One of the very few perks of my job is that sometimes get invited to hotel parties and openings as they are trying to win my client's corporate business. I had been to the 50 Bowery Hotel before and it's actually a really cool and funky hotel in the heart of Chinatown. It's got a fantastic rooftop bar but the last time I was there, the restaurant hadn't opened yet. When it did open, the hotel's GM invited me and my team for a private dinner there.
I didn't know at the time but the restaurant is run by Dale Talde and unfortunately I just haven't had any good luck with any of his previous restaurants before. There was just something off about all of them and while this was one better than both of them, I'm not sure I would come screaming back here again. Part of it was probably because our hotel partners really ordered way too much food and I was so full before the main dishes arrived that it kind of ruined the entire experience.
Our hotel partners kindly created a custom menu just for us - it turned out to be an 12 course meal. Most of it were dishes I probably would have wanted to try to so I can't complain about the choices - it was just the quantity of food. Since there were 11 of us they brought out 3 of everything on the menu, so that was 33 dishes that came past our table. Way too much food. As with every other Dale Talde restaurant, the menu here is Asian fusion (you know my feeling about Asian fusion). The menu started with candied pork buns, lobster and shrimp hargow and pho soup dumplings. For entrees, we had the crispy papaya salad, octopus skewer, thai fried chicken rice, whole smoke branzino and pork sisig. For sides, they brought out fried Brussels sprouts and charred eggplant. On paper they all sounded delicious and if I wasn't a picky eater about Asian food, I probably would have really enjoyed everything. But for me, I believe you should stick with the traditional ways for some of these dishes - like the hargow. No need for the lobster and the soup dumplings plus pho soup base didn't really go together in my opinion. They weren't necessarily bad dishes but I just prefer the traditional versions of each. The pork buns were more like the char siu bao type and not the pork belly type that I was envisioning in my head. They were tasty and small, so it was really easy to pop like 3 or 4 in your mouth easily.
The crispy papaya salad would have been good if it didn't have all the fried component to it. The octopus skewer was nice and tender but not particularly Asian for me. But this point I was so full and nothing I really ate after this point tasted good because my stomach was so full. The fried rice was eh - I mean, it was a chicken fried rice so there wasn't much that was super impressive about it. I did regret not having more room for the branzino. I love a whole fish and the few bites I had of this were pretty tasty with the caper ginger relish and citrus ponzu. I didn't try the pork sisig but unfortunately not many of us did. It came on a bed of broad noodles but since no one really touched it, the noodles ended up all sticking together. I didn't try any of the sides but apparently they were a huge hit with everyone else. For dessert they brought out some kind of citrus dish and ice cream - it was a nice way to cleanse the palate from an otherwise very heavy meal.
Overall, it wasn't a terrible experience but just very overwhelming with the sheer amount of food put in front of us. We ended up having a ton of leftovers and Susanne took some home but she mentioned that it smelled really bad the next day, so she ended up throwing it all out, which is a shame. I will say that the space and design is really funky and cool - it matches the aesthetic of the rest of the hotel. Given that this hotel is in the heart of Chinatown, it would be a mistake to come here to eat Asian food when you're literally surrounded by tons of more authentic options. True, they may look a bit more sketchy but food wise, you would be getting a more traditional meal for a lot less money too. I would come here for a few cocktails and appetizers and definitely hit the rooftop bar before heading out into the city for a real meal.
Photo Credit: Yelp
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