You can wine and dine when you next catch a movie at the Golden Village Gold Class cinemas in GV Vivocity.

Come June 30, it will introduce a degustation menu at its Gold Class Cinemas in GV Vivocity for the movie screening of Transformers. The menu is created in conjunction with the Singapore Food Festival (June 29 - July 31) and is priced at $100 per person, inclusive of a glass of Cloudy Bay Sauvignon Blanc.

The media was invited for a sampling of the nine-course menu last week.

Besides the quality of food and the company, what matters most to me is the dining experience. And Gold Class at Golden Village scored on that.

We dined at the lounge and bar which, with its red fluorescent bulbs and padded flooring, exuded an exclusive yet casual ambience.

We were served nine small courses from the promotional degustation menu, which consisted of more hits than misses.

We started with two soups - the Mushroom Cappucino and the Chilled Cucumber with Lemon Scented Oil. The chilled cucumber soup was a good way to start the meal; it had fresh bursts of vegetable, goodness mildly scented with lemon - very refreshing and appetising.

The warm Mushroom Cappucino was a delightful follow-up to the previous chilled soup. It was a hearty and warm soup, with a grainy texture of shitakes and white button mushrooms, and a spray of foam milk at the top. It complemented well with the more zesty taste of the cucumber and lemon.

The highlight of the whole meal for me were the appetisers.

Again, one was served hot and the other cold. I tried the chilled 'Tian' of Crabmeat, Cucumber and Mango served with wasabi dressing first and was quite thrilled by the taste of it. The sweetness of the crabmeat was brought out by the taste of the mango; lightly contrasted with a trickling of wasabi dressing (which is not pure wasabi, but quite literally, a dressing - a wasabi sauce of sorts). It added a kick that enveloped the sweetness.

The other appetiser was also a crab dish - Homemade Crab Cakes served with Chili Crab Sauce. A tasting of these two dishes was an experience emphasising two different aspects of the crab's natural taste.The chili crab sauce was a very local taste - if you love chili crab, you would love this. The crust of the crabcake was very thin and crispy, like that of a croquette, so it did not feel like it was over-fried and oily.

When it came to the mains, I felt that the previous dishes had outshone it.

Between the two mains - Seabass with creamy Chardonnay Sauce and Chive Oil, and the Roulade of Black Pepper Chicken with Tropical Salsa, I preferred the former. The seabass was lightly seared at the top which gave it a good texture. It was moist and lovely with the chive oil and Chardonnay sauce. The meat of the black pepper chicken on the other hand, was a bit lacklustre to me. Nonetheless, the sweet mashed potato with oregano compensated for it - the dry sweetness of the sweet potato went very well with the herby flavour of the oregano.

And what is a meal without rounding off with desserts?

Three pretty desserts were served on a plate - Mango Sherbet with Rasberry Coulis, Tutti Fruity Mousse, and Chocolate Ganache. I liked the Mango Sherbet as it had a sheer sour tip but a sweet aftertaste of wholesome fresh mango. The Tutti Fruity Mousse had three layers - Strawberry, Mango and Kiwi. Unlike some other mousse I have tasted, this one was not overly creamy but tasted very light and tangy.

On the whole, I felt that the meal was pleasurable - the dishes flowed well and were not heavy. The combination of dishes in the whole menu made it a light and delightful tasting; with interesting variations in texture, while the fusion of fruits and spices brought out new character to the normally conventional tastes.

Updates of menu and more information can be found on www.gv.com.sg

By popular demand, Golden Village has added on an additional session on the 7th July for the Gold Class Degustation Menu at Golden Village VivoCity.