Modan: My First Solo Tasting Menu Experience

As an ambivert, social situations can get a bit tricky – if I’m with people I’m comfortable with, I can light up the party in an instant. Unfortunately, I can be incredibly awkward when faced with strangers or people I barely know – which was why it was news to many people (including myself) when I decided to say yes to signing up for a solo fine dining experience at Modan.

I joined a group chat in the Fine Dining Club Facebook group meant to connect solo diners with each other – I’ve always wanted to sample out all the tasting menus popping out here and there in the Metro but couldn’t really find someone else willing to spend as much on food as I am.

Apart from its 12-seater a night capacity, the demand to get seats for Modan is further heightened as it is due to change its menu by May 2023. The current menu charges P5500/pax.

SOUP: Onion – Nira – Taro -Tendon

When I reached the venue, I was further intimidated by the seating arrangement. There were 5 slots available for solo diners; as 7 slots have been reserved by a group – however, out of the 5 solo diner slots, 2 pairs of couples got the other four seats so I ended up being the odd one out. Fortunately, they were incredibly friendly and warm that despite being the only legitimate ‘solo’ diner in the table, I never felt alone in their presence. We simply all bonded with our common love for food.

SNACKS: Crab – Sweet Corn – Ikura

Fortunately, the entire group arrived on time – so dinner service promptly started with the Soup. The incredibly creamy and foamy soup felt like a warm hug. The beautiful harmony of the onion and nira (chive) flavors never overwhelmed. They do encourage you to sneak in bites of the gorgeously golden tendon tempura fritter. Unfortunately, I really couldn’t appreciate the tendon tempura – despite it coming with a perfectly fried crisp batter.

SNACKS: Chutoro – Toast - Negi

The soup was followed by a trio of snacks. The first of which was the Crab Takoyaki – which had immensely fresh ikura that gave an extreme high once they started popping in your mouth – truly, it was hard to beat the joy brought about by that umami burst in your mouth!

SNACKS: Gyu – Fuji Apple – Beet – Wasabi

The next snack resembled a tiny tuna burrito – this was a delight to eat thanks to wonderful contrast in textures of the fresh chutoro and the incredibly crunchy toast that sandwiched it! The last snack boasted of a complexity of ingredients – from the wagyu slices to the fuji apple, to the gorgeous wasabi-laced beets – all packed in a one-biter. I actually felt bad that before I could appreciate the layers of flavors in this masterpiece, it was all gone in my mouth already!

AMAEBI: Amaebi – Capsicum – Jicama – Tosaka

One of my favorite courses would have to be the Amaebi. The sweetness of the amaebi is a testament to its freshness – each piece is layered in an incredibly tangy sauce that packs a punch. Eating this dish would force you to show restraint – yes, you would love to slurp every single drop of its addictive sauce (and I did) – but it really packs a punch that you’d have to pace it out.

DEBASAKI: Wing – Caviar -Yolk

Another favorite is the Debasaki. They encourage you to get your hands dirty for this dish – by using the chicken wing to break the yolk so that it would serve as your sauce. One bite into this extremely juicy and smoky chicken is all it takes to reveal the fragrant caviar rice that’s stuffed inside. As a proof to how attentive and amazing the Modan team was – a server saw me struggling to scoop out the precious soy sauce-laced yolk with my chicken that they promptly asked if I wanted a spoon.

BREAD: Foccacia – Nori – Furikake

I’m not really a fan of bread – especially one that’s on the heavy side such as the one served for our sixth course. It doesn’t help that it was generously drizzled with olive oil (I prefer my bread crunchy and on the dry side) but somehow, I was captivated by the combination of the nori butter and furikake. Honestly, it was so simple – but it was mind-blowingly good. This dish though really filled me up – in hindsight, I should have just eaten half of it and asked if I could just take home the other half.

SCALLOP: Scallop – Matcha – Yuzu – Paitan

The Scallop course would be my ultimate favorite – perfectly cooked and extremely plump scallops are paired with cold matcha noodles. The noodles had a perfect chew and came in a refreshingly tangy sauce.

FISH: Gindara – Miso – Bisque

I absolutely love Gindara, adore anything miso-based and easily warm up to seafood bisques – that’s why this course -on paper- seems to be a shoo-in as my favorite. Unfortunately, the gindara lost its velvety melt-in-your-mouth texture in this dish after it was 'aged' for this dish - I was definitely not a fan of gindara being prepared this way. Honestly, if I didn’t know that the fish was gindara – this would probably be one of my favorite courses as the miso-bisque sauce was extremely divine.

KAKIGORI: Melon – Shoga – Muscat – Mentaiko

The Kakigori was a delightful palate cleanser as the fresh sweet slices of fruit cut through the ginger and sour tones of the icy course.

NABE: Rice-Wagyu Short Rib-Unagi-Tsukemono-Renkon-Edamame

The knockout star was the Nabe pot – each gigantic pot meant to be shared with three to five diners. The pot opens to fragrant rice indulgently topped with huge slices of wagyu short rib, unagi, renkon (or lotus root) and bright green edamame. One of my dining companions served me a decently portioned bowl – yet, I was immensely full already that I sadly couldn’t finish even that bowl.

As it’s a communal pot, diners are free to get more servings of the dish – what we didn’t know was that Modan actually allows you to take out the leftovers after (so we could have ate just enough and took the rest home)! This dish is immensely rich so the tsukemono plate would really come in handy to cut through all that fat.

DESSERT: Castella – Kuromitsu – Ikura – Yuba

As I’ve shared, I failed to finish my tiny bowl of Nabe – despite my fervent love for wagyu and unagi – so seeing that the dessert came in three parts stressed me out as I did not know how to finish everything!

The main dessert was a slice of castella cake lovingly clothed in kuromitsu cream and topped with Ikura. The wonderful play on sweet-and-savory flavors was further elevated with the crisp sheet of Hokkaido Milk. Glorious and delightful as this may have been, the most I could eat would be just half of the cake – I did manage to finish the crisp sheet of Hokkaido Milk and of course, I scooped out each precious ball of ikura.

I wasn’t a big fan of the madeleine – I found it on the dry side; but boy, the mochi was absolutely divine. It came with a delightful ricotta filling that was lusciously light. If I had more space in my stomach, I would have loved a second piece of this!

As it’s been years since I’ve had my last tasting menu, I really don’t have anything to properly compare Modan with. However, I did find the pacing between courses a bit too fast (dessert was served around the 90 minute mark) – I probably would have needed a little bit more time between the Nabe and the dessert to appreciate the latter more. To be fair, the service team did ask the group if we were ready for dessert – unfortunately, majority were - so our desserts were served immediately after.

I appreciated the narrative behind each dish – as it was an ode to someone significant or influential in Chef Jorge’s life – whether it would be his wife, his daughter or chefs who inspired with or worked with and the beautiful attention to detail poured out in each dish. Special mention should be given to the extremely warm and attentive service of the entire team! I guess the cherry-on-top to this experience was that I came on my own (and the only one to do so!) yet managed to enjoy every single minute of it!

Modan

Escalades East Tower, 20th Avenue, Cubao, Quezon City

Date of Visit: March 30, 2023