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| - Overhyped! How does this place have 4 stars?
I had pretty high expectations going in after reading the rave reviews and scrolling through the drool worthy pictures. The entrance door was grande, the sign flashy, the décor I would describe as modern industrial meets cabin the woods. The atmosphere is trendy, cozy with top 40s music playing in the background.
My excitement quickly declined as the tapas started rolling out. The tapas were ALL pretty disappointing.
Tako-wasa ($3.5): Octopus was chewy and stringy. Probably been sitting around for too long. Some bits ended up in that gross can't chew this down anymore state... do I spit it out or swallow it awkward situation. Wasabi flavour was good though. I'm a sucker for wasabi anything.
Corn kaki-age ($5): Uhh this is just deep fried corn covered in some dough dipped in mayonnaise? $5 for 5 bite size pieces is hefty. It was greasy and didn't have that much corn. The idea is pretty creative, I'll give them that but I think it could all make this at home pretty easily.
Beef Tataki ($12): Is it suppose to be brown? I later compared my pictures to previous diners and ours looked a lot darker. Saw from where we sat at the bar that it was just plastic wrapped prepackage beef slices put onto the plate. The jalapeno also overpowered everything else. This one did not taste good.
Pork belly ($11): Prrretty dry and chewy but the dry rub seasoning was great. Would be a solid dish if the pork belly itself was better.
Maybe we went on an off night? None of the tapas were anywhere close to my expectations. I'm usually a can't waste anything, must eat it all kinda person but I honestly didn't even want to finish most of the tapas here.
However, the saving grace of MeNami was the udon noodles! The quality is really good and definitely better than the frozen grocery store variety. It was firm but chewy and the exterior doesn't end up covered in that mushy starchy goop.
Oven baked udon ($14)- VERY heavy. Noodles were drenched in lots of heavy cream, topped with lots of cheese and came with some shrimp, scallops. It was alright. The tapas left a bad taste in my mouth and with that recentcy bias, this dish wasn't able to turn it around.
Seafood Yaki udon ($13)- OH YUM THIS IS ACTUALLY REALLY GOOD! Perfect sauce to udon to seafood ratio and I enjoyed watching the bonito dance. By far the favourite dish of the night and the only thing I would want to try again.
In terms of service, I echo the other yelpers that it's pretty abysmal. The waiters all gave off a "Ughhh I'd rather be anywhere else but here" vibe. Usually when you establish some extended eye contact with servers at restaurants, you have comfort that you're acknowledged and they realize that you need some service BUT nope not at MeNami.
So yes, 3 stars. 1 star for the lovely décor, 2 stars for the seafood udon. Left pretty disappointed BUT I would give it another shot to try a soupy udon if I was particularly craving udon or forced to come back in the future.
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