The Masons Table — Attraction in Singapore

Good food and ambience, but would not recommend for weddings. There is a severe lack of professionalism/ethics from the restaurant manager & poor coordination/communication within the team as a whole.

During the 1st meet (before deposit), none of the agreements were put down in black and white, which was a huge mistake on our part.

We were told that free-flow non-alcoholic drinks would be included in the wedding package. When we emailed to confirm, she said “We can do free flow no alcoholic drinks for your guests, not a problem, at $17++ per guest”. We asked if we could get at least 1 free drink per pax, given that she initially claimed it was free-flow for all pax. She said " We can do free flow non alcoholic drinks, not a problem, it will be $20++ per guest". 1. She is not addressing the question at hand, 2. Even if they no longer wanted to include complimentary free-flow drinks, the price she quoted per pax mysteriously changed from $17 to $20? Super dodgy. We did the math, and found that even if all the guests ordered a bunch of drinks, we would still not hit the amount quoted. We decided to go a la carte instead for drinks, and sure enough, saved $365++.

A/V equipment is a flat fee of $250 (we were initially told A/V was “included in the package”) yet they cannot guarantee what items (TV/mic) will be available for you.

She entices you with “no minimum spend” (we had a very small no. of guests) because they’re “not like that” - but then try to get as much money from you as possible, as seen above. Another example is when she told us “no outside food” for our photographers – fair enough. But when we gave the food orders, she tried to guilt us into ordering more food, saying “normally one (12”) pizza for one adult”, even though the order (pizza and fries) was made with the photographers.

We ended up spending ~$1000 more compared to another small venue we were considering (that had a minimum spend for F&B), which was much nicer and provided a lot of things for free (free-flow drinks, A/V, menu printing).

GST for the final bill was charged at 8% even though we locked down the date and deposit way in advance in June 2022. The official “contract” was only sent to us in December 2022, which conveniently had the clauses saying that prices quoted in 2022 are subject to change.

Pre-wedding issues: Did not read food spreadsheet, almost served scallop to guest with shellfish allergy. Dietary restriction is crucial + basic for a restaurant to take note of? They left a charge for $684 for 38 kids meal in the contract/bill even though we had no kids attending the wedding. We had to ask them twice to remove it.

Actual day issues: 2nd march-in music stopped abruptly mid-march Background music stopped from time to time We told them to pack a guest’s meal away for us to collect after the wedding. They did not do this and simply served to an empty setting. Guests commented that the toilets were dirty. In general, the building seems to be poorly maintained, e.g. tape on the ceilings and on the mirrors. This last point is more a problem of the fact that the restaurant is in the Masons building.

We asked early on if we could park just 1 car in the building (for the bride/groom). They told us “it depends” and “no guarantees”, but I think they already knew the answer was “no”.

Given the potential restrictions, we confirmed that we could leave our wedding props at the venue to collect later in the evening. However, they left our items outside the venue while we were out doing our post-wedding outdoor photoshoot. We had to leave mid-shoot to go back to the venue to collect our items.

Since we could not drive into the Mason building's carpark, we parked temporarily at the side of their driveway to load the items into our car, but we were rudely chased off by a member of the Mason’s building.

We ended up parking elsewhere and walking back to the venue in the rain to collect the 1 last bag, as well as...

What a joyful discovery! The Masons Table instantly transported us into a world of timeless, shimmering elegance and indulging in its peaceful ambiance meant that all our cares and stresses had been checked at the entrance. We were warmly and amiably welcomed by Sebastian into a culinary adventure that would not be quickly forgotten.

Both our appetizers hit the right spot. The White Bait on a bed of fresh veggies was fresh and lightly battered yet crispy and flavourful; the burnt lemon was a chic touch which elevated the dish a notch. However, it was the Truffle Fries which was utterly the stuff that dreams are made of. Crispy yet tender to the bite and heartily seasoned with truffle salt, it paired beautifully with the creamy side dip that had generous shavings of black truffle.

We thoroughly enjoyed the Spaghetti Alle Vongole with its abundance of fresh clams served on a hearty bed of spaghetti cooked to al dente perfection. The rich and satisfying olive oil base quickly brought out the marine goodness of the clams and made this entrée an easy winner. Indeed, the only improvement we would have made to this dish was perhaps to serve capelli d’angelo in place of spaghetti and offered a dash of hot pepper flakes.

We had high expectations of the Coq Au Vin but it didn’t quite make the mark. The wine gravy was rich and flavourful but the chicken was a tad dried out and didn’t do justice to the gravy in which it laid.

How better to top off an evening of elegant and romantic indulgence with the Yuzu Mousse Cake which boasted of delightful lemony, tangeriney cream and sponge topped with fresh, colourful berries.

Food wise we would have given the Masons Table an easy 4 stars but the service by Sebastian was so top-notch, dedicated and impeccable that we felt it would be a shame not to pat this hidden gem on its back with a 5th star. Unquestionably a place not to be missed for that special night out with that...

Pros: Our wedding day at Mason's Table was amazing. The service staff was impeccable, the food was delightful, and everything ran smoothly. The restaurant's ambience was perfect for our special day, adding a touch of elegance to the celebration.

Cons: However, our experience had several significant drawbacks. (1) Communication with the owner/manager was frustrating as she often missed one or two items from our requirements, requiring constant reminders due to her carelessness.

(2) Additionally, the guest food choice Excel sheet provided to us to fill up was riddled with mistakes, such as incorrect date and time of event and missing drop down options for kids menu and additional menu items, I had to fine-tune the excel sheet myself.

(3) The proposed invoice before the wedding day was inaccurate, with almost all prices and menu items changed (to be a higher price) despite earlier agreement and confirmation of food items after our food tasting, restaurant manager/owner claimed it was a system error and once we pointed it out, this was reverted.

(4) On the actual day, one table’s seating arrangement for my mother’s friends did not match the floorplan provided to the restaurant. My mother said it was fine, thus did not raise it up to the restaurant for rectification. However this is another sign of carelessness.

(5) Finally, on the wedding day, we were overcharged ~$300 due to another system error, which they had refunded after a few days.

Throughout the planning process, I had to check everything multiple times to ensure accuracy. It was impossible to rely on the restaurant to get details right, which added unnecessary stress to our wedding preparations.

Mason's Table needs to address these organizational issues to provide a seamless experience for future clients. Once these system issues and carelessness are sorted out, this would be an amazing place to...