Reviews

Pushing Boundaries

Discover amazing new eats at Abhi’s Eatery and Bar.

By Jan Walsh

Abhi at The Summit is one of our favorite take outs for Sunday lunch. Kev and I both have our favorite dishes here that we know travel well. Yet the favorites list evolves because once we try a different dish, it then becomes the new favorite. Today we are dining in for Sunday lunch. So today I rule out ordering a dish that we have ever had before.

There is a reason why the name of the restaurants are Abhi Eatery and Bar. Abhi’s cocktails are out of this world… Served in a Champagne coupe, Mississippi Summers is a heavenly, frothy, thirst quencher with notes of honeysuckle, peach, lemon, and coconut. Highly recommended! And in The Famous Warrior, Champagne meets a top shelf margarita, making for a bubbly Rita. Oh, my!

For starters I order the Pan Fried Momos with Alabama Tomato Vinaigrette. I have had the deep fried and the steamed momos, but never the pan fried. So, I am not breaking any rules… Kev has the House Marinated Beef Sekuva. The momos look like steamed on the top and sides, but their golden, slightly crusted bottoms reveal they are fried. And the best of both cooking styles is combined in the texture and taste of the pan fried momos. The ultimate momo. The beef skewers are tender to the stick and are enhanced by Abhi’s intoxicating sweet sauce, which adds another dimension to this simple dish.

Abhi drops by for a visit just as out entrees, Beef Bulgogi and Chicken Bulgogi arrive. Bulgogi, translates to fire meat, is a gui (grilled) dish. In Abhi’s Bulgogi the beef and chicken are grilled in his own Korean BBQ sauce. And both the beef and chicken melt in the mouth tender and totally tantalizing.  Deep, dark, smoky, sweet flavors of soy, ginger, and sesame are concentrated into an intense sheen and exquisite synthesis. The dish also combines green onion, carrots, sesame seed, and kimchi. What I have been missing…  this Bulgogi is one of the very best things I have ever tasted. And not one bite of the fluffy, slightly sticky jasmine rice is left behind. My new favorite! This dish is quintessential Abhi, the sum and substance that comes from his soul. Abhi’s cookery is uniquely his own, and cannot be replicated, as there is no substitute for his authentic life experience of growing up watching his mother cook and dining in restaurants in Nepal. Add to this his mastery of her Nepali cuisine, along with Asian and Korean influences. I came to appreciate this years ago, when Abhi invited me into his home, where his mother cooked dinner for us, so that I could taste the inspiration for his restaurants.  

For dessert, we are treated to both Purple Yam Ice Cream and Coconut Ice Cream. Both ice creams are heavy in texture. The purple one is made of Ube, a purple yam, which is nutty in flavor with notes of vanilla and pistachio. And the coconut one conjures up a food memory from my childhood, dining at Luau restaurant, eating coconut ice cream served in a coconut shell paired with a Shirley Temple. Today we pair the ice creams with a much better drink, a sparkling sake, Ozeki Hana Awaka Flowers. This lovely sake is bright, balanced, crisp, and fizzy with flowery notes that tickle the nose and the palate. Founded in 1711, Ozeki is named for the second highest rank in the sumo wrestling class, as a commitment to never be complacent. No wonder it is on the menu at Abhi.

 

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