We also went to Mother, sitting on their street patio. The cocktails are some of the better ones we’ve tried in the city and the food is very good.
First up was the Toasted Chai Piña Colada [below right] - lemongrass rum, toasted chai cream, caramelized yogurt, piña juice, coconut sorbet, lacto-fermented pineapple and ginger - like a slushy dessert, with lots of cardamom.
Caprese Fizz [below left] - gin, tomatoes, balsamic, clarified yogurt and basil - savoury, a little sweet balanced with the tanginess of the yogurt.
Porcelain [below right] - dry sake, violet liqueur, toasted wild rice, lacto-fermented pear, jasmine baijiu, spiced coconut, and clarified lime juice - super floral and beautiful.
For Symbiosis, you pick the spirit, you pick one of three fancy ingredients they made, and tell the server your flavour preferences. We picked rhubarb and Pedro Ximinez confiture and asked for something fruity yet bitter and sour. So we got blood orange amaro, salted lavender honey, lemon and lime, with the confiture [below left] - amazing, lots of bitter and well balanced overall.
For food, we started with the koji aged beef tartare, featuring short rib, sous vide egg yolk, sauerkraut, capers, Dijon mustard, rice cracker - really great blend of flavours, with the richness balanced by the sours.
Beetroot and pistachio salad - mainly greens with roasted pistachios, beetroot air, avocado crème, and a lovely dressing.
Mother udon noodles - the noodles were overcooked, but the sauce was a fun riff on carbonara with miso egg yolk, unnamed cheese, pickled shiitake mushrooms, ginger, garlic, and furikake.
Jerk chicken karaage with togarashi, roasted black sesame, fermented pineapple-habanero aioli, and scallions - not reminiscent of jerk and little heat, but the pineapple flavour was great.
We tried two of their tacos:
- Cochinita pibil - braised pork shoulder, pickled red onion, cilantro, pineapple sauce - moist pork with lots of pineapple flavour.
- Picanha steak - shio-aged top rump steak, chimichurri, avocado cream, onion, cilantro, and salsa verde - tender, well-flavoured meat.
For dessert, we had the tres leches cake with strawberry crème, dulce de leche, and fresh mint - lovely, very milky/creamy, gently strawberry.
