Having seen the various reviews over the last couple of months on the 2 new contemporary Japanese restaurants in town, we decided to head down to Megu at Elements Mall to complete our Easter eating odyssey.
Needing to use the bathroom, I was amused to find that they needed a dedicated staff to direct customers to the right place. The relief rooms were found at the end of a dark and red corridor which while trendy, made me feel like I was entering the twilight zone. Just when I thought the theme would continue into the bathroom, I was pleasantly surprised to see the dark wood and soft lighting with touches of green in the well-trimmed plants. And of course, the warm seat of the WC reminded me of my visits to Japan where they have gotten the art of relief down to a T.
Needing to use the bathroom, I was amused to find that they needed a dedicated staff to direct customers to the right place. The relief rooms were found at the end of a dark and red corridor which while trendy, made me feel like I was entering the twilight zone. Just when I thought the theme would continue into the bathroom, I was pleasantly surprised to see the dark wood and soft lighting with touches of green in the well-trimmed plants. And of course, the warm seat of the WC reminded me of my visits to Japan where they have gotten the art of relief down to a T.
I got back to my seat at the dining table and was served by an enthusiastic and eager-to-serve waiter but the only thing I could do in response was just concentrate on holding my breath! One of the things that I believe good restaurants fail to introduce as part of their training is personal hygiene, and while some women fancy the manly musk of a post-workout hunk, I find that the “men who serve” category is better off with the latest subtle scents from Boss.
We finally got the pre-dining adventures out of the way, and started dinner. First up, the sushi platter of otoro, hamachi and sake. While we had had better otoro and sake, the hamachi was so good it melted in our mouths. As an acquaintance once said, it can “melt your cares away”. It was so good we decided to go ahead and outdo ourselves by ordering the Hamachi Carpaccio, which was prettily served in a fan, with sweet soya and garnished with tiny rings of green chili. The Caesar salad was refreshingly good with generous bits of Yuzu scattered all over, cutting through the richness of the eggy dressing. The Diamond roll was a winner with the combination of the 3 cuts of tuna – otoro, chutoro and Meguro, in a roll of superior rice.
After the winning appetizers, the warm food did not disappoint either. The foie gras in a beef croquette was as rich as it sounds. I would have preferred the presence of mash in my croquette but the foie gras was probably there to lend the similar texture albeit at the expense of another 5 km on the treadmill. The beef stew with miso was by far my favourite of the night. A hearty stew with all the beefy goodness, I was so glad we ordered the rice set to accompany it even though we needed no excuse to lap out all the gravy. The pearl rice was best in class that I have had in a long time and I savoured every grain. Ohh… I could just roll home now..
But of course no meal would be complete without dessert, and we settled for the most Japanese we could get – Azuki red bean cheesecake with matcha ice cream. The cheesecake was very light and married well with the creamy red bean. The matcha ice cream lent itself well and was not too sweet to take away from the goodness of the cake. An excellent finish to a wonderful meal and a weekend of great food and great company. Made up for the soggy weather all weekend and my inability to play tennis.. the sulk rating went down and I could have sworn I hit the smile scale by the time I left for home.
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