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2009-11-09
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So I came here last night with a group of 7 friends based on a friend's recommendation. Overall I thought the food was tasty (albeit a few misses) and a fun experience. Environment: 南麓俱樂部 is a 'true' private kitchen. You're basically sitting in the owners living room on the floor around a low lying table. The table 'comfortably' fits about 7-8 people. I use the term loosely since I wasn't really used to sitting on the ground with my legs crossed for long periods of time. Place felt a tad cramped
Environment: 南麓俱樂部 is a 'true' private kitchen. You're basically sitting in the owners living room on the floor around a low lying table. The table 'comfortably' fits about 7-8 people. I use the term loosely since I wasn't really used to sitting on the ground with my legs crossed for long periods of time. Place felt a tad cramped but not necessarily uncomfortable.
Service: I think this will be a love or hate decision for a lot of people. Allen (the cuisine director) is very passionate about the food his wife puts out. He spends about 2-5 minutes describing each and minute detail of every dish. Some people will love the extra attention while others may find his approach a little overboard. Service is slow by most standards since our meal took almost 4 hours (14 courses). Initially when we sat down it took about 30 minutes for the first dish to come out and there were periods of longer than usual waits in between dishes (about 10-15 minutes). Personally if they could somehow speed things up a little it really would improve the overall experience.
Food: I am a big fan of seasonal cooking and I definitely liked 南麓俱樂部's seasonal (autumn/winter) approach. Here's what we had (14 courses in total and sake):
Mackerel (秋刀魚) Sushi: Mackerel was freshly grilled and the smell filled the room when we first got there. Sushi rice was apparently some regional rice from Japan. Mackerel was very tasty but I thought the sushi rice was a little on the wet side since it didn't hold that well together (when compared to sushi created by top-notch sushi chefs) when you picked it up.
Tomato In Sake: This I thought was the best dish of the night. They cooked the tomatoes with different PH levels so they all tasted like different fruits. Mine tasted like peaches and lychees and the sake was really good with the fruit flavor infused. Never tried anything like this before. Honestly I could eat a basket of these...haha.
Grilled Japanese Turnips: The flavor reminded me of eating roasted chestnuts when I was young. Yum.
Daikon With Miso Paste In Miso Broth: Flavor of the paste was very intense and tasty. When you eat that with the daikon it was really good. Broth was also good.
Oysters In Sake: Allen explained these oysters were from Kyushu. Oysters were very fresh and tasted very much like the ocean. Personally I would prefer it without the sake but I guess that's personal taste.
Japanese Veggies With Duck Liver Sauce: Refreshing dish but rather simple. Honestly I couldn't taste the duck liver all that much. The veggies were similar to Chinese water spinach (通菜). One of my friend's joked this dish reminded him of fermented tofu with spinach (腐乳通菜) but honestly I thought the dish was still pretty decent.
Chilled Pumpkin Soup: Pretty intense flavors and reminded me of the turnip dish earlier with the chestnut flavor. Decent soup.
Shrimp Sashimi & Seaweed Maki Roll: This dish was a bit of a miss for me. The shrimp sashimi was definitely fresh but flavors was a little too light for me. The seaweed maki roll must have been hard to prepare since they had to wrap the fish in seaweed (real seaweed not nori) almost like a roullard. Personally I thought this tasted a little bland. There was also a lemon dressing salad on the bottom. Dressing was tasty.
Crab Chawanmooshi. Lots of crab meat with steamed egg custard at the bottom topped with uni (sea urchin) and fish roe. Custard was delicate and crab tasty but there was still soft crab bones which I didn't particularly like (ideally there should be no bones). Decent dish.
Mushroom Okonomiyaki. Mushroom tasted very meaty and the sauce I thought was creamy and yummy. Although a simple dish I really liked this.
Duck Cooked In Raspberry Sauce: The raspberry was really sweet and complimented the duck really well. Flavor of the sauce was thick and intense. Duck meat had good texture and good amount of fat. I really liked just eating the raspberries which was super sweet and tasty. We liked the sauce so much we even doggy bagged the leftover sauce...haha.
Fried Bean Curd 'Ravioli' With Green Bean Filling: The raviolli was made with fried tofu (豆泡) which I thought was different. Inside it had some green beans similar to edamame beans. Since the dish was intentionally light in flavor we were asked rubbed it in Japanese sea salt. The salt was really good but the overall dish I thought was decent.
Fried Udon With Mushrooms. Decent but a little plain. Was a little surprised they put out such a simple dish.
Honeydew Melon Pudding. I liked this and was very refreshing. Really cleansed the palette and the honeydew melon was very sweet. Nice way to finish the meal.
So the whole meal took close to 4 hours and Allen served us 14 dishes during that time. There were definitely some hits and misses plus the wait time was quite long but I think my overall expression of 南麓俱樂部 was still a positive one. You can really tell they put love into their food. Price (for the amount of food) I thought was reasonable. I think as private kitchens go this was a fun experience.
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