what the hell? food is okay, but it's hard to judge when served in such tiny portions. sure, prices seem cheap enough, but seriously, one link of a chinese sausage...
Posted by: aroundthecorner at August 6, 2003 06:00 PMI soooo disagree that this place is an undiscovered gem. Aroundthecorner is right: $7 for a morsel of tapas, does not a cheap eats make. You need 3-4 $7 for a meal. And frankly, the chinese sausage was the only good thing on the menu. Everything else was blaaand. And the sake? Forget it, expensive and mediocre. The better Asian fusion place...a little more off the beaten path for we LESers, is Forbidden City on Avenue A. Food there is amaaaazing and worth the price, which is still cheaper.
I am now done my rant. Thank you.
Oh and it's not Japanese but Filipino...with a few other asian-y elements tossed in. Frankly it's not even that Filipino.
Posted by: suffolksweetie at August 6, 2003 06:31 PMFilipino, eh? Factcheckers let us down again, I see.
Posted by: Lock at August 6, 2003 06:52 PMInteresting how different folks can be on this place.
Posted by: Joe Blo at August 7, 2003 09:56 AMOh, and it's spelled sake, not saki. There goes your hip cache.
Posted by: Daryl West at August 7, 2003 12:49 PMWhat hip cache?
Posted by: Lock at August 7, 2003 01:23 PMi bumped into the owner of this place last month at 71 clinton fresh food. he's down with all the chefs there and seemed like a nice enough guy.. but unfortunately seemed to inherit 71's pricing structure. either way, a $7 chinese sausage at kuma beats a $26 2" x 3" piece of bland fish at 71 clinton... any day.
Posted by: kevin at August 7, 2003 02:34 PMyikes. why are LS.com readers so cheap.
Posted by: sd at August 7, 2003 04:06 PM"yikes. why are LS.com readers so cheap."
...uh well many of us have actually eaten in Chinatown and shopped there and bought the $7 dollar Chinese sausage for 2$. Maybe some folks don't have money to waste on poor value/per food.
"...uh well many of us have actually eaten in Chinatown and shopped there and bought the $7 dollar Chinese sausage for 2$"
actually eaten in chinatown?! my yuppie ass never made it there. your authentic cool new yorker medal will be sent later.
Posted by: sd at August 8, 2003 11:47 AMI wouldn't be so quick to call it Filipino just because the name is taken from a Filipino word; chef/owner King Phojanakong is half-Thai, after all -- one would think his last name would be a dead giveaway (but you white folks are weird like that). And, you know, we Filipinos don't drink sake at all, we drink beer, gin and rum (in that order). I'm guessing it's just gussied-up pan-asian food... but feel free to prove me wrong by taking me there!
Posted by: lia at August 8, 2003 05:34 PMi went here a while ago. i really wanted to like this place. it was upstairs. there was no signage. it was half a block away from home. i guess i had in mind a spot that could be a regular meal with a kinda 'locals only' feel. so maybe it's my own fault for having expectations.
the interior is very weird (but who cares), the place is empty (boring), the portions are small (bummer), the prices are high (there goes the chance of it being regular), and the food isnt very special (no reason to return). if the food is just an excuse to drink sake, then the (lack of) vibe is an excuse to not bother.
I think many people want no frills no 'tude
dining. LES really lacks a staple type place,
it's either crap like the hat or expensive designer food like the Clinton joints. Nothing wrong with either extreme, just the middle ground is rather lacking I t hink. Maybe this new McNally joint will help, but it sounds like it will be upscale.
sd: I think people are cheap because they don't got no dollars to spend.
hey,
what's up with those idiots at Rush Hour?
those fucking guys basically drip negative waves.
i rang to get delivery the other day and after repeating my phone number for this cat, like 5 times, he starts yelling how i should stop "yelling on him" (i wasnt) and that "he was very tired and busy". like i give a shit (well, actualy i did a bit cos i was scared he was going to spit in my food).
so anyway, here's a big fuck you to those assholes.
Posted by: states at August 14, 2003 11:53 AM
I did spit in your food, how was it shouty?
Posted by: Rush at August 14, 2003 02:31 PMIt's always amusing to see Asians serving watered down versions of authentic cuisines to know-nothing white Yuppies for 10X the price of better food in an ethnic place.
If the decor is "hip", make that 15X the price, and if it's a highly decorated dump with expensive furniture, make that 20X the price.
I would not trust the opinions of 99 out of 100 "reviewers" who would not know what good food was if it bit them on the ass.
Posted by: Edward Felcher at August 23, 2003 08:04 AMum....no offense to the nay-sayers but did you folks realize that this place was a "tapas" restaurant? for those of you who don't know....tapas=small portions. er go, the food merely accompanies what you drink, in this case sake. and for those of you who are comparing it to a chinatown restaurant...man there's no correlation what so ever folks. tapas....chinese restaurant....no match there guys. sure there are places on mott to get good chinese food for the same price with bigger portions but you don't go to a tapas place to eat chinese. i give this place a thumb's up. you cheap asses should just stick to take-out.
Posted by: happy go lucky at November 4, 2003 01:58 AMChef King Phojanakong is half Filipino and half Thai. I have been here twice early on when they were only open for about a month and recently after they had been open for about a year. This is not a great place for vegetarians. Because like a good Filipino, King prepares seafood, chicken and beef very well. I had the fresh broiled scallops cooked in bacon sauce, the pickled southeast asian vegetables which included long beans, and the Filipino rice noodles (Bihon) with the infamous chinese Sausages. All were prepared with great care and attention to the balance of flavors. I don't mind the small portions -- it just means you get to try more dishes. i think this is place is not that expensive, either.
Posted by: heidi at March 22, 2004 05:16 PM