Club Meatballs at Cross Street has a new millennial chef and her real name is La Mei Mei

Club Meatballs, a restaurant, cafe, bar, wine cellar and co-working space at 20 Cross Street recently announced a new millennial chef on board and her real English name is La Mei Mei. No, I asked and the Chinese characters for her name are not 辣妹妹. To find out her actual Chinese name, you have to visit the restaurant and ask her yourself. 🙂

Chef La Mei Mei, 28, introduced a revamped menu at Club Meatballs, featuring modern comfort food favourites and other delightful permutations of the humble meatball. Chef Mei is born and bred in the east coast of New York city, of Vietnamese and Malaysian descent, grew up helping out at her parent’s Japanese restaurant and in cafes in New Jersey. She enrolled and graduated from The Institute of Culinary Education (NYC) in 2013 and consequently joined chef David Bouley at the famed 12-seater kaiseke Brushstroke on Hudson Street before opening Shangri-La restaurant and lounge in Chelsea.

Do not let her youthful demeanour fool you – chef Mei is armed with ten years of professional F&B experience and is seriously good at her craft. She chose to move to Singapore a year ago, lured by her dream of working in Asia. Her speciality is in Pan-Asian cuisine and she hopes to serve “food that makes people happy”.

I was invited for a tasting for Club Meatballs’ revamped menu and these are the items I sampled:

It’s hard not to like the humble meatballs. You get to count them as you eat and portion them accordingly; there’s always an element of surprise – they may look about the same, but tastes entirely different, depending on the fillings.

The must-try at Club Meatballs got to be The Baller Platter ($25-$35) which comes in a choice of signature balls – classic beef, ginger pork, garlic thyme chicken, cumin spiced lamb, panko crusted fish, tofu and mushroom; served on a bed of creamy mashed potatoes and topped with a selection of sauces of your choice – tomato, garlic aioli, mushroom, red wine onion gravy or pesto. This is perfect for sharing and goes well with alcoholic drinks.

The portion is huge, so don’t order this and try to finish it all by yourself.

Personally, I really enjoyed the Ginger Pork Ball Lettuce Cups which adds some green to my comfort food and the Cup of Chili which is a thick, creamy, spicy soup which you can drink or use as a dip for your meatballs (I did the latter). The beer braised short ribs is pretty amazing too. You can taste the beer on the meat and the flavours blend well together.

Kids will like the mac and cheese balls for the crispy texture and the juicy goodness packed in each ball. Actually, I enjoy it too as an adult – it’s a comfort food (meatball) made from comfort food (mac and cheese)! How can anyone not like something like this!

If you are looking for a casual, yet fun place to hang out with friends to enjoy good comfort food and knock back a few drinks within the CBD area, Club Meatballs is the place to be.

They have many drinks deals going on at different days of the week. On Wednesday ladies night, 1 for 1 refreshing Aperol Spritz go down easy at $15. Additionally, groups of 4 ladies enjoy a complimentary bottle of champagne to help kickstart their evening. Throughout the week, jugs of Pimms and Aperol go for $45, perfect especially for a slow Sunday brunch tipple. Happy Hour on weekdays are from noon to 2pm and 4 to 8pm and Friday all night from 4pm. Bottled beers start from $9++ and buckets from $40++.

Club Meatballs also feature a wine cellar offering bottles of wine ranging from $29 – $259, catering to customers with different price points for different occasions.

Interested to visit? Address is as below.

Club MeatBalls

Address:
20 Cross Street
#01-05/06 China Court
Singapore 048422

Tel: +65 6222 8660

Opening hours:
Mondays to Fridays: 8am to midnight
Weekends: 10am to 10pm