SET at POMO – An unpolished diamond in the making?
PUBLISHED September 29th, 2014 10:00 pm | UPDATED April 21st, 2016 08:14 am
Comic sans isn’t the best font for a restaurant menu. Neither are 90 degree-banquettes upholstered with dated gold, stained concrete that reads callous more than industrial-chic, or clueless staff that just get by with their earnestness, necessarily the most ideal ways to be greeted as an accidental diner bumming around PoMo.
SET is a humble East-meets-West dining establishment that opened about a month ago, almost a decade late into the fusion game, yet not quite there yet for a retro revival. But its price is an immediate head-turner and a perfectly legitimate excuse to check SET out. You’ll enter bewildered by its set-up and concept, but leave satisfied with its portions and flavourful cooking.
Its $28.80++ lunch is a 5-course affair, which can be allegedly done in as fast as 20 minutes, or for as long as you like between 11am and a somewhat unnecessary 5pm.
The head-scratching begins with a ‘Chef’s Starter’ of Bacon Gratin. It is all cheese and bits of bacon and mushroom that a fondue might be a more apt description. It is a guilty pleasure, a little odd but admittedly delicious with rectangles of thick, charred white toast.
Pumpkin soup fit for Thanksgiving share the same table space as a Crystal Jade-friendly Herbal Chicken soup. Both taste as they should, but ensuing dishes of Huai-shan Carpaccio and Mozarella Salad deviate from the norm. The former consists of finely-sliced Chinese yam that’s matched with peach and drizzled with orange peel sauce – the refreshing dressing and sweet peach shine against the clean taste of the yam, which benefits from a carpaccio treatment that reduces its characteristic sliminess. The latter swaps mozzarella balls with mozzarella espuma, a totally dubious, unnecessary substitution, mangled further by off-season tomatoes. The fancy-pants foam-making experiment also takes a bizarre turn, this time with truffle flavour, as a condiment beside Grilled King mushrooms that are well-seasoned and lovingly umami on their own.
The mains at SET, however, are enough reasons to return, worth the $28.80++ price tag alone. Take for instance the generous Baby Back Ribs, braised, baked then glazed with Chinese barbecue sauce. It isn’t sticky-sweet like how many chefs might have damned the pig, but its tender, lean flesh is redolent of five spice, Chinese herbs and fragrant peppers. Awesome revelation. Similarly, Beef Tenderloin is grilled just so that the exterior forms a light and tight crust, leaving the meat within soft and moist. It is a competent take on the cut, with fuss-free pepper sauce drizzled judiciously over it.
Amid bites of house-made chocolate gateau and cheng tng jello, coming up with a verdict for SET is indeed a tall order. Like how a first rehearsal is hardly indicative of the quality of one’s final act, SET feels an unpolished diamond in the making. There’s clearly latent talent and immense promise in this restaurant. Take away the modernist bells and whistles, and you could be looking at a really honest, affordable place – not just to bump into when hanging out with the bros at PoMo, but a destination worth its salt.
Written by Brandon Ho
