My partner J and I had dinner close to home at Me and Mrs Jones in Kingston when we both didn’t feel like cooking that night. I hadn’t dined there in a long time (I’ve previously found it to be very hit and miss) so it was interesting to see the updated menu. There were so many choices on the menu including the specials of the night. I found it difficult to choose what to order. We decided to get one entree to share, our mains and one dessert to share.
The soft shell crab sliders ($16) came in a serve of three with Spanish onion, watercress, pickles and tartare. The soft shell crab had been cooked perfectly – great crunchy batter and a decent serve of crab meat (though it did include a lot of legs). I usually pick pickles out but they helped cut through the savoury richness of the sliders. The buns were a little dry but I found the tartare helped combat the dryness. Overall, both J and I were happy with our entree.
For my main, I ordered the confit duck ($35) with five-spice salted duck legs, ginger and shallot relish, soy caramel, nori coated rice cakes, roast baby corn and black sesame bok choy. I was impressed with the duck legs which were crispy on the outside but tender on the inside. There was quite a lot of duck meat too and J was happy to eat what I couldn’t finish off. The nori coated rice cakes are also super crispy on the outside with the nori coating ground into small flakes adding a bit of saltiness to the rice cake. The rice itself, although crispy on the outside, was too soft and mushy inside. Too much water when cooking. Apart from that, I like the crispy rice cakes which gives another crunchy texture to the dish (it’s also reminiscent of Mork’s duck curry with crispy rice cake). I found the ginger and shallot relish was simply too overpowering. The ginger was STRONG and spicy. There was too much of it on the plate and and it just overwhelmed my palate. Great if you have a cold though. I made sure most of my duck didn’t touch the relish and ate around it.
J ordered one of the specials of the night – the sous vide sirloin on a potato and bacon stack with pesto and garlic mayonnaise (approximately $29). He had asked for a rare steak and was disappointed when it came out well done. We were expecting a tender melt-in-your-mouth piece of steak after being placed in a sous vide bath, but sadly this was not the case. It was not the best cut of steak he’s had either so he wasn’t impressed with the dish. The potato stack was large but a little dry and tasted like your average make-at-home potato stack. Nothing special there.
For dessert, the berry basket ($15) sounded refreshing and unique. It was served in a crispy isomalt basket (I had to google this one, it’s a sugar substitute), carrying raspberry and creme fraiche panna cotta, sour blueberry sorbet, strawberry and redcurrant salad and blackberry dust. I liked the presentation and it looked very pretty with some edible flowers on top. The isomalt basket were just shards of sugar. Since the dessert was sweet enough, I left the isomalt alone. I thought this was a good balance of different fruit flavours and sweet and sour. The small panna cotta was hidden underneath the ice cream – slightly sour from the raspberries and creme fraiche but since it was a small serving, it was just the right portion to match the sweet ice cream. In fact, I could’ve had a bit more panna cotta. It was a pleasant end to dinner (you can’t go wrong with ice cream) but it didn’t wow me overall and I’ve had better desserts for the $15 price tag.
I found that Me and Mrs Jones has a casual pub-like feel during the evenings in the darkened urban restaurant with everyone from couples, friends and business partners enjoying a drink and some food. The combination of music, noise from the kitchen and the echo of chatter makes it quite loud inside, even though the place wasn’t packed. Service was attentive that weeknight and only took about 15 minutes for our entree to arrive. The rest of the food didn’t take long either. Although presentation was good on the night, the food itself is still hit and miss for me. Breakfast might be a better option.
Foodgasm 6/10
Value for money 5/10
Service 7/10
FPJ score 18/30
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