Cassis, 22 Jul

hope people don't mind that i'm going to break the order of our reviews. but this has been on my to-do for too long, and i suspect M's not going to get a chance to post in a bit, what with more pressing priorities such as saving our nation.

so anyway, i first heard of cassis when my colleague forwarded me their restaurant opening mailer, about 8 months ago. i remember feeling an instantaneous connection with it as it brought to mind images of the small waterfront town in southern provence. a good name is always a good start! when i called to make a reservation for EN's birthday celebration, the lady on the other line highly recommended outdoor seating. i asked if it would be sufficiently cool, knowing that our friends wouldn't appreciate perspiring, and she assured me that the outdoor seats were the best in the house, and very well ventilated.

we had a really good turn out that night. almost all of us were there. JL was the first to arrive, though she almost didn't make it as she felt kinda tired from the weekend. i understood what she meant, but i told her that hanging out with the gang shoudn't sap any more energy from her since we were so familiar with each other. was glad that at the end of the night, she came to the same conclusion =) anw, that talk on introverts vs. extraverts triggered one of our prolonged discussions on personality types. XL knowledgeably pointed out that the myers briggs test reflected perference rather than true nature, and we wondered aloud what type each of us truly were. EK was really late as she was rushing her project. but she arrived with time to spare to settle in, before we cut the cake she had bought. even A made her presence felt through the tennis racquets she had asked JL to bring for me.

the food at cassis was passable (hence, only 1 para shall be devoted to it). the positives were the very flexible wait staff, who allowed a bunch of us to share 2 degustations plus some other mains, without raising a brow. we didn't have to go through too much explanation to get them to understand how we wanted the food served either. by now, i don't remember everything we had. what left an impression was the chewy bread (bad), and the desserts (good). i thought the papaya souffle was special, and the spread that came with the degustation menu was interesting enough.

one huge downside to dining outdoors was the mosquito problem. despite having 2 mosquito coils burning at either ends of the table, and a mosquito patch on EL, we were still not spared. it took me a while to make out the clouds of mosquitoes that were buzzing around, which everyone else was pointing out. we really hope that cassis can address this issue, because it's a shame otherwise if guests can't enjoy the truly alluring ambience that the restaurant has outside.