SerJOYa /Seroja

T (May '23)

SCORE: Tell yo' friends

ORDER: a table if you like your companions, - counter acoustics better than most places, but still suboptimal. Wine - the list is interesting

VALUE: $440/head. We brought one, bought one between 4. Be hungry, we left stuffed

S mentioned /Seroja to our dinner group back in 2022 but my diary is notoriously bad and it took me a full half year to actually get there. Man, do I regret it. Last night's dinner takes me back to our first time at /RestaurantBorn, which was my favourite open in 2022. The team (lots of ex-Meta) were enthusiastic, knowledgeable, attentive but unobtrusive. The food was notably better than /Dewakan, though I suspect this is an unwelcome comparison. All four of us who went had been to Dewakan in the last year, and felt the style was very similar, but the food much better at Seroja. It was also obvious that the investors are all in. There was attention to experiential detail in a way ordinarily saved for 2 star places. Some examples here...

Crockery was well chosen and there was a surprisingly good water glass when it came to mouth feel. It had an inward hug that added a sort of intimacy to drinking. Or maybe that was the mood it left me in ;). The steak knives were bespoke, with teak sourced from Malaysia - a clever choice for water wear. The chocolate gift was single origin and wrapped in leaf to accent the die cut. There were other details like an artisan kueh bohulu pan and a gold leaf bump on a white unglazed ceramic plate that stood out. Everything came together to discreetly leave an impression of nature that I only later processed.

The undisputed star of the show was the food. I'm out so much there is almost an ennui at restaurants. Michelin has such an obvious award system that it can feel like the industry knocks out experiences to match - table finish, check; obligatory high end beef option, check. The actual food sometimes lacks distinctiveness. This was absolutely not the case here. Things that sounded dull transpired to be really unusual. First up, then... the actual menu.

They opened up with a toddy (that is a toh-di toddy, not a "hot toddy" toddy) that was sweet and slightly effervescent. I liked it a lot and could have had a pint or three. In retrospect the jasmine tea duck broth (super interesting, with the scent of jasmine tea but a really savoury flavour and collagen finish) would have been a more traditional open in the North Asian style - this might have been deliberate though, and set the scene for a clearly Malaysian experience. The amuses were actually amusing, the beef tartare very oyster like in profile, the prawn tasting very haebee, and the conch being initially confused for the oyster.

The appetisers were appetising too, everything living up to their promise. The wild buri came with a meh sounding daikon sauce that turned out to be delicately flavored and a lovely complement to the fish. The scallop, perfectly cooked to have that sort of aburi smoothness, was served with an interesting sauce that went really well with the roti paung. I didn't think I had ever tried roti pau-ng (as I think of it), which was described as bread steamed (yay) then deep fried (oops), which made me think of mantou, something that did not land well with chef. In reality, it wasn't far off. Much more bread to crust and even better for dipping with. Chef recommended it as a companion to the sauce with the scallop and that did go really well. It also paved the way for the special, which was a stuffed chicken wing...

I rarely say no to a stuffed chicken wing but this was +$25 and so we got one to share per couple. This was a good shout since we all ended up stuffed. The chicken wing was served with a raisin sauce, interesting, and a decent chilli. I'm not sure it was worth the single serve price, but it felt alright as sharing.

Slightly unexpectedly, the chicken was followed by a return to seafood. The Spanish mackerel was so generous, we were most impressed, though more so by the bravery of the petai sambal and absolutely delicious sauce. I LOVED the cold seaweed noodle that came with a crab ulam we had to toss (HUAT AH!). So many excellent flavours and nicely delicate post the confrontation of the petai and collagen rich sauce from the mackerel. It was a fast favourite, as was the palate cleanser...

In retrospect, it was a little weird that the cleanser was before the main course. This was totally overshadowed by the deliciousness of both. The duck broth was what you would have hoped, with a rich savoury flavour that made me almost wish I was ill so I could be so comforted. Most intriguing was the scent of jasmine tea that juxtaposed and yet complemented the flavour of the duck. It made me think of peking duck feasting as a child and the jasmine tea needed to aid digestion (and continuation). The main course was beef, which is frankly hard to be impressed by in the fine dining scene. Often beef is, well, beef. This was beef, perfectly cooked, served with pickled daikon and a spicy yellow (!) jam to cut the fat, a little side wing bean salad, a really special local Malaysian red rice, a delicious katsu curryesque near-foam (oh, how I judge myself. Maybe there is a place for these foams and espumas) and a CRAZY deliscious quasi sambal ijo. I stole some from my cousin, who is a little older than I am and starting to struggle digesting lots of meat (something I'm dreading like peri menopause). His wisdom and experience cost him that sambal and beef combo. I hope it was worth it.

There were three desserts and a petit deux. The desserts were most notable for being really, really interesting. The first was a cempedak shaved ice dessert. Cempedak, being a bit like petai in confrontation levels, was a ballsy choice that they embraced via a cempedak gel that wrapped the milky bingsu like ice in a ball (so ... ballsy!) and a little meringue for crunch. Meringue also featured in the second dessert, in which sat a cured yolk disguised by a mont-blanc like mound of what may have been buckwheat base. The texture of the yolk added so much and was an excellent feature. Finally was another icy dessert, goat milk ice that sat atop a grape vinegar gelee. That was amazing for my Asian palate where fruit vinegars have a weird advantage. The closing dish was a very good kueh bahulu that presented like an exceptionally light and fresh madeleine made with sticky dates. Again, such interesting flavour and texture plays. I've had as much fun thinking about the meal as I did enjoying it. I don't often get to say that.

In conclusion, go. Then think about it. Let me know what you think!

/Seroja