Chomp!

By Ron Aiken
December 6, 2013

Let’s go to M Grille!!

For a recent special occasion I was graciously given a gift certificate to M Grille in the Vista at 530 Lady St. NOTE: For those of you who have been asleep recently to restaurant comings and goings, M Grille is NOT the same as M Vista, which is about a block away.

In a future column I will discuss the motivations behind opening the new restaurant with owner Michelle Wang (who told me, briefly, last night, the idea is all about clean, fresh food in an open, modern atmosphere). But for now, I just want to talk about the food, which was FANTASTIC.

We started with an appetizer, the Rock Tempura Shrimp, which just sung. I mean, I love tempura, but I’ve shied away from the fried foods of late. I will not be shying away from this anytime soon. The shrimp were perfectly cooked, the batter so light at first glance I wasn’t sure it was battered at all (it was, it was just a little dark in the restaurant, which added to the ambiance – the kitchen was well-lit and is the centerpiece, drawing the eye, of the beautiful space).

So light, so moist, so good. Here’s what it looked like!

And since I just talked about the ambiance, here’s two pics…the first is me looking out toward Lady Street…because Chomp! has an eye for such things, you’ll notice the kitchen and a sushi chef reflected in the glass. Cool, right?

And here’s one interior shot, for good measure, to get a better idea of the space.

OK, back to the food! Well, the drink, at least. Not only do you get water free (natch!), you get your choice of plain water (blah!) or flavored water (strawberry, cucumber, lime and some others). Sweet! We got the cucumber and strawberry, and it was good old-fashioned water steeped in the fruit or vegetable, respectively. Delicious!

We also got some hot tea, of which they have an extensive menu that you can add to with a puree of a fruit (we chose mango) and some interesting honey choices (we got whipped honey with cinnamon). It was terrific. They also have a great beer, wine and sake list, should you be so inclined.

But how about that food?

For our entrees, I went with the Seared Diver Scallops with a fruit salsa, while my lady chose the Honey-Brined Southern Chicken with a red curry sauce. For our side salads, I chose the M Grille (avocado, micro greens, heirloom tomato, yuzu) and Leesa ordered the Arugula and Strawberry salad with toasted almonds and dijon.

The side salads were splendid. My chunks of heirloom tomato were enormous…so much so Leesa thought I had gotten slabs of tuna in my salad. Her salad was equally flavorful, and the toasted almonds, I can safely say, were probably the best I’ve ever had.

My scallops were large, moist, well-seared and exceptional. It was painful sharing them, I have to tell you. I put on a brave face, but Chomp! was crying on the inside about it. They were that good.

Even better, however, was Leesa’s chicken. Like the tempura, the batter on the fried chicken, sliced into thick strips, was sensational. I mean, honestly sensational. I would go to M Grille and, if I could, just order fried chicken on a plate, because the batter they use reminded me unbelievable of a friend’s grandmother’s recipe (Southern to the core) I’d never tasted the equal of until now. Chomp! is dead serious about this – the chicken itself was moist and could not have been cooked better. Tender, juicy and yet crunchy-crispy at the same time with more flavor than your mouth knows what to do with besides roll your eyes into the back of your head.

The red curry sauce was so good I wound up dipping my precious, precious scallops into it. Frankly, the chicken didn’t need the sauce in my opinion, but what the hell.

Behold, the scallops!

Behold, the chicken! (Which comes with bell peppers and onions, by the way.)

You can see more pics, a complete menu and more at gomgrille.com, which Chomp! enoucrages you to visit along with, of course, the restaurant. So get out of here! Go already! Til next week!

 

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