Sorba The Great

Ramen may be the new it food in NYC, but don't you hate it when your noodles and toppings are overrun with broth? Enter Sorba--a new noodle bowl concoction brought to you from Japanese Iron Chef Yuji Wakiya and his new Flatiron restaurant, Koa. The concept of sorba focuses on presentation in a large bowl, handcrafted noodles made from soymilk imported from Japan, and a shallow amount of broth meant to supplement the noodles and toppings, and not the other way around. In addition to sorba, Koa features many traditional Chinese dishes executed with a Japanese flair. I was invited to try the just opened restaurant this past weekend with the boyfriend and would heartily recommend that you check it out!

After being greeted by co-owners Keiko Ono Aoki (of Benihana fame) and Tora Matsuoka, we were seated in the front dining room, which is wrapped in rich wood and decorated with elegant white leather chairs and hanging rope "noodles." The back dining room is designed around a large square bar and features giant iron birdcage chandeliers and hanging tree branches. Tora introduced us to the restaurant concept and designed a menu for us featuring Koa's signature dishes and of course, sake.

We started with the yuzu crispy shrimp with sweet & spicy yuzu pepper cream sauce ($14), crispy crabmeat wontons with coconut chili powder and sweet chili sauce ($10), vegetable spring rolls with sweet miso sauce ($9), and the Szechuan salad ($12).

Crispy crabmeat wontons ($10)

Vegetable spring rolls ($9)

Yuzu crispy shrimp ($14)

Szechuan salad ($12)

The yuzu shrimp was our favorite of the appetizers--tangy, succulent, and crunchy with a late, late kick. It was definitely nice to have a glass of light sake on hand to wash things down with. The Szechuan salad will not be for everyone. It is made with traditionally Szechuan peppercorns that create a tingling, numbing sensation on your tongue as you eat. It is a very different, yet fun, experience. The spring rolls were good but fairly typical and the wontons were great, creamy on the inside but fried to a perfect crisp.

Next up cocktail-wise was the Yu-Gin with Bulldog gin, yuzu juice, cucumber, shiso, and tonic water. It was a refreshing accompaniment to our second course of steamed Chilean sea bass with

broccoli ($29). This was a dish, Aoki explained, that showcased the clean, simple Japanese technique on a typical Chinese dish (which would normally be covered in sauce). Koa's version focused on the freshness of the fish and sprinkled it with some flair--ginger scallion sauce, flecks of bell pepper, and crispy sticks of fried creamy. This was a winning dish for sure.

The Yu-Gin and the front dining room of Koa

Steamed Chilean sea bass ($29)

Next, Tora brought out Koa's signature sorba dish, the soymilk dan dan with ground beef and soymilk broth ($23). If you've ever tried a traditional dan dan noodle dish before, you know the feeling of not being able to stop eating because the second you do you realize how on fire your mouth is, but for some masochistic reason, you go back to slurping. This dish is somewhat reminiscent of that, but much, much milder. That's thanks to the soymilk. The story goes (as we were told twice), that the Iron Chef came to the US and tried the 6 different soymilks available here and spat them all out in disgust. So Koa imports a special brand from Japan which enables dishes like the soymilk dan dan to be very balanced and really shine.

Soymilk dan dan sorba ($23)

We capped things off with a bowl of yuzu sorbet, a very refreshing palate cleanser, and the Lady M cocktail with Ciroc coconut vodka, soy milk, three wishes infused syrup, and premium matcha green tea. The cocktail was one of my favorite items of the night and would go back just for that dessert drink--super creamy but no dairy!

Yuzu sorbet

Lady M cocktail

Koa just opened for weekend service so it was pretty empty when we were there (usually a red flag for me), but I'm sure with word of mouth and a few adventurous ramen lovers looking for something a little different, this will soon be a tough reservation to snag. Check it out and let us know what you think.

Authentic Sichuan Food on Restaurant Row

Over my years living in NYC, I've learned that Restaurant Row, though it has it's gems (I'm looking at you Bourbon Street), is typically a seedy place to eat dinner. You've got the hustlers trying to get suckers to pay for their overpriced pre-theater menus, and just the general hustle and bustle of that neighborhood can be a bit too much to handle. So you can understand my hesitance when I was invited for dinner at Grand Sichuan last weekend. My mom was in town and we had plans to see Tom Hanks in Lucky Guy (excellent! go see it!), so I suggested we give this place a try.

First thing I noticed when we were ushered back to our table in the back room of the narrow, white-walled, simple restaurant--everyone was speaking Chinese. That piqued my interest because you know those people aren't there for the General Tso's Chicken or the Beef with Mixed Vegetables. Maggie (I don't think that was her given name), our bubbly and cheerful host for the night gave us a bit of perspective about the menu. It was mostly Sichuan-inspired, with some more traditional elements as well (for the tourists who stumble in most likely). She did warn us that Sichuan food is inherently very spicy but was very nice in suggesting things for us that were not as hot, while still authentic.

First up, we tried the egg drop soup ($2.25). While it was similar to the egg drop soup I'm used to, this version had a lot more flavor. It was made with vegetables and had a bit of a peppery kick to it. It would definitely be nice to cuddle up with on a cold winter's day.

Egg Drop Soup ($2.25)

Next up, we opted for something a big on the spicier side that had rave reviews on Yelp. Dan Dan noodles are as traditional as you come in Sichuan food, and Grand Sichuan offers two different versions; plain or Xie Lao Ban's version from the Dunlop book (both $4.25). We chose the latter because Maggie said it was fairly famous and had a lot more flavor and no sugar added. Wow, was this delicious. My mouth is seriously watering now just thinking about it. However, it was one of the spiciest things I've ever eaten in my life. It was the kind of thing that you have to just keep eating because if you stop the heat will just take over and your mouth will explode (see all that bright red in the bottom? yea, that's straight hot pepper sauce). But the strange thing was that even though this dish was so spicy, it had so much flavor and I actually went back for seconds after the rest of our food came, event though that was slightly masochistic.

Xie Lao Ban's Dan Dan Noodles ($4.25)

The menu offers two different duck options, and we went for the Smoked Tea Duck ($16.95) which was served crispy with buns and sauce you use to make little sandwiches. This meat was delicious and super moist. You could even taste a slight tea flavor under all that crispiness. Good stuff. 

Smoked Tea Duck ($16.95)

Then the entrees started coming. First were the beef short ribs served with a corn salad and topped with spicy shredded beef ($13.95). Next to the meat there was something that Maggie even had a hard time describing. It was like a white film made from milk that was fairly bland tasting and two brownish balls that were liquidy when you poked them and those were made from meat and that's all I can tell you about that. The shortribs however were jam-packed with flavor and super tender and delicious (as they should be after being cooked for 80+ hours!). The corn was a bit funky (do they even grow corn in China?), but the meat was soooooooooo yummy.

Beef Short Ribs ($13.95)

We were also sent out a dish of the curry chicken ($9.95), which is on the chef specialties list even though curry is not typically found in Sichuan food Maggie told us. Still, the meat was delicious and the sauce full of flavor.

Curry Chicken ($9.95)

We opted for the vegetable happy family as our last entree because, well, you can see that we had been eating fairly heavily before that. I was a bit puzzled by this dish but it was very fun to look at. It had some boiled pieces of pumpkin, sweet potato, potato and squash and was served with a radish foam, tomato/pepper puree, spinach jello like things, and dried flakes of different vegetables. I'm still not sure exactly how this is Chinese, but it was nice so have some fiber included with the meal.

Vegetable Happy Family

All in all I'd say we did pretty well. We got some looks from the other patrons when Maggie kept bringing out dish after dish. I'd venture to think they got some kicks out of seeing us eat those Dan Dan noodles. We turned down Maggie's offer of dessert because we were so full, but they did bring us some orange slices and fortune cookies to round out the meal.

Our table once we'd given up

Orange Slices and Fortune Cookies

I must say that I've got to rethink my entire opinion of Restaurant Row after eating at Grand Sichuan. Maybe there are some more [authentic] hidden gems on that stretch of West 46th Street, and I'll definitely add this to the list!