While highly-touted, we found Tokyo’s Tapas Molecular Bar more Vegas entertainment than Michelin Star-worthy. Usually we would not review a restaurant that does not excite us, but here we do as it is so heavily marketed.
Chef Ngan Ping Chow, originally from Hong Kong, is rather entertaining, a very good performer with knowledge of different languages and the main attraction. He creates decent examples of current modernist techniques. This is a good introduction for people not immersed in modernist cuisine, a.k.a. tourists. Tapas Molecular bar is definitely not for gourmets, as the food is not breathtaking in flavor at all.
Tapas Molecular Bar 100
Tapas Molecular Bar 101
Tapas Molecular Bar 102
Tapas Molecular Bar 022 Cigar Leaf Smoked cherry root and crispy potato crust; lined with an green apple gel sheet and filled with cucumber black sesame ash
Chutney Tobacco Sauté persimmon with onion purée, mustard seeds, and micro cilantro mushrooms sautéed in Curry spices on top mini naan bread
Cappuccino Cream and butter in the jigger, foam in the cup, lobster bisque in the shaker, and lobster on the strainer; all to be mixed, shacked and consumed.
Benedict Poached fig + raisin brioche covered with egg-less foam hollandaise (made out of potato starch, chive and wine reduction)
Forest Crudités and dip
Penne - Poatoe foam and three different bonito dashi (cooking stock) gel cylinders filled with Ikura (salmon roe), umibudo (sea grape from Okinawa), and sturgeon caviar.
Penne - Poatoe foam and three different bonito dashi (cooking stock) gel cylinders filled with Ikura (salmon roe), umibudo (sea grape from Okinawa), and sturgeon caviar.
On top of the food quality, the service not to the Japanese high standards. When you are paying $100’s for a meal, small gaff’s become more noticeable; like most high end restaurants with multiple course menus, TMB hands you a menu at the end of your meal, the beauty and form in-line with the artistic expression of the restaurant. Here, we received a simple printout that did not even reflect the meal we had.
Ok – enough of that – now onto the meal (which admittedly photographs beautifully!)
Dinner commences with a small toolbox containing a small hammer, mini shovel, tweezers, saw and a tape measure with the menu printed on it (which was pretty slick). This is followed with a series of dishes.
Grouper Steamed grouper brushed with shoyu (soy sauce) served with with pickled seaweed on top of a sharkskin paddle for wasabi and ginger grading
Prawn Cocktail Prawns and avocado in brandy, with deep-fried seaweed and buried in breadcrumbs, Thousand Island dressing and topped with an Iceplant leaf
Tapas Molecular Bar 046 Walnut candy shell, field with chocolate mouse, cheesecake with elder flower syrup.
Onsen Tamago Maitake mushroom with truffles and a poached egg made as reverse spherification. The yolk (made of pumpkin) and the albumin (made of tofu) are double spherified in a mold
Scallops from Hokaido on corn paper truffle dots and a fried egg made out of bechamel sauce for the white and bell pepper puré for the yolk.
(81) 33.270.8188 Mandarin Orintal Hotel 2-1-1 Nihonbashi-Muromachi Tokyo 102-8328, Japan
