Getting back to our Thursday dining. Had an article from Forbes that popped up in one of my news readers about this place in Bernal where we so rarely eat (Have only eaten at Marlena and Chisai Sushi Club), so we decided to give it a try. We parked on the western end of the Main Street in Bernal and enjoyed our walk too the eastern end since we could see this stretch of Bernal. I reserved the chef’s tasting counter. This meant we were seated at two of the three only seats at a counter and closest to the kitchen, but we weren’t facing the kitchen which was odd.

The menu looked interesting with a fusion of various cuisines and much locally sourced ingredients. We opted for the additional truffle with the assurance that they were fresh and canned in on Tuesday, but we used on the lobster risotto and the Miyazaki A5 wagyu.

There were two wine pairing options – the regular pairing and the YOLO pairing which were special bottles picked by the owner/chef/somm and reserved with Coravins. We opted for one of each tasting so we could share and try the most number of different wines. Wines were served two at a time to cover two courses at a time which is smart to reduce labor just a little bit (although not a bespoke kind of experience).

First three courses came very rapidly (I.e a bit too fast) even with my slow, savor-my-food-and-wine consumption rate. Flavors, presentation, and technique were all decent. The standout for me was the signature dish of the Hokkaido uni brulee topped with kaluga caviar, trout roe, and tobiko. It’s savory, salty, and sweet and I’m a sucker for Hokkaido uni, caviar, and brûlée and to have that altogether was very interesting and unique. The chef served this dish to us himself and I tried to chat things up a bit with him since I had read the origin of the dish in the Forbes article, but his conversation was mostly perfunctory.

Next three courses were salmon, pasta, and lamb and an additional bonus course of asparagus after the salmon. At this point, timing of the courses became very uneven (I.e. long pauses which was presumably due to the restaurant being in full swing with every table drum). Salmon (perfectly cooked and with crisp skin) with the Tom yum dashi was different and interesting. The pasta was served without the truffles at first so the chef rushed over after we had eaten part of the dish ahead and microplaned the truffle and said it worked be comped. I could see the truffle was completely dried out and the chef even said it wasn’t very pungent (yah, no kidding…no aroma or flavor at all…good thing we didn’t have to pay for it). Lamb was very unevenly cooked and mine was definitely overcooked (medium on part and well on part), which was too bad because I really enjoyed the flavors otherwise. I left a piece of mine to show the server, who did mention it to the chef. He did come by and apologized and comped a taste of 1968 Madeira which we didn’t expect, but certainly appreciated.

Desserts were interesting and different from the usual. The chef came by and spent a little extra time to talk to us about the last dessert, the one with strawberries, which I esp enjoyed since I love strawberries and the flavor was very rich with that.

One last quirk occurred with the bill. The server asked me if I wanted to use the card online (I made the reservation on Tock which required prepayment for the meal which is typically the case on Tock) or to have the bill printed separately. I’ve never been previously asked this in all the times we’ve dined out. I didn’t really care which credit card was used so I just told them to use the credit card online out of simplicity. What I didn’t realize until a few moments later was that that meant they would charge it through Tock. I asked them if they received more money if they had done the bill separately instead of online via Tock which they did confirm. I apologized because I would have rather give them more money than fees to Tock. It was too late, but they did appreciate my inquiring (albeit belatedly so) about that.

Overall, it was a somewhat different, very neighborhood experience which we enjoyed for the variety, but definitely found it to be overpriced (Michelin star pricing that didn’t match the flavor, technique, service). The regular wine pairing was a decent value, but the YOLO was very overpriced (that is more than wine pairing at Quince!!!).