I knew Meta in its previous incarnations at Keong Saik Road, but I hadn't visited its Mhd Sultan road locale till tonight. The decor is loads brighter. The five-year-old restaurant has shifted its focus in the menu offerings and refreshed the items.
As far as fine-dining goes, while Meta's wine list is wide and excellent, I still can't stomach its pricing of wines at $60-$120 per glass. EACH GLASS. The bottles come from good vintages and are better-priced on the average, but you're still looking at S$350 per bottle. Corkage is waived when you get a $200 bottle of wine from the wine list. Beer is $120 horrr — only available as a 750ml portion, nothing less. When I know that 750-ml bottle of stout retails at $46, it's a tad incoherent with the $120 pricing here. Even its soju is overpriced too, from S$38 retail to S$180 here. COME ON. My dining companion doesn't drink, so I needn't consider a bottle. I just stuck to an easy glass of Barolo at $60 a glass.
Our eight-course dinner began with three types of snacks. The snacks were tasty, but kinda boring, and almost expected. It seemed to cater to what Singapore diners prefer. I needn't even mention them and you'd instantly guess that, crab, prawn, negitoro, uni and caviar are involved with some sort of crisps and toasts.
Of course I like the Jeju abalone. I love abalone! LOL Okay, bias aside, the kitchen did this beautifully. The cute-sized abalone was tender, and it came with kamtae (seaweed), lily bulb and a dollop of juk. The most surprising part, which was a pleasant surprise for me, was the inclusion of grilled chicken hearts! That was a brave inclusion. Not many kitchens would add that into a predominantly seafood or abalone dish. Not many diners would appreciate it either.
The milmyeon with mandu and baek kimchi was decent! Now, the mandu with filling of japchae, and the noodles were delicious. I liked them. The baek kimchi however, needed a lot more work in its length of marination, fermentation and ratios.
I didn't feel like having wagyu beef for my main course. Swopped it out for pork. However, what they serve is Hokkaido snow pork belly, which is fatty. AIYAHHHH. Why couldn't the kitchen just do a boring pork loin or pork chop. Is that too cheap? Why do humans enjoy fatty cuts of meat so much. Grrrr. The greens were too weird for me. The burdock root rice was tasty. I'd have asked for a second helping but I was too full.
Ended with a palate cleanser of a melon sorbet with makgeolli, coconut and yoghurt granita, and an absolutely corny ice-cream. LOL It was completely corn — sweet corn ice-cream, grilled sweetcorn and caramel popcorn. I do like sweetcorn, and this was an excellent savory dessert of which I thoroughly enjoyed. Then came three types of petit four of seaweed madeleine, juak and banana cream puff.
Whether you like Meta depends on what you expect of it. If you expect mod-European with Korean influences, then yes, it's pretty good. If you expect mod-Korean, then you might be a tad disappointed. It's' somehow oddly, lacking. I'm not hot about its current menu or flavors. I miss its original innovativeness. Right now, I don't see anything impressive going on. I'm not wowed.
No comments:
Post a Comment