Vietnamese
October 6, 2009
*** Three Stars
Address: 154 Orchard
St., btwn. Stanton & Rivington Sts.
Phone: (212)780-0100
Cuisine: Vietnamese street food
Vibe: Hush hush
backyard beer garden
Occasion:; Group
dinner; Beer binges; LES dining.
Hours: Dinner; Seven
days a week, Sun-Thu, 5p.m-12a.m., Sat & Sun,5p.m.-2a.m.
Don't Miss Dish: Crispy pork belly; Duck nem sausage; Baked whole fish.
Average Price:
Appetizers, $10, Entrees, $15, No dessert.
Reservations: No
reservations accepted.
Cash only.
Think La Esquina by way of Vietnam and you’ve got Bia Garden, which recently opened on the Lower East Side. If you’re not the kind of eater that hunts down restaurants, you might miss it. But it’s worth discovering. There’s a dinky grill out front, the kind you’d find in someone’s backyard in the suburbs. Step down a flight of stairs and you’ll find yourself at a take-out counter where you can grab a bahn mi or bbq rib rolls. The shelves are stocked with fish sauce and Café Du Monde coffee cans and there are bags of shrimp crackers hanging over the kitchen window.
I loved the crispy pork belly – crusty nibbles of sweet meat – as much the caramel-fish sauce that accompanied it. There’s a good starter of bbq rib rolls with slippery vermicelli noodles and a meaty duck nem sausage, studded with pine nuts, and served with an anchovy dipping sauce. Baked whole fish can be boring and tedious. Not this one. Bia Garden’s whole fish is a feast that requires every inch of table space. Out from the kitchen comes a shimmery pink snapper crowned with a fistful of scallions and crushed peanuts. It comes with Vietnamese basil, pickled onions, fish sauce, mushrooms, and rice paper. You dip the rice paper in warm water and built your own fish wrap.
Unfortunately, the crab spring rolls tasted like every other
spring roll you could find on the street in Chinatown and so did the shaking beef,
which lacked the peppery kick that you’d traditionally find in the dish.
April 30, 2009
By Chef-owner Huy Chi Le
Serves 4
Ingredients:
Seafood
2 dozen freshly cleaned mussels
12 shelled & deveined large prawns
1 cup calamari rings
½ lb medium scallops
Vegetables
2 cups finely shredded Chinese cabbage
½ cup fried minced shallots
4 sprigs Asian basil (for garnish)
4 lime wedges (optional)
Broth
4 cups fish broth (chicken broth can be substituted)
2 cups coconut milk
2 tablespoons finely shredded kaffir lime leaves
½ tablespoon shrimp paste
2 tablespoons garlic chili paste (more or less to taste)
½ tablespoon curry powder (or paste)
5 tablespoons undiluted Vietnamese fish sauce
4 tablespoons tomato paste
1 tablespoon sugar
Procedure:
Bring the broth, coconut milk, shrimp paste, chili paste, fish sauce, tomato paste and sugar to a boil; reduce heat; add the curry powder and lime leaves; simmer at medium heat for 10 minutes. Taste and adjust seasoning if necessary.
Add the mussels and let simmer for 2 or 3 minutes. Add the rest of the seafood and simmer at low heat for 2 minutes (don’t overcook or else the seafood will get tough and rubbery).
Divide the shredded cabbage in 4 fairly large bowls. Divide the seafood in the four bowls and pour the broth on top. Garnish with a sprig of basil and sprinkle fried shallots on top. Garnish with lime wedges.
Address: 430 Lafayette St., nr. Astor Place
Phone: (212)505-5111
January 6, 2009
Redefining Vietnamese on the upper West Side.100 W. 82nd St.,
(212) 501-0776.
Mon.-Wed., 6 p.m.-1 a.m.;
Thurs.-Fri., 6 p.m.-2 a.m.;
Sat., 5 p.m.-2 a.m.; Sun., 5-10 p.m.
CUISINE Vietnamese
VIBE Cozy meets cool upper West Sider.
OCCASION First date, group dinner, neighborhood outing.
DON'T-MISS DISH Daikon duck hash, cuttlefish with salsa verde, duck fried rice.
AVERAGE PRICE Appetizers $11, entrées $20, desserts $8.
RESERVATIONS Recommended
When I was just an eater and not a writer, I used to dine at a number of Bao restaurants - Bao Noodles, Bao 111, and also Mai House, where Bao was in the kitchen.
It was like a chain of Bao restaurants, a chain in time, not space. Now there's Bar Bao on 82nd Street.
If you order one way at Bar Bao, it's like eating at an old Bao restaurant. Order a different way and it's like eating at an entirely new place.
Even Michael Bao Huynh acknowledges he's really working with two menus here. "People would be disappointed if they didn't find their favorites," he told me.
And here's the odd part: the only disappointments about Bar Bao are the old favorites - the iron pot chicken, the beef pho noodles, short ribs on lemongrass skewers, and the crab spring rolls. Those have all seen better days, they're all a little worn out.
This is a fundamental misconception among some chefs. They think their identity is tied up in certain dishes, when the mark of a great chef is actually his broader approach to almost anything he or she touches.
So let's talk about my new favorites - the dishes that will bring Upper West Siders back to a restaurant time and again. It all comes down to duck. Duck hash, duck fried rice, duck summer rolls and roasted duck with street-style kernels. The one thing they all have in common - splendidly ungreasy duck. I wish there were more duck dishes on the menu. In fact, if I were Michael Bao, my next restaurant would be Bao Duck.
Everybody loves breakfast for dinner....
For full review on NY Daily NewsNovember 16, 2006
186 Franklin St., at Hudson St.
(212)431-0606
TYPE: Modern Vietnamese
VIBE: Earthbound sleek
OCCASION:
With a number of prominent restaurants in his back pocket (Nobu, Centrico & Tribeca Grill), Drew Nieporent has set his sights...across the street from his flaship Nobu hotspot. This newest venture is a truly a team effort with Chef Michael Bao Huynh, who's had his own fair share of restaurant success (Bao 111 & Bao Noodles). Drew has left both the modern design and menu in Michael's capable hands at Mai House. This restaurant is an an exercise in feng shui chic, an exploration of modern Vietnamese architecture and cuisine. Unlike many fusion style spots to come before, Mai House isn't a watered down version of Vietnames fare, but rather the real deal.
Michael has transformed what was once a Tribeca warehouse into a serene dining oasis. Lotus flower light fixtures shed a soft light onto dark wood floors in the airy and expansive 120-seat space, elegantly outfitted with a sleek bamboo and mother-of-pearl bar, zebra wood banquettes and hand-carved wood along the walls. While perfectly stylish, the minimalist modern decor seems to beg for a pillow or cushy lounge chair. Still, rather than serving as a distraction, the design encourages diners to focus their attention on the fare, which is worthy of great attention.
I settled into a back table to take in the scenery and the surprisingly suited crowd with a Buddha's eye cocktail, a gentle mix of Tanqueray 10, fresh honeydew water and crushed Thai basil. Though I usually steer clear of gimmicky cocktail menus with trendy spins on the classics, the setting seemed to call for such an elixir, and I was unexpectedly pleased by the gently sweet offering, which practically transported me to an exotic beach far away from the city's hustle and bustle.
As the waiter began to ratlle off his favorite dishes (per my request), my friend, spotting a fresh dungeness crab entree, interrupted, exclaiming, "Dungeness crab! You never see that on a menu." How could I argue for the steamed barramundi when her words rang so true? Sure, there were shellfish platters scattered about the city at various steakhouses and seafood spots, but rare was the occassion when crab was celebrated as an entree.
While my friend would've happily bypassed the appetizers to get to the bottom of the crab, I argued to dine according to custom, and begin with the hot mushroom spring rolls. These fried nibbles were presented with a side of lettuce and pickled carrot and daikon, which our waiter explained was to be wrapped around the fried rice paper rolls. We happily obliged and were handsomely rewarded. These were no ordinary spring rolls: filled with rich chanterelle, porcini and shitake mushrooms, the assemblage was a delicate, yet crunchy interplay of textures and sweet & sour flavors.
Still coming off a mushroom high, I seamlessly moved to the duck leg confit, entangled in a heaping pile of miso, arugula, green mango, mint, pomegranate seeds and pickled lemongrass. While pleasing to the eye, the duck, soaked in a bland pomegranate dressing, was encumbered by the complicated melange, which altogether lacked character. Perhaps, it would've been better served by the crunch of crushed peanuts and no dressing at all.
But the duck confit would quickly become a faint memory as the highly anticipated crab entree arrived. Served in a grand crab shell, plump chunks of crab meat, soft glass noodles, fresh chives and king mushrooms stewing in a warm flavorful fish stock, generously spilled over into the bowl beneath it. Though this dish was truly beyond words, I'll give it a whirl. A zesty lime and garlic seasoning gave this otherwise soothing dish, a refreshing and enchantingly delectable kick. Equally, a side of eggplant, which was simply cooked in coconut milk, was a wonderful Vietnamese take on comfort food that ought not be neglected.
I couldn't resist the dessert special, an almond banana cake wrapped in a banana leaf. Served with a perilously addictive cinammon ice cream, moist, fresh-from-the-oven banana cake was dotted with fresh chunks of gooey banana, and served atop a lush tapioca coconut sauce. While the durian cake was an artful display - layers of durian cake (made from a prickly fruit native to southeastern Asia) and marzipan, wrapped in a white chocolate shell with a papaya hibiscus coulis - it had an oddly overpowering aroma and disuasively sour aftertaste. Luckily, there was still a spoonful of spicy cinammon ice cream adrift on the plate.
While Vietnamese seasonings of the lemongrass, curry and coconut milk sorts, are alive and well in Mai House, the dish's are decidedly more tempered and accessible here. Michael Bao has elevated regional Vietnamese to a plane of elegance, and though there's noticeably less of a kick to the fare, it seems to serve them well.
July 31, 2006
27 East 61 Street btwn. Park & Lexington Aves.
(212)752-8900
The owners of Geisha & Serafina plan to stir up a little trouble on the Upper East Side with their newest venture, Lollipop Lounge. An homage to the orally fixated New Yorker, this uber-sleek subterranean lounge screams sex & candy. Outfitted with glass-beaded curtains, mirrored walls, candy red banquettes, and lollipop visuals, the moody space begs indiscretion.
But the lollipop theme doesn't stop at decor; it even dominates the menu. In this practically utensil-free zone, you're encouraged to play with your food and eat with your hands. Though the food at Lollipop isn't serious, much of it isn't half bad, and some dishes are even quite tasty. The yellowfin tuna lollipops, nicely seared rare, were well-paired with a green papaya and mango salad. You can break all double-dipping rules when it comes to the chicken lollipops - marinated in coconut and curry, then cleverly divided into two moist chunks of chicken for the purpose of dipping in a pungent Malaysian sauce. My skirt steak was overcooked, but this indiscretion was easily rectified with excessive dunking in a thick peanut sauce. I tried to indulge in Kobe beef lollipops, but they were tragically out of them (don't you hate that).
If you're too grown-up for lollipops, you can always retreat to a predictable and satisfying selection of summer or spring rolls. There's even a whimsical cheesecake lollipop tree for dessert, perfect for luring the ladies to your table. Who says grown-ups can't have fun?
Come 12 AM, food service ceases and Lollipop just gets started. Equipped with a DJ booth and an unsually attractive waitstaff, think an up-and-coming Bungalow 8 on the UES. And if you manage to score a lollipop charm necklace, you're a VIP member for life (don't worry, I didn't get one either). Alas, you can always make a reservation like the rest of us. Somewhere between drinks & dinner, uptown & downtown, a restaurant & a club, is Lollipop Lounge.
Until we eat again,
Restaurant Girl
