When I got to the restaurant, I realized that I had been there before but when it was another restaurant. That's when I know that I've lived in NYC for too long when I start to go to different restaurant incarnations in the same space. I knew the menu here was Asian but it's much more slanted towards Filipino than anything else. In fact the menu reminded me a lot of another Top Chef owned restaurant, Talde. Most of the items on here are small plate versions with a few larger plates to choose from. Our waitress told us that 2 small plates and 1 large plate was good for 2 people. So Janet and I decided to get the fried oysters (special for the night), grilled pork jowl ($13) and the cod fish wrapped and steamed in a banana leaf (special for the night) as well as a side of coconut rice ($3 each).
The fried oysters came out first and they were served with a lime-chili sauce that had some really good heat to it. While the oysters were nicely lightly battered, I just didn't taste a lot of the actual oyster. I felt like I was eating a lot of fried goodness but not a lot of oyster goodness. Next came the grilled pork jowl. This was served with chunks of watermelon (where the hell are they getting watermelon in the dead of winter?), homemade chicharron, toasted rice and lime-chili fish sauce. I enjoyed each of the components individually but there was something off when you ate everything together. The chicharron was also pretty flavorless and didn't add much to the overall dish. There's something about watermelon with fish sauce on it that wasn't super appealing. The flavor profile of grilled pork and watermelon just didn't work for me and Janet didn't love this dish at all either. What I was really excited for was the steamed fish in the banana leaf. I expected it to be a whole fish (because that's usually how fish is served in Asian restaurants) or at least in large fillets. But instead this small cut of fish that was about 5 bites total showed up. I was so disappointed when I saw it. Taste-wise, it wasn't so bad but it was covered in some kind of thick coconut sauce that made it kind of not so appealing to look at. But the star of the show was the coconut rice. It was so good that when the waitress tried to take my bowl of rice away, I actually slapped her hand away and asked her to box it up for me (sorry!!). The flavor of coconut really hits you in the face, but that didn't bother me. It tasted amazing on its own but I almost ordered another side dish, just so I could continue eating it without looking like I was scarfing down a bowl of plain rice.
I didn't hate the place but when the side of rice is the best dish of the night, something is not right. I do want to say that our waitress was awesome and super friendly and made the whole night very enjoyable. After reading Yelp, it sounded like maybe the sizzling sigsig would have been a better selection, but I'm not so sure if I would come back soon, especially given all the other really great Asian places in NYC. Total bill: $72 for 2 with tax and tip.
Photo Credit: Yelp
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