To celebrate my boyfriend's birthday I decided to surprise and take him to a restaurant called 'MBER' just by Monument, a Pan-Asian Tapas which serves East Asian dishes. As you come to the entrance of the restaurant you're greeted with a small door, but as you walk downstairs you immediately enter a warm atmosphere within the restaurant and bar alongside their private rooms that are available upon request. I'd definitely say it is one to add to your list of hidden gems in London.
As our reservation was for an evening meal the lighting was dimmed and candles were lit on our table, the perfect atmosphere for our date night. These small details always make a difference!. When we were seated we were taken care of straight away by a great waiter named Stefan. He informed us both a little bit about the restaurant, the different dishes on the menu and even recommended us his favourites.
We started off with drinks and of course I was not disappointed, they were both sweet and super refreshing.
Our waiter offered a watermelon cocktail not currently on the menu which had watermelon in as they were trialing different cocktails for their summer menu.
The first dish my boyfriend ordered was the Wagyu beef & foie gras burger. What is so different about this burger is that it is an actual avocado bun which I've never seen before. Packed with different flavours, you have the
sugar cured streaky bacon, smoked chilli - miso relish, siratcha mayonnaise, Gruyère cheese and not to forget the perfectly cooked wagyu beef. My boyfriend enjoyed it and said it was probably one of the best burgers he's had. I tried it and can say it tasted very flavoursome. This dish cost £15.
The second dish that he ordered was the ‘Weeping tiger’ fillet steak salad including 'Bird’s eye chilli, lime, galangal, lemongrass, coriander, palm sugar, papaya, coconut, chard mint pineapple. Yuzu Kosho dressing and Rice popcorn'. The presentation of this dish is beautiful with bursts of colour. Yet again he enjoyed this dish and said it was extremely delicious. For me as I am not a coconut lover I wasn't too keen on this dish as I could really taste the coconut, however the wagyu beef etc. was super yummy. This is one of the dishes our waiter recommended. This dish cost £15.
Due to my boyfriend having a seafood allergy, he couldn't try any of the seafood dishes. The menu offers a range of seafood, which I could not ignore. I am a squid lover, so I decided to try the crispy sesame squid which came with a pot of homemade sweet chili sauce and a slice of chard lime. Although crispy fried squid is a simple dish, the flavours that this dish had to offer were so satisfying! Squeezed some of the lime juice all over and dipped it into the sauce and all the flavours came together perfectly. The outside of the squid was super crisp and not drenched in oil, and the home made sweet chili sauce was delish. Alongside this I had a portion of sweet potato fries served with wasabi mayonnaise. Together both portions were more than enough for me. The squid cost £8.90 and the Sweet Potato Fries cost £4.50.
Finally for dessert, I ordered the 'Ecuadorian dark chocolate mousse' with rum cherries and cherry ice cream. Dark chocolate is my favourite so I knew I was going to enjoy this dessert! The cherry ice cream with the chocolate mousse was heavenly and compliment each other so well! The presentation of this dish was 10/10.
I would definitely eat this again.
This dish cost £8
The birthday boy decided to order the 'Ginger pannacotta with sake poached Nashi pear' which is served with Yuzu liqueur and Japanese sweet plumb liqueur. Our waiter explained how this dish works, you take a sip of the Yuzu Liqueur to cleanse your palette, then a spoon of the ginger pannacotta, then lastly a sip of the sweet plumb liqueur. This was a very pleasant dessert and the flavours in the ginger pannacotta were strong. This dessert is different to anything I've tried before so I'm glad i got to experience it, my boyfriend would agree. This cost £8.
Overall, we were both very impressed with the food, the presentation was lovely and the portion sizes were just right. I would love to come back and try some of their other dishes.
The service at this place was brilliant and staff were very helpful. Our waiter, Stefan, made us feel so welcome and comfortable in terms of being in the restaurant and about the food that they offer. As well as this he made sure we were enjoying our food throughout the whole night and held great conversations with us both, which we loved. As well as Stefan, the barman was super friendly and very kind enough to make my boyfriend a birthday cocktail which if i recall included lychee, cucumber and vodka which tasted so refreshing!
Great food, great atmosphere and extremely kind staff and I would recommend visiting MBER!
Location: 1A Pudding Ln, London EC3R 8AB
Comments