As a foodie and a culinary professional, I love to eat cuisines from various countries to taste different flavors, but I'm also bias when it comes to Vietnamese food. When I saw that plate of perfectly grilled shrimp on a bed of garlic noodles, as I was scrolling on Instagram.
I WAS SOLD! Can you imagine my excitement?
The time finally arrived after waiting forever... My friend and I arrived at Omeli Kitchen around 1:30 PM and the first thing that I noticed was their sign.
I believe that first impressions are important and my first impression of Omeli Kitchen is that they don't seem to care about the signage. The sign itself doesn't bother me, but the fact that there is a spelling error and it wasn't fixed... that speaks volumes.
We were greeted and was lead to our table and we were seated in minutes.
The inside of the restaurant was clean and minimal. The gray wall and the wood decor gave the place a very modern, but rustic feel. There was also wine, flowers, and leaves as decor in various areas of the restaurant.
Omeli Kitchen has a variety of food ranging from appetizers to fried rice to noodles. Everything sounds great when I read the menu. Excited to chow down, we quickly ordered. My freind got the ribeye garlic noodle and the pacific ocean. I got the lomo saltado, Vietnamese beef salad the lychee peach iced tea.
Food
It's time for the FUN part, the food review! There a few different aspects that I usually look for when I eat out
Flavor - Is there a balance of salt, acid, heat, and fat?
Execution - are the ingredients cooked the way it should be?
Presentation - Do I eat it with my eyes, before I dig in?
My friend got this ribeye garlic noodle dish and it looks AMAZING but does it taste amazing???
The ribeye garlic noodles is made with smoked ribeye, garlic noodles, wok seared mushroom and asparagus.
Flavor
Did it taste like garlic noodles? Yes, it did and that's important. However, the ribeye was more charred than smoky. I remember getting a mouth full of burnt meat when I tried a piece of ribeye. It wasn't pleasant, but the mushroom and the asparagus were seasoned well.
Execution
My complaint about this dish is that the ribeye is chewy and there wasn't enough smokiness. Otherwise, the execution of the mushroom, asparagus, and garlic noodles were done well.
Presentation
I didn't love the radish garnish because it didn't really do anything for the dish. The green onion on the other hand was a good choice of garnish.
I LOVE potatoes, so looking at this lomo saltado gave me a hit of dopamine. It made me so happy. Eating it, though, was different. Here's why:
Flavor
It was SALTY.
That's all I could really say about the flavors of this dish. I really couldn't taste anything else because of how salty it was.
Execution
Honestly, they could do better. The fries were over done. I can't say I'm 100% sure on what happened, but the situation that happened overcooked the ingredients on this dish. It made the meat chewy and the fries too crunchy.
Presentation
There's really not much to say about the presentation of this dish. The different colors of the vegetables made this dish very vibrant and pleasing to the eye.
Definitely not what I was expecting.
When I read the description of the Vietnamese beef salad, it said bò tái chanh (which is one of my favorite Vietnamese dishes). However, when it arrived at the table... it definitely was not it.
Based on what I know, bò tái chanh is equivalent to beef carpaccio, which is cooking the beef in lime juice. The Vietnamese beef salad that I order is more like a salad with lime juice dressing and seared beef.
Flavor
The beef was quite SALTY, but the meat itself was quite tender (before mixing it with the lime juice dressing). The salad was very sour from the dressing. Together, the two flavors made sense, but the dipping sauce didn't make sense to me because the meat was already salty.
Execution
What could go wrong with a salad? Well, the answer is that it depends on the style that you're going for. I believe that in this case they're trying to make a different style of bo tai chanh by searing the filet mignon and then adding the lime dressing to salad.
The problem with] that is that the lime dressing will continue to cook the seared filet mignon, which will make the meat tougher. Which was exactly what happened. I commend them for trying, but the dish ended being one of the least favorite dish of the day.
Presentation
The presentation is great for a bowl of salad. I like the use of fried shallot or onions for garnish. It gave it's crunchy element. The presentation is simple and clean.
Drinks
The lychee peach iced tea was very subtle. None of the flavors really over powered each other. I don't usually like jasmine tea, but the fruity flavors of lychee and peach masked it well enough where I didn't taste the jasmine.
I can't comment on the pacific ocean because I didn't drink enough to taste, but from what my friend said it was a decent drink.
Overall, my experience at Omeli Kitchen was too bad. Would I return? Maybe not right now, but perhaps in the future.
If you would like to check it out, they are located at : 2466 E Chapman Ave, Fullerton, CA 92831.
Their hours are:
Mon-Sun: 11AM - 9PM
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