ōre feels like the darling of this subreddit, with many people proclaiming that it was one of the best fine dining experiences they’ve had, better than Sorn, etc., so I had fairly high expectations, and went in with the goal of recording my thoughts on each dish. Unfortunately, while the concept and experience were intriguing, and service was great, I found the food itself to be lacking.
1. Spring Water – was surprisingly tasty water with a unique mineral flavour. Apparently this is the only water they use throughout their cooking 2. Guava, Mangosteen, Lardon (Pic 1) – this tasted… fine. For how high quality Thai fruits are, this was surprisingly lacking in fruitiness/sugar. A couple of whole peppercorns were rather overpowerin 3. Cucumber blossom – it is unclear what, if anything, was done to prepare the flower. It was quite bitter and vegetal 4. Wasabi, squid, white asparagus – pretty tasty, and had a bit of a kick to it 5. Mizuna, chicken skin – meh, the chicken skin is not particularly crisp or flavourful so it just tasted leafy 6. Cucumber, daikon, peppercorn – meh. The dishes start to seem undersalted across the board 7. Sunchoke, chicken liver, beet (Pic 2) – a good combination of disparate ingredients but… I had a suspiciously similar dish here: [https://www.atomixnyc.com/borago](https://www.atomixnyc.com/borago) 8. Shima aji avocado, white kombu (Pic 3) – meh, the broth was good but otherwise lacking in flavour 9. Young coconut, green mango, pistachio, ginger blossom, lotus stems, Korean seaweed (Pic 4) – the broth itself was very tasty 10. Cured sardine heads, shrimp, water lily stem (Pic 5) – the sardine was quite fishy, the asparagus was surprisingly tasty, but the rest was unremarkable 11. Akami, chutoro, tomato broth (Pic 6) – finally a well-salted dish, but after the previous string of flavourless courses it almost tasted too salty. The broth had a nice flavour profile though 12. Honey, orange, pomelo, coriander – the grilled oranges are great but the whole Sichuan peppercorns are a travesty that numbs your mouth for the entire dish 13. Bafun uni, corn, chawanmushi, white kombu (Pic 7) – a cool combination of flavours but found it underseasoned again 14. Peas, squid, seaweed, finger lime (Pic 8) – I like the smokiness of the squid and the broth again, though both were recurring flavour profiles throughout the meal. There’s an interesting concept of squeezing the finger lime pearls onto other ingredients of the same size, but the inconsistent size of the diced squid and peas ruin the effect a bit. The single digit caviar balls also don’t do anything for the dish 15. Kohlrabi, macadamia milk, burnt daikon juice (Pic 9) – the kohlrabi was delicious, but the flavour of the milk was predominantly sour… I think this dish would have been amazing if the milk was rich and nutty like it seemed 16. Tempura white asparagus, green mango (Pic 10)– at this point I started thinking the long menu is a bad gimmick. There’s nothing particularly unique about this dish nor how it’s cooked, and it is by no means remarkable tempura. What’s its purpose here? 17. Sweet potato, fingerroot, mussels, caviar – the sweet potato is pretty tasty, and its sweetness is one of the more intense flavours in the meal so far (less of a reflection on the sweet potato). Think the caviar here at least reaches the absolute threshold of detection but only barely., 18. Yuba, red fermented tofu – it is as described, these ingredients were combined in this dish. Needs salt (which is surprising given that fermented bean curd is a predominant ingredient in this dish)
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ōre feels like the darling of this subreddit, with many people proclaiming that it was one of the best fine dining experiences they’ve had, better than Sorn, etc., so I had fairly high expectations, and went in with the goal of recording my thoughts on each dish. Unfortunately, while the concept and experience were intriguing, and service was great, I found the food itself to be lacking.
1. Spring Water – was surprisingly tasty water with a unique mineral flavour. Apparently this is the only water they use throughout their cooking
2. Guava, Mangosteen, Lardon (Pic 1) – this tasted… fine. For how high quality Thai fruits are, this was surprisingly lacking in fruitiness/sugar. A couple of whole peppercorns were rather overpowerin
3. Cucumber blossom – it is unclear what, if anything, was done to prepare the flower. It was quite bitter and vegetal
4. Wasabi, squid, white asparagus – pretty tasty, and had a bit of a kick to it
5. Mizuna, chicken skin – meh, the chicken skin is not particularly crisp or flavourful so it just tasted leafy
6. Cucumber, daikon, peppercorn – meh. The dishes start to seem undersalted across the board
7. Sunchoke, chicken liver, beet (Pic 2) – a good combination of disparate ingredients but… I had a suspiciously similar dish here: [https://www.atomixnyc.com/borago](https://www.atomixnyc.com/borago)
8. Shima aji avocado, white kombu (Pic 3) – meh, the broth was good but otherwise lacking in flavour
9. Young coconut, green mango, pistachio, ginger blossom, lotus stems, Korean seaweed (Pic 4) – the broth itself was very tasty
10. Cured sardine heads, shrimp, water lily stem (Pic 5) – the sardine was quite fishy, the asparagus was surprisingly tasty, but the rest was unremarkable
11. Akami, chutoro, tomato broth (Pic 6) – finally a well-salted dish, but after the previous string of flavourless courses it almost tasted too salty. The broth had a nice flavour profile though
12. Honey, orange, pomelo, coriander – the grilled oranges are great but the whole Sichuan peppercorns are a travesty that numbs your mouth for the entire dish
13. Bafun uni, corn, chawanmushi, white kombu (Pic 7) – a cool combination of flavours but found it underseasoned again
14. Peas, squid, seaweed, finger lime (Pic 8) – I like the smokiness of the squid and the broth again, though both were recurring flavour profiles throughout the meal. There’s an interesting concept of squeezing the finger lime pearls onto other ingredients of the same size, but the inconsistent size of the diced squid and peas ruin the effect a bit. The single digit caviar balls also don’t do anything for the dish
15. Kohlrabi, macadamia milk, burnt daikon juice (Pic 9) – the kohlrabi was delicious, but the flavour of the milk was predominantly sour… I think this dish would have been amazing if the milk was rich and nutty like it seemed
16. Tempura white asparagus, green mango (Pic 10)– at this point I started thinking the long menu is a bad gimmick. There’s nothing particularly unique about this dish nor how it’s cooked, and it is by no means remarkable tempura. What’s its purpose here?
17. Sweet potato, fingerroot, mussels, caviar – the sweet potato is pretty tasty, and its sweetness is one of the more intense flavours in the meal so far (less of a reflection on the sweet potato). Think the caviar here at least reaches the absolute threshold of detection but only barely.,
18. Yuba, red fermented tofu – it is as described, these ingredients were combined in this dish. Needs salt (which is surprising given that fermented bean curd is a predominant ingredient in this dish)