Despite hearing good reviews from my friends and having a cool concept, I thought Mia was a bit lacking. Overall - cool ideas, questionable execution.
ATMOSPHERE & SERVICE: Looks fantastic, feels great. The service was on point, no complaints.
Let's talk about food...
1. Ahi Tuna Salad:
Fresh greens, the yuzu soy dressing isn't bad. Decent portion - be aware that the Ahi is 3 thin slices which are well seared on the edges but nicely raw in the center. A totally decent salad, but nothing special. 8/10
2. Roast duck puff pastry samosa:
Comes with a tamarind-mango sauce and what I believe was a chutney with whole mustard seeds. The problem is that puff pastry is rich and butter, combined with the sauces which were very sweet, and the rich and heavy filling - this was just dense and unbalanced. Furthermore, the duck in the filling felt like it had been braised for a lot time to the point of toughness. 7/10
3. Alaskan Crabmeat & Vietnamese Sausage Wontons:
Disappointing. The filling lacked the sweetness of crab but also didn't really have any significant savoriness or any flavors that reminded me of vietnamese flavors. The soup was decent. There were 5 or 6 very small wontons in this portion. I just felt like the main attraction here, the filling of the dumplings, did not deliver. 6/10
4. Pan-seared Tandoori Quail:
The quail was tough. I tried cutting it with my knife and it didn't work. I resorted to picking it up by hand and biting it directly. Also, the spice blend on the outside of the quail was passable but they had completely forgotten to salt the quail. The quail also lacked any browning or maillard flavors, it just felt like the spice blend had been stuck on. The spices didn't taste particularly well toasted or bloomed prior to being rubbed on. The raita on the other hand, was thicker than usual and saltier than usual. Solid concept, perhaps, but poor execution. 5/10
5. Passion Fruit Frozen Souffle:
First off, this is a big portion. The passion fruit flavor isn't bad, but they may have oversweetened the base as the brightness isn't as punchy as a great passionfruit dessert is. This is fairly hard, but not that dense. Frozen souffle is a fairly apt description, I suppose. I would guess that the recipe is for a semifreddo. The raspberry sauce (we had no caviar) was completely forgettable - tasted like the raspberry gel on a supermarket cake. There was also some sort of brittle on top which was tasty, but just didn't mesh well with the rest of the dessert. Also, for a frozen "souffle," I think I'd prefer something that retains the texture of a souffle as to be honest, we spent the first minute or so attempting to dig into the top like digging into a hard frozen pint of ice cream. Decent flavor overall. 8/10 read more