I've had a few friends moved to Ditmas Park in recent years and the area has definitely started to develop it's own neighborhood food scene. The area has been known for places like The Farm on Adderley and Purple Yam, so I was excited to try out another local scene. Although to be honest, I am usually a bit weary of Asian fusion places especially ones that are run by non-Asians. But luckily Bashi Channel turned out to be a lovely surprise that I can see would be a nice neighborhood hang out if I lived nearby.
The space is cozy but fairly non-descript. There's a small bar upfront and then a few tables in the back. The menu here is, as I mentioned, Asian fusion - it had dumplings, ramen, steamed buns, stir fry, pad thai, Vietnamese sandwiches and curry salmon - so it was literally Asian fusion in the truest sense. It's like they took the "best of" or "greatest hits" of a Chinese, Thai, Japanese, Korean, and Indian menus and put it all in one place. The soup dumplings actually sounded and looked delicious but I wasn't super hungry so I opted for the Dan Dan noodles ($14), Greg got the kimchi ramen ($14) and Sarah got the Bashi Noodles ($12). I've always been a big fan of dan dan and other types of cold noodle dishes, so I was excited to try this one out - especially when the waitress told me that I got the last one for the night!
The noodles were served with spicy ground pork, scallion, a raw egg yolk and "dry" noodles (meaning no soup or sauce really). I was quite impressed with the presentation especially with the beautiful yolk in the middle. The noodles were nice and thick and chewy - just the way I like my cold noodles dishes. The waitress had warned me that the dish was spicy and even though I am trying to improve my spice tolerance, this one was still pretty damn spicy. I was chugging ginger beer and water constantly throughout the meal. You definitely can't say that this dish doesn't have flavor to it - it was just a bit too much for me. I kept mixing the scallions and yolk around to offset the spicy pork but it didn't really help too much. Luckily I was able to chow down on most of the yummy noodles and sadly left a bunch of pork behind in the bowl. Greg and Sarah's dishes both looked comforting and like it would hit the spot. Even though we were pretty full we were lured into dessert with the description of donuts with vietnamese/condensed milk type of dipping sauce. You could tell that they were freshly made because they were warm and soft. The sugar and cinnamon covering was delicious and it was a nice way to end the meal.
Overall, I left feeling pretty happy and satisfied for a random Sunday night outing. As my friend Neel said (who also lives in the 'hood), it's not awe-inspiring but it fills a gap and need in the neighborhood and I couldn't agree more. In fact, I wish there was a place like this near where I lived because Williamsburg is severely lacking in casual, affordable, Chinese comfort food that isn't served behind bars. I was hoping that Kings County Imperial would fill that gap, but sadly it was too pricey to be some place that I would go frequently. The only bad thing about this place was that the waitress messed up splitting our bill and swiped Greg's card twice (essentially paying for the entire meal) instead of splitting it on 2 cards. I'm sure we could have said something as she was super nice and sweet, but when the total bill was roughly $20-25/pp we couldn't be bothered to deal with it. Total bill: $86 for 3 people with tax and tip
Photo Credit: Yelp
No comments:
Post a Comment