New seasonal menu at Eat Me on Convent
Eat me continues 18-year tradition of outstanding food with new seasonal menu
When I first reviewed Eat Me in 2011, the small eatery behind a stark greyish façade had already been in the business for over a decade. My initial impression then was on the fact that the homely establishment, which doubled as a restaurant and an art gallery, offered some of the city’s tastiest dining experiences.
Six years have since past. Now Eat Me is a thriving 18-year-old and has nothing to prove. At least to me.
Under the same hands-on culinary direction of highly-celebrated head chef Tim Butler, the restaurant now enjoys international accolades, with regular clientele a mix of keen local epicures and highbrow expats.
My visit to Eat Me a few weeks ago came at the time Butler launched a new seasonal menu.
The 50-item repertoire offers a cleverly updated selection of dishes, yet continues to very well reflect the same style of cuisine — a modern and indefinite blend of international fares.
The menu lists, for example, the likes of tamarind-glazed quail with foie gras and peanut butter pâte; grilled Dutch Harbor king crab with miso and sea urchin; spicy rabbit ragu with pappardelle and nduja sausage; and a salad of pan-seared blue-foot mushroom with roasted sunchoke and chèvre.
My dinner started off with shima aji tartare (575 baht). It’s a humble combination of chilled, pinkish-white raw slices of the Japanese striped horse mackerel and sesame seed oil and ginger marinade. A garnish of pickled seaweed and fresh chilli lent to the mild-tasting fish a pungent kick.
Tom yum Maine lobster (750 baht), which followed, recalled a thrilling sensation I had years ago when I first tasted Butler’s famous grilled tiger prawn in tom yum- spiced olive oil.
This time the chef has opted for the imported crustacean’s supple meat and claws, butter-poached and seasoned with roasted chilli oil and fresh cucumber to result in an intense Thai-meets- farang flavour profile.
A sizeable Hokkaido scallop pan-seared and served in a pool of winter truffle-seethed lobster bisque (720 baht) proved a scrumptious option should you look for a soothingly creamy affair.
My most favourite dish of the seafood section was grilled abalone with plankton rice (900 baht). Actually it’s a brilliant plate of green-hued risotto rice with a sumptuous topping of flame-charred Japanese abalone.
It’s the first time I had the abalone in a grilled version. The texture was springy and supple enhanced by a smoky flame touch. Excellently complementing the shellfish was the creamy yet al dente risotto that’s been flavoured with caper, butter and lemon zest.
The bad news is you will likely find an individual portion of the dish as never enough.
Butler was even more dexterous when it came to a red meat matter.
An order of grilled veal tongue (500 baht) may not win in a photogenic food contest but it would sure be a chart-topper taste wise.
Glazed in black garlic aioli were hefty slices of beef tongue double-cooked to yield a crusty surface encasing an interior that’s so extraordinarily tender it almost melts on your tongue.
The salty sweet aioli gave the meaty centrepiece a creamy, ambrosial complement, while a topping of spicy kimchi vegetables and fresh green apple strips offered a refreshing contrast.
Beef extremists can’t afford to miss having Japanese omi wagyu A5 tataki (750 baht). Thick rectangular, bite-sized slices of the champion-grade wagyu beef with top marbling score, wowed us with a dense proportion of interlacing fat lines. Grilled Japanese abalone with plankton rice.
At first t aste, t he semi-cooked delicacy, browned on the outside and pinkish-red on the inside, released its sweet fatty juice in a burst of tastes a beef connoisseur would die for. To top off the indulgence were creamy scoops of top-graded sea urchin roe and bonito (Japanese dried fish) flakes.
Duck confit with shallot-bacon jam (690 baht), the only poultry dish we had that evening, was truly enjoyable yet undistinguished. The duck leg, deepfried in its fat until the skin was left crispy and golden brown, came accompanied by a crispy, soft-boiled duck egg that bore a lava-like yolk.
For a sweet wrap up, I’ve been so upset with myself until now that we overlooked a selection of home-made ice cream. How could I miss sampling flavours like chamomile-baked apple, chestnut rosemary, blueberry mangosteen and spicy chilli dark chocolate?
Anyway, sticky date pudding with hot butterscotch sauce and vanilla ice cream (320 baht) and pavlova with passion fruit, banana and whipped cream (290 baht) proved to satisfyingly compensate.
Service quality was brisk and amiable — almost flawless.