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| - We were impressed with all the creation at DaiLo, where each item was a gustatory ode to various Chinese cuisine elements.
It is not fitting to call it a "Chinese" restaurant as indicated on Yelp, rather, it is a general Asian fusion restaurant featuring twists from various other types of Asian ethic cuisine.
We were allured by beautiful food photos and positive reviews on Yelp and decided to try few recommended dishes:
Deep-fried watermelon: how intriguing it is to eat a lightly battered and fried watermelon cube accompanied by beef floss, Thai basil leaves, and bean sprouts. All the elements mixed together to a very pleasant and unique taste, but if you were to eat the cube on its own, it would be quite bland.
Beef carpaccio: I really wished the delicious sauce hadn't overpower the beef. The beef slices were really thin, and the dish was of a dainty proportion but mostly importantly given the delicate, a bit buttery taste of the beef due to its slight marbling, it needed a light and complimentary sauce to lift it up rather than to drown it.
Feature of the day was a baked egg with a thin layer of soup and topped with cooked and shaved mushrooms, de-shelled mussel, deep fried pork. I found the egg custard was a bit too salty and when eaten with all its accompaniment, I didn't feel anything special.
Egg Net Salad is a good take on the Thai papaya salad. Beautiful dressing, ample ingredients that play off of each other's flavour and texture, but I didn't see the utility of having an "egg net", it didn't add to the flavour but did a spectacular visual appearance.
Rib eye was grilled so perfectly: it was juicy, tender, full of flavour we loved it! I think serving it on its own is enough and it certainly didn't need the accompaniment of bok choy, radish, soy pickled mushrooms etc. they are more of a fluff than a flavor-complement. And at $44/dish, it's a bit steep.
Oh well. We shared a bowel of sticky rice which was cooked perfectly and goes well with this type of family dining.
Furthermore, the service is tops! Our glasses were always filled with complementary sparkling water and we were checked upon frequently, and we absolutely adore the decor and the cute bar.
In terms of food though, I felt the alchemist behind all the dishes is like Icarus - the innovations are pushed a bit far that the combinations are not working well.
Cheerio!
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