Hi all,
My fiancee and I have been to Four Seasons Hotel recently twice as guests. Once just before Christmas 2005, and another one on 25th Feb 2006 (just last Sat). Here are our comments.
(1) The shark's fin soup is starchy and you can count the number of shark's fin strands in one hand; second dinner was slightly better (more decent amount of shark's fin) but it was still starchy.
(2) Most of the other dishes were ordinary and nothing to shout about. I think it is possible to find better food for that price range. We were not impressed; but maybe it's because we are picky.
(3) Our friend at the second dinner had a bad experience. The price for additional rooms as stated in the contract was $250+++ onwards. When the day drew nearer, the hotel said the charge will be $450+++ because of Asian Aerospace. The matter was only settled when the groom's father contacted the head office in USA and they backed down to the original price of $250+++.
So when looking at the contract, make sure that they do not say $250+++ onwards (I might as well say $1+++ onwards) since it allows them to charge as much as they want. If they still insist on it being there, ask them specifically if there is any special event going on in Singapore during the date of your wedding that will cause them to raise their price.
(4) They do not waive corkage for wines; that will certainly blow your budget. As mentioned in other posts, expect to pay $34 and upwards for each bottle of wine (say $34+++ x 28 bottles = $1109.56, it is not cheap!). We had the Tyrell's House Moore's Creek Shiraz 2004 (they charged $34; it is about $21 at supermarkets) at the first wedding, and it really sucked (tannic, unbalanced, unpleasant). We warned our friend for the second wedding; he upgraded it to the $38 bottle which got him a Kendall-Jackson Cabernet-Sauvignon Merlot 2004 (about $27 at supermarkets), which was slightly better, but still a little sharp and rough. I told my friend; if the hotel does not charge any corkage, for $38, I can get him a superb bottle of wine that all his guests will remember for a long time. I think it is ridiculous for hotels to charge so high for such lousy wines; and to charge ridiculously high corkage fees of $25 per bottle; effectively forcing you to purchase their lousy wines. I know Four Seasons is unlikely to waive wine corkage; but some other good hotels do.
(5) The waitress serving us did not know how to pour wine. She basically filled the glass till about half-full. Anyone who knows something about wine understands that you should only fill the glass till at most one-third full. Reasons: (a) you can't possibly drink all that wine quickly; it warms up in the glass and once at 24 degrees, is NOT the optimum temperature to drink wine. Red wine should be consumed at most at 18 degrees. (b) you cannot swirl the wine without it spilling. Swirling the wine is to allow the aromas of the wine to come out. (c) the couple will faint when they see the bill for the number of wine bottles consumed and large amount of wine unconsumed in glasses and wasted. It is important to get the banquet manager to educate his/her waiters/waitresses on how to serve wine properly by not pouring too much. It is not Coke that they are serving! Also, the wines were not sufficiently chilled; all wines will taste terrible at Singapore's room temperature (21 - 25 degrees) and it is unfair to the wine as it does not bring out the best in the wine (red wine 16 - 18 degrees; whites 10 - 12 degrees; both should be served a little colder as it warms up quickly in the glass).
I think when it's my turn i'm gonna b a nervous wreck...hee.. Can I ask how's the gold setting is like? I didn't know FS has gold color table cloth and chair covers. hee.. How much is it to upgrade the flowers? must be pretty expensive ya.. 