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| - Am I the only one without a blown mind while eating at Other Mama? I suppose so. Perhaps I was expecting a lot from Other Mama due to the wonderful reviews, the high star ratings, and a head chef that trained under Morimoto. So yeah, I was expecting some out of this world, mind blowing, and unforgettable dishes ... but truth be told, I was quite disappointed.
My friend and I went in one night for dinner and sat at the bar. We chatted with David English a little about the restaurant and the menu. I started with the Mildred, which composed of bicardi, lime, and a strawberry-mint soda while my friend went with the Beryl, which was a mix of apricot buffalo trace, blood orange bitters, and yuzu tincture. Both drinks were priced at $9. Both were pretty good aside from the Beryl being a little bit too strong due to the whiskey but no problem! English has got it! He added more sugar to it to help dilute it and it helped!
We started off with half a dozen of oysters. They had three types of oysters on special that night: Fanny Bay, Bluepoint, and one other one that I can't seem to remember the name of. We chose to have two of each. And I LOVED them. I simply LOVE oysters and they were indeed VERY FRESH. On top of the freshness, the price point was to die for! Fanny Bays were $1.50 each. Bluepoints were $1.00 each. And the third one, the one with the most brine was $2.00 each. Where else can you get amazingly fresh oysters for this price in Las Vegas? Uh, no where. The taste of the Bluepoints were so fresh and crisp. The Fanny Bays were also a favorite with their slightly stronger flavor. They pretty much have every type of condiment you would want with oysters ranging from their special house sauces to your traditional Tabasco bottle.
As for some main entrees, we ordered chirashi, spicy yuzu chicken wings, and pork belly kim chi fried rice.
Chirashi: I love sushi. And I love sushi rice. Our chirashi bowl came with bigeye ahi tuna, salmon, octopus, amberjack, shrimp ceviche, ikura, a type of white fish that I forgot the name to, and avocado. This dish made me realize that I really don't like amberjack. It turns chalky in your mouth as you chew on it and ... I kind of don't like that. The tuna had a strange texture, bouncy almost. The salmon, shrimp ceviche, white fish, and octopus were all really good. The ikura, however, was a bit disappointing. Half of the ikura looked popped to me.
Now, as for the sushi rice...it tasted like regular rice. Though, my personal preference, I like my sushi rice to have hints of vinegar because it helps balance flavors of raw fish. It was actually difficult for us to finish this. In the end of it all, the chirashi bowl was possibly the most disappointing dish we've had that night. We did talk to the chef about it and he stated that he liked his sushi rice to be on the more mild side. Therefore, he puts in less vinegar than the traditional recipe, which we understand. However, it is just not our cup of tea.
Spicy Yuzu Chicken Wings: The wings are done really well. The crispness of the wings were really light, which is a plus. However, the dish itself didn't really do much for me. Nothing really jumped out at me. The sauce that they used on top of it ... just seemed like a regular gochujang recipe.
Pork Belly Kimchi Fried Rice: It's comforting to know that the kimchi is made in house. I like how it was served in a hot/clay pot, which keeps the dish warm. It had huge chunks of pork belly with a nice sunny side egg right on top of the rice. The pork belly chunks were HUGE and you get a lot of it. However, I do believe if they cooked the pork belly along with the fried rice as a whole, the flavor would be remarkable. The kimchi tasted like Chinese preserved vegetables and the rest were quite mild in flavor. Once again, I can't say I enjoyed the dish due to how mild the flavors were. It just doesn't hit home.
We ended the night with the Japanese style cheesecake. Japanese cheesecake is airy, fluffy and light in flavor. It's typically very soft in texture. Other Mama's version threw us for a loop. The texture, the look, and the feel of my fork getting a piece of cheesecake all screamed NY style cheesecake. It was dense. However, it was LIGHT in flavor, but quite far from the airy and fluffiness that I desire.
Overall, Other Mama is fantastic for their oysters. Great price for great quality. But a lot of the other dishes were a miss for my taste buds. I'm sure the quality and the dishes are great .. just not for me. When I think Asian Fusion, I think traditional flavors with a twist. From the dishes that we have tried that night, the traditional tastes were absent, and therefore, the twists did not do much for us. But hey, it could be because my taste buds are weird. Who am I to say?
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