Late Night Dinner at Buddakan

This evening after work I joined some colleagues for a late-night dinner at Buddakan in the Meatpacking District. Buddakan reminds me of other Asian nightclub fusion restaurants I have visited since moving to this area such as Koi and Tao. In addition to representing the high art of nonspecific pan-Asian cuisine, these establishments share an approach that in my mind suggests that they put at least as much investment in the wall treatments and soundtrack as they do the food. That's not to say that they don't put a lot into the food, which is good at any of these places. Just that it's not going to be able to outshine the other components in the atmosphere, and it's not competing with the really good restaurants that focus more on gastronomical features as opposed to ambience and vibe.

We showed up a little bit early for our 9:45 reservation, and the first thing we noticed was the impressive reception desk that reminds one strongly of a hotel checkin counter. It was clear that they were extremely busy (despite the relative lateness of the hour for dinner on a Wednesday night), and we were invited into the bar/lounge area to await our table.

We wound up waiting for about 40 minutes or so for our table, during which we enjoyed cocktails at the bar. Apparently Buddakan is in need of a better system for notifying waiting guests that their tables are ready, since during that time we were approached three times by hostesses trying to determine whether we were a particular named party that was ready to be seated. Each time they left to continue their search after determining that we were not the party they were looking for. Not that I would suggest that they need to announce names over a loudspeaker ala Red Lobster or similar, but it created a roller coaster of anticipation and disappointment each time it occurred, and probably made the wait time seem longer than it actually was.

Nevertheless, the time passed quickly and finally on the fourth try the hostess matched up our name to a table and led us away to be seated. Walking through the restaurant gave us a good chance to check out the various murals and other impressive wall treatments, which as stated above were clearly an important of the overall experience.

After a brief discussion with the waiter, we decide on the omikase menu for ease of ordering. This included an inquiry by our waiter about how hungry we were on a scale of one to ten, which we averaged out to seven. It was nice that he made the attempt to size the meal to fit our preference, and it actually turned out to be a pretty close match to our capacity.

One of our party who was more familiar with sake options than I asked for hot sake and was told that there was none offered there at Buddakan. After a skeptical glare, he instead decided on a cold option that the table shared.

The first round in the omikase menu included raw tuna spring rolls, fried rock shrimp in a velvety sauce, boneless spareribs, and a king crabmeat salad. The spring rolls in particular stood out, although the fried wrappers were a bit on the oily side. It was impressive that they were able to squeeze raw tuna into fried eggroll wrappers as if the wrappers had been cooked with the tuna inside.

After the appetizers came the main course, which included a black code with what I assumed to ba a kasu glaze, sausage fried rice, sliced strip steak, and a sliced pork tenderloin served overo sticky rice that was presented over a large lotus leaf. The pork tenderloin seemed to be the clear winner, but that may be because of my fondness for the lotus leaf sticky rice combination one typically gets at a dim sum house. The pork was prepared medium rare, which I know can be off-putting for some, but I thought it was excellent.

After checking to make sure we were open to the idea of dessert, the waiter brought out a trio of sweets that included a molten chocolate cake, a napoleon of chocolate mousse and banana sandwiched between sheets of thin dark chocolate, and a meringue tart with some kind of sweet potato relish. All three were served with some variety of ice cream or gelato. Of these, the napoleon was clearly superior, as the chocolate ice cream accompanying it included a mildly spicy chocolate crumb mixture that provided a perfect counterpart to the rich sweetness of the ice cream.

In all, the experience was quite good, including the careful attention to all kinds of aesthetics, not just the food.