Friday, October 18, 2002
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

RESTAURANT REVIEW: Off Kilter

Offerings at Japengo show creativity but lack balance

They're serving high-concept, creatively conceived, fascinatingly offbeat, beautiful stuff these days at Japengo at the Hyatt Regency Lake Las Vegas.

Which is not to say this food doesn't have its problems.

It didn't take us long to get the first clue, which came in the form of the amuse-bouche served on ziggy triangular dishes that were set at angles to our ziggy triangular place plates and which we ate with the chopsticks that had been carefully balanced on the polished rock at each place setting. It was oyster and chicken, our waiter said, and it was a good thing he said so because we couldn't tell the oyster from the chicken -- and I feel sure those are words I've never uttered before. The reason: an overuse of chili pepper so profound that it sent the other flavors in the chewy little morsels reeling -- and us as well, as we lunged for our water glasses.

Hmmm. Not a good thing, but sometimes chefs use the amuse-bouche not only to provide a taste of things to come but also to experiment with customer reaction, so we didn't lose faith yet.

"Vietnamese shrimp spring rolls," ($9) the menu said, and that sounded pretty basic, but the rolls turned out to be an example of the innovative spirit of Japengo's kitchen. Large shrimp had been chilled, shelled, butterflied and stuffed with a few lightly seasoned soba noodles, then the ends opposite the tail wrapped with lumpia wrappers, which are Philippine rather than Vietnamese, but what the heck. It was an inspired combination but an extremely bland one; the soba noodles in the shrimp and the salad were so lightly seasoned that the only real flavor came from the shrimp. The spicy tomato aioli promised on the side turned out to be an aioli that was not only not spicy and not particularly redolent of tomato but also not as garlicky as a good aioli should be. We couldn't help thinking it would've been a good idea to merge the intensity of the seasoning on the amuse-bouche and the spring rolls and split the difference.

An entree of pan-seared grouper ($26) also was too timidly flavored. Grouper's inherently mild -- and also meaty and, when prepared well, as this was, moist -- so we expected a flavor boost from the promised lemongrass-scented rice, but it was tame indeed; the only spirited touch came from the drizzle of aged (and maybe reduced) soy.

Ah, but we can always count on lamb for a depth of flavor, and our faith was rewarded with the black-bean-marinated grilled rack of lamb ($29). The dish wasn't characterized by the earthy flavor of black beans, but the nicely gamey lamb was perfect -- and this was a better-balanced dish, with its reasonably assertive carrot-ginger emulsion.

There was balance, too, in the starter of Five Glaze Washu beef skewers ($10). Our earnest and friendly young waiter (who was at times both too earnest and too friendly) said the beef was Kobe, but domestic. No, it was Washu, which isn't Kobe, although it's the product of Kobe cows and Black Angus steers (and from Washington State, hence the Washu). It was, yes, very tender, the glaze suitably subtle and effective. The onion rings, two wide slices of sweet onion with a whisper-thin but shatteringly crisp tempura coating, were the prefect foil. This probably was the best of the bunch.

Japengo is, as I said, high-concept, and all of those little touches are lovely. It's also rather dark, and the menu has several color blocks that made it somewhat difficult to make out the type; we found ourselves trying to position ours under the recessed ceiling lights.

The wine list was easier to read, and it was reasonably well-varied, though there was a dearth of undiscovered gems at correspondingly low prices; most of the list was in the general range of $50 and up. We settled for a Ravenswood Zinfandel ($36), which was oddly effervescent.

Service throughout was good overall, but as we said, our waiter at times could've used a little restraint. When we asked, for example, about the blue prawn and lemongrass soup with coconut chili drizzle, he said it was off the menu because "chili and coconut don't work," at which point I'm thinking somebody'd better tell the Thais. And asking someone what they do for a living is best left to the cozier social situations.

On the other hand, once he elicited the information that we were locals (he said Japengo's patrons are almost exclusively either conferees or locals), he told us how much the restaurant appreciates its locals, and when we were contemplating dessert, said he'd already taken care of that -- because we were locals. Dessert, which was indeed complimentary, turned out to be a mound of chocolate-covered green tea mousse and one of ginger sorbet with raspberry sauce, with fruit including some truly lovely caramelized bananas. It was a nice gesture, and full of flavor.

Much amusement has been had with the cult of towering dishes, and Japengo has its share. This fare, however, tends to be more interesting than most of that in the tower cult. But it's time somebody in the kitchen sat down and really tasted it.

Las Vegas Review-Journal restaurant reviews are unannounced and done anonymously at Review-Journal expense.