Location: 83 Kennedy Road South (Unit 8), Brampton
Website: https://www.facebook.com/Muchomo-GRILL-HOUSE-1369240303139681
Going to Muchomo Grill House was a bit of a strange experience. When I visited on a recent weekday afternoon, the restaurant appeared to be in an unfinished state, with unconnected TVs, bare walls, and wires hanging all over the place.
You can sort of see what I’m talking about from the one photo I took from my table (I felt a bit awkward standing up to take more photos, as I was literally the only person inside the restaurant aside from the two people who worked there).
I figured the place must have just opened, but if their Facebook page is anything to go by, they’ve been around for well over a year.
I guess they must be in the middle of renovations? It was quite odd.
Even odder: the complete lack of a menu. There was nothing posted on the wall, no take-out menu, nothing online, and no laminated menus to look at in the restaurant. Nothing. At this point, I asked the person behind the counter if they were actually open, because are you even a restaurant if you don’t have a menu? Isn’t that the first thing a functional restaurant should have??
She gave me a broad overview of what they serve, and the first thing she mentioned was spicy rice and grilled meat, so I figured, sure, why not? Unfortunately, I have no idea what this was called, because again, there was no menu.
It was quite good, though! So at least after all that strangeness, there is a happy ending. It was very similar to a dish I had at Village Suya — only much, much better.
The spicy rice was as advertised: it had a good kick, and was nicely spiced and quite flavourful. It looks fairly plain, but the flavour was rich and satisfying, with just enough greasiness to keep things interesting, but without feeling overly oily.
The meat was even better, with an intense pop of flavour and an even more pronounced kick than the rice. This might have been my imagination, but it almost had that hot/numbing effect that you get from dishes with sichuan peppercorns. Whatever it was, it was tasty, and it was just as tender as you’d hope it would be.
It comes topped with uncooked onions and peppers, which work better than you’d expect — in particular, the sweet, crunchy peppers contrast very nicely with the tender, flavourful beef.
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