Cloud & Spirits — Restaurant in Cambridge

This restaurant is dope. The interior is warm and inviting. It’s modern and chic. Definitely an elevated hipster vibe. A chill spot to hang out after work or nice date night. The food is bomb!

For apps, I’ve never had a Chinese-inspired arancini. These crispy delights are addicting with their crack sauce. The sauce is a must have on the arancini. The salad is light and refreshing. The Kokoda is a well made dish. I never had blue fin tuna until I came here. The combo with the fresh fish with the acidity from the lemon juice and smooth finish of coconut sauce - oof, worth a try. There’s also another surprise about the Kokoda - there’s something called sea grapes 🍇 and were bursting of flavor and freshness. A nice addition to the dish. I could go for seconds with the Kokoda because it’s a bit small for me. I wish they made it 2x bigger so it could be more shareable with a date or with company. The Maine Uni was surprisingly delicious 😋. I honestly thought it was too expensive but after having it, it was an amazing amuse bouche (the perfect bite). I couldn’t believe that small bite packed so much flavor and complexity. It was balanced and left me feeling happy. Totally worth it.

For mains, the pork belly adobo melts in your mouth. So good! The mushroom raviolis are my favorite out of this menu. The salted duck egg sauce is what makes this dish memorable. I would definitely eat this again. The bitter melon ratatouille is not my favorite because it wasn’t seasoned enough for me. It felt as though it was missing salt. The veggies were perfectly roasted though, but it didn’t quite smack like the other dishes. The ribeye is good, but not my favorite. I might be biased because I’ve had better at other places.

For desserts, the pandan sorbet is tasty. I’m not a fan of the pandan taste. It’s definitely an acquired taste, but I enjoyed it because I love avocados and bananas and in ice cream form? No brainer. I wished they had a version without the pandan flavoring. I’m curious as to how it would taste then. The matcha cheesecake is surprisingly well-balanced. Not too matcha where it’s overbearing. The matcha is subtle while the richness of the cheesecake smacks just right and not overly sugary.

The late night menu - I only tried the Chicharrón taco 🌮. The combo of crispy pork belly and the acidity from the lime is perf. Nothing else to say. Surprisingly really filling. I probably can’t have more than 2 of these tacos and I’m a pretty big guy.

The drinks - I love the names and how they have a play on words. The blood orange and the banana espresso are my favorite. These drinks have enough booze and not too much where it’s offensive. Blood orange is enjoyable to drink and the banana espresso is complex with a chocolate finish. Their nice, clean cocktails.

Service was awesome! The servers were friendly and quick. They regularly checked in with my wife and me. I don’t think I even had to do the awkward “please help us” lean at all. They were there when you needed them! Amazing 5 star service!

You want a culinary experience. This place...

What a wonderful restaurant and new addition to the Kendall Square neighborhood. Came here on a Friday night around 8pm—reservations definitely recommended way in advance, since it was hard to get an earlier table! The aesthetics of the place are immediately welcoming, a nice blend of plants and architectural, very sleek. Service was prompt and super friendly; we especially enjoyed our waitress being very attentive and also helpful with how much to order.

Onto the food: we were 4 people and got 8 dishes (so almost the whole menu) plus 5-6 drinks. Food first: 1- salad—excellent, one of my favorite dishes of the evening. Fresh yet smoky, with a delightful burst of sweetness from the peaches. If I could eat this salad every day of my life, I would not be upset about it (and I don't love salad)! 2- fried chicken—soooo incredibly delectable. Moist with a perfectly light, crispy coating, and the aioli was to die for. Really well done. Great textural contrast. 3- shrimp toast—a little salty! It was definitely good, but I think the shrimp part of the toast and the aioli combined overwhelmed the beautiful milk bread it was served on. Normally, I wouldn't mind, but the milk bread was so damn good I wish it could've head its own a little more. 4- butter rice ssam (we got 2 of these)—the crowd-pleasing favorite for many at the table. Exceedingly rich but balanced with the crispiness of the seaweed sheets and the king crab. Lucious amounts of king crab, great freshness from the veggies it was dressed with. 5- hwe dup bap—this was the letdown for me. The gochujang, even in a very small quantity, completely overwhelmed the freshness of the fish for me. The fish itself was quite fresh, obviously, sashimi-style, and the rice was lovely. But I felt the dish swung too much between "fresh and pure" (fish, rice, veggies) and "overwhelmingly spicy" (jalapenos and gochujang). Maybe I was just bad at dressing it, though. 6- spaghetti—this dish isn't so much a spaghetti as a red-sauce carbonara of the kind you'll find in izakayas. It was really rich, maybe a bit too much for so late in the meal, but the noodles themselves were perfect and obviously fresh-made. 7- ribeye—quite pricey but really nice. Good wrap options, delicious banchan, and the ribeye itself was prepared to perfection, tender and unadultered.

Overall, I loved the food at this restaurant. The drinks were forgettable, though—possibly because soju doesn't really hold up flavor-wise to come through against other, stronger flavors. The prices are certainly steep, so come here for a...

TL;DR: The restaurant is overall decent but there's definitely room for improvement. The food was cold and the potatoes were seasoned weirdly. Overall, I don't think you'll dislike your experience. Though I did find it interesting how weirdly shaped the silverware was. I asked about that and they said that's the way silverware is in Korea. I've spent a considerable amount of time in Seoul, Korea. The silverware is not like this over there. So I don't know why that's being said.

Food:

Chicken & Waffle - This dish is served with a sauce that tastes a bit like sweet spicy ketchup mixed with mayonnaise but it wasn't a bad flavor, as it complimented the dish well. Both the chicken and the waffle were pretty phenomenal, despite being served pretty cold. I feel that maybe the food sat in the window a bit too long, which is not the fault of the kitchen. What is the fault of the kitchen though is the potatoes. Not only were the potatoes completely room temperature but they're served over greens with very large grains of salt. This leads to an undersalted potatoes and the world's saltiest salad. I would suggest using finer grained salt and salting the potatoes directly after cooking them. This allows the salt to dissolve into the liquid around the potatoes and become part of the overall flavor before the liquids evaporate/solidify. It's bizarre that something so simple is an issue here.

Sautéed Veggies Benedict - This dish has a very nice taste. But the bread was too thick and dry and it needs more of the sauce used. Same issue as above with the potatoes. Please learn how to do the potatoes. Also, this food was cold as well. Pay attention to the window. No one wants to pay a lot for cold food.

Drinks:

Mimosa (Blood Orange) - The mimosa is quite a bit acidic, making it feel more like a grape fruit mimosa. It's still good though I'd try to pay attention to the adicity a bit. Felt a bit like battery acid. I'm going to take a tums now. Lol!

Plum Soju Sangria - The sangria was quite nice. Well balanced flavors that compliment the plum Soju. Usually sangrias feel a bit watered down with ice but this sangria did not...