip-off? Hmm... I would say the set was not worth RM68 but it happened everywhere during Christmas Eve anyway. =p

AHMO is located at Irrawaddy Road, Penang.

Anyhoo, since it's Christmas, let's see how Sammy celebrate it!!!

HELP!!!!

NNNOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!