Kuma Inn Visited 7/21/11 3 Forks

Kuma Inn 113 Ludlow St., (between Delancey St & Rivington St), New York, NY 10002

Kuma Inn was one of the first restaurants that I went to in NYC that really blew my mind (if I had been blogging at that time I probably would have given it 4.5 to 5 forks).  But it's been many years since I have been back and sadly this time around it wasn't as amazing as it was before.  But I still think it's worth visiting.  Some of my displeasure might have to do with the fact that it was 1,000 degrees outside and the restaurant was about 800 degrees inside.  It's just never a pleasant experience to eat and sweat at the same time.

The style of food here is Asian tapas food, so I guess a bit like dim sum but without the plethora of dumplings and carts being pushed by screaming Asians.  All the food on the menu sounds amazing and I would suggest coming with a larger group of people to really get a variety of dishes.  Virginia and I ordered the tuna tartare ($10.50), pork buns, wasabi pork shumai ($7), eastern omelet ($9) and the rice crepes ($9.50).  The tuna tartare  came out first and was light, refreshing and the seasoned perfectly.  I could have eaten another 2 or 3 more plates of these. Next came the wasabi shumai and to be honest, they were good, but didn't seem like anything I probably couldn't have bought at a Asian super market.  The eastern omelet came out next and while it's just a simple omelet with chinese sausage, scallions and bean sprouts, it was flavorful and extremely filling.  By the time the pork buns I was a bit full already.  While I remember loving them before, this time the actual bun was a bit too heavy on the bread for me.  The pork itself could have been a bit more moist (although the buns did come with a side of peanut sauce), but I will give credit that there were TONS of pork in the bun.  We ended up ordering the rice crepe as an impulse decision.  Virginia and I both wanted another dish but something light.  We both thought that this dish was more of the Vietnamese type of crepe that looked like a  giant thin giant pancake.  Instead, this was similar to the chow fun noodles used in Chinese dishes, but rolled together and then fried and topped with spicy meat.  After we ordered it we waited and waited and waited.  By the time it came, one of the noodles was completely charred black and rock hard.  These are the type of noodles that you cannot leave on heat for every long before it gets hard.  It was clear that they left this in the pan for too long. I can't believe that a chef would actually plate something that was completely black and hard to the touch.  In my whole life, I've probably only sent back 1-2 dishes, but I could not let this one pass.

They brought another one out rather quickly which led me to believe that they totally just forgot about the other one and tried to serve it up. This one was better and not rock hard but the last dish just kind of put a bad taste in my mouth about this dish.  I think it has potential to be a good dish but I don't think it needed to be pan fried. 

One of the nice things about Kuma Inn is that it's BYOB, so it's a great way to save money.  One of the bad things about Kuma Inn is that it's cash only.  You can also visit Kuma Inn's sister restaurant Umi Nom in Clinton Hill if you happen to be in the 'hood (similar menu and concept). Total bill for 2 was $49 (not including tip).