Enticed by pictures of the octopus dish shared on instagram, my friend and I were off to El Mero Mero for dinner. Haha. I (really do) sway too easily by beautiful salivating visuals.

El Mero Mero which serves Mexican cuisine is located within CHIJMES. And to find one’s way within CHIJMES, one should head towards the courtyard. I was walking in circles along the corridor / passageway till I finally found El Mero Mero, which had to be entered from the courtyard! And my friend and I chose to be seated indoors instead of going for the alfresco seats. Actually, I chose practicability since I can’t take photographs in the romantic dimly-lit setting. Haha.

And from the menu (pages 1, 2), we ordered:-

1) Razor clams ceviche, $20 (3 pieces) (above) – Razor clams marinated in spicy serrano chilli and lime sauce. We were taken aback at how small the razor clams were when the dish was served. Maybe that explained why 4 pieces were given although it’s stated on the menu as 3 pieces. However, I rather the restaurant announced the dish to be unavailable when the razor clams were too small as my friend and I did not enjoy it properly for there wasn’t much meat. The other ingredients overwhelmed the razor clam. And the dish was pretty spicy too. We tried removing the green chilli but that did not helped as the spiciness had infused into the sauce. Even for my friend who takes spicy food, he found it spicy.

2) Grilled octopus, $24 (above) – Flame-grilled octopus in a bed of corn cream with black garlic paste and taijin ash. Octopus ‘leg’ grilled to perfection. We enjoyed this very much although it was on the small side; The tentacle looked bigger on photograph than it really is in reality.

3) Mozzarella & truffle quesadilla, $16 (above) – Mozzarella cheese, truffle oil, smoked corn mushroom huitlacoche in flour tortillas. I did not like the mushrooms which were too soggy. I ended up removing the mushrooms to enjoy the tortilla with the cheese alone. I mean, since it was for the mozzarella cheese that I ordered this dish for. Haha. However, I was let down as there was only little cheese; Only present in the centre of the tortilla. So no, I won’t recommend ordering this.

4) El taco with options of:-

(A) Flame-grilled chicken, $11 (1 piece) (above) – Flame-grilled free-range chicken on a bed of guacamole topped with spicy popcorn and green salsa on corn tortilla. And we liked that we were given the option to order 1 piece or a plate of 3 to 4 pieces! And since we wanted to try a variety of flavours, my friend and I went ahead to order 1 piece. And this was our 2nd favourite of the 5 flavours we tried. Although the dish would have been equally nice without the popcorns.

(B) Korobuta pork al pastor, $7.50 (1 piece) (above) – Al pastor marinated and spit-grilled kurobuta pork, grilled pineapple, onion and coriander on corn tortilla. We did not really like this. Meat was on the thin side, and the dish was salty on the overall.

(C) Tempura prawns, $11 (1 piece) (above) – Tempura tiger prawns, chipotle-mayo sauce, pico de gallo and pickled red onion on flour tortilla. Our favourite of the 5 flavours we tried! Every components of the dish complimented one another. From the tangy sauce to the succulent prawn, this was really good. A must order!

(D) Braised pork carnitas, $11 (1 piece) (above) – Braised pork collar carnitas, pico de gallo, diced pickled red onions and jalapenos on corn tortilla. This was too salty.

(E) Wild fish, $32 (1 plate) (above) – Fresh red snapper fillet, tempura shishito and onion rings with chipotle-mayo sauce on flour tortilla. After having tried 4 flavours, my friend and I decided to go for seconds by ordering 1 more flavour. However, although we ordered with the same staff, the staff gave us 1 plate instead of 1 piece. Hmm… Well, I guess we were also not clear as we said “Give us 1 wild fish”. And this was not too bad. Worth ordering!

5) Roasted lamb pibil, $34 (above) – 14 hour roasted lamb served with ceps mushrooms, braised eggplant and pibil sauce. Meat was tender and juicy, although my friend did not like this as the lamb taste was very strong.

6) Smoked chocolate, $16 (above) – Mexican chocolate ganache, churros, cinnamon sugar and passion fruit milk.

7) Lemon tart, $15 (above) – Lime mojito tart, blackberry, pecan crumbs.

8) Mojito, $16 (above)

My friend and I are not big on / familiar with Mexican cuisine, so we were generally satisfied with the food although it was a little pricey since some of the portions were small. But not fine dining small lah! However, I will advise to be careful with one’s orders. Although the menu had a column for taco, taco items could also be found under the ‘small plates’ section. So one may accidentally end up with too many tacos on the table.

Service could have been better. Note, it’s better. Meaning the standard of service was acceptable to begin with. Not lousy, okie. =) When my friend and I went for seconds and ordered additional taco with the same staff who took our first order where we had ordered 1 piece each for our 4 taco. It would have been nice if she had remembered that and clarified if our “Give us 1 wild fish” meant 1 piece of taco or 1 plate of taco. Cause it’s such details that differentiate the good from the average.