Review: Spanish Cellar
October 3rd, 2024
What happens when a Japanese sommelier-&-chef who loves Spanish & Swiss cuisine (as well as Marilyn Monroe) opens a restaurant? You wind up with a venue like Sion, where the setting is seductively elegant & the cooking is singularly engaging.
Sion’s founder Masamichi Shiomi is a chef worth dining out for – as a testament to his prowess, you might spot other Japanese restaurateurs happily enjoying a meal here from time to time. It’s easy to understand why, after a bite of the house salad (RM26), a playful medley of crisp leaves & savoury bacon slices with an umami-rich wafu-like dressing. A nuanced concoction, invigorated with lively textures & complex flavours that took us by surprise – one of our favourite salads in recent memory.
Of mushrooms & meat – Sion proves a master of both, delivering a platter of pan-fried eryngii with butter sauce that retains all of the fungi’s fleshy earthiness, crowned with shiso leaves for herbaceous dynamics (RM23), plus a sizzling pan of teppan hamburger steak, a tender patty of minced beef & pork (RM38) – if the latter feels familiar, it could be because Masamichi once helmed the now-closed Akane in Desa Sri Hartamas, which reputedly sometimes sold 80 servings of hamburg a night.
Try the tongue – Sion serves both pork & ox tongue, the first paired with parmesan cheese for an exhilaratingly unusual combo (RM20) & the second stewed to a lovely succulence in a luxurious wine sauce that we mopped up with some baguette (RM78).
Sion’s repertoire is tricky to contextualise – the menu is underpinned by Japanese elements but overflows with European ingredients & inspirations. The Spanish are represented by Jamon Iberico, buttressed by an unexpected but unimpeachable choice of mango instead of, say, melon or other fruits (RM48) …
… while the Swiss might seek to claim partial credit for this robust fondue, which blends Emmental, Comte & Tomme, with impressive dipping options that include juicy veggies sauteed in white wine for another only-at-Sion creation (RM62) …
… & the Italian inflection is comfortingly crowd-pleasing in the penne with gorgonzola sauce (RM32) & a very hearty spaghetti carbonara enhanced with mentaiko (RM35). This really is only the tip of the iceberg for the menu – had we more stomach space, we’d have also ordered the baguettes with anchovies in hot olive oil (RM23), Japanese oysters marinated with olives (RM26), pork intestine & stomach stew (RM26), chicken sauteed with three kinds of Japanese peppers (RM25) & much more.
Expect a solid selection of wine & whisky (with a smidgeon of shochu); for casual drinking, house pours of Chilean Anakena Carmemere & Australian Chardonnay Semillon work very well to complement a meal here. Many thanks to Sion for hosting us.
Sion Dining
B-1-16, 1st Floor, Block B, Jalan PJU 1A/20A
Tel: +603-7840-0632
Mon-Sat, 630pm-1130pm