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2016-08-25
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Okra is rather near my apartment, and I've walked by it many times, but never been quite sure what it would be like. From what I read, I want to say, "Japanese," but their website says: "We do not serve any Japanese themed dishes." OK. I'm not even sure what a Japanese themed dish is. I guess some things can't be categorized?The restaurant is run by Max Levy, whose claim to fame is that he was the only non-Japanese chef at yadda-yadda, whatever, some sushi place in New York. That strikes me more
The restaurant is run by Max Levy, whose claim to fame is that he was the only non-Japanese chef at yadda-yadda, whatever, some sushi place in New York. That strikes me more as a testament to the xenophobia of the Japanese than the skill of the chef, but yadda-yadda, whatever. This particular restaurant is an "extension of Okra 1949 in Beijing, China," though it must extend there underground, because I couldn't otherwise see a connection.
Don't listen to the Hong Kong Tatler about reservations. Like many tatlers, they aren't even telling the truth. Back in February they said: "The Sai Ying Pun restaurant will be launching officially later this month after which it will be no-reservations. " False! Then in March they said:
"The Okra experience begins with email reservations, which are only available for the 6pm slot when guests must order the restaurant’s tasting menu. The restaurant opens for walk-ins at 8:30pm until late, where only a la carte dishes are served. The rules may be clear but they are not easily carried out as we needed to wait an extra 30 minutes outside for the later session even though tables were freed up. "
Ouch! That's awful. Luckily, that's also false too, as of this writing. The Okra website now says, "Walk-ins are welcome any time," and as far as I can tell, that's true. We came at around 7:45 on a Wednesday, and they did not make us wait until later for the a la carte menu. Whatever dumb thing made them think that was a good idea, at least they've now come to their senses. This should be good news to Sgt. Noms of FYNoms, who, like myself is "just too old and lazy to be messing around with that hipster, no booking bull****."
A lot of reviews I read suggested there were standing tables. I don't stand and eat. If I'm upright, I'm walking and eating, because I'm late to something. Anyway, I didn't notice anyone sitting down, so that's a good sign. But as the SCMP puts it, the seating is "uncomfotable": backless bar stools, and the tables packed so far together that your personal space is bound to be violated again and again by the inconsiderate jerk behind you. Or at least, that's what happened to me, when the dude behind me never seemed to wise on that the object he was leaning into was another human being.
OK, that covers the who, how, and ow!, let's say we move on to the food.
Or the beer, whatever. My wife didn't want sake because she hates wine made out of rice; the wine made out of grapes is only by the bottle; so we were stuck with one beer or a Suntory highball. I went with the beer: Kentucky Kolsch. This has a 78 (okay) score on beeradvocate and an 8 (out of 100) on ratebeer. I can't say I thought it was very good. Light, but a little off-tasting, I honestly don't know how or why they picked this, unless just to seem like they have really deep knowledge by picking something obscure.
The first dish to come was the tsukemono (Japanese pickles). This wasn't on the regular menu, but rather on the specials list. There were four pickles, clockwise from lower left: okra, bamboo, kyurizuke (cucmber), and kimchi. I grew up eating okra pickles (I'm from Texas) and I rather liked the ones here. The bamboo was a little strong. The cucumber was fine, not that exciting. My favorite was the kimchi. While it didn't look at all like kimchi (white cabbage, no kochujang), it had a distinctive kimchi flavor, strongly pickly, and very garlicky. I could eat tons of this stuff.
Next we got-- maybe-- the "Yazu Yellowtail with Housemade Yuba." I say this because this is the closest thing on the online menu to what we got. I know we got yellowtail in ponzu vinegar, but ours came additionally with tofu skin, spring onions, and chives. The tofu skin was very light and eggy in texture and the fish was firm and rich, the flavors on the whole being relatively subdued. This was from the "A side" of the menu; the larger "B side" dishes, it says, are "bigger and bolder."
Our final small dish was the crispy brussels sprouts with O.K. sauce, "Fried with shochu infused Xinjiang raisins & homemade X.O. sauce." O.K. sauce or X.O. sauce? I need consistency in my menu names and menu descriptions!
This was the best dish of the night, and perhaps my favorite vegetable dish of all time. And I'm not one of those schmucks who doesn't like his vegetables. I'm sure man originally stole fire from the gods to cook mammoth or some other now-extinct megafauna, but its true calling was to cook these brussels sprouts, like this. The dish was deeply savory, meaty in character, and the sprouts were perfectly charred, crispy in places, wilty in others, firm and juicy in the main, and so rich. There was a mild amount of spice and some tiny fish heads and parts, from the X.O./ O.K. sauce, and some extremely tiny cubes of some kind of meat? I found myself scrounging the dish for tiny bits I'd missed. Get this, and you will not be disappointed.
Between our small plates and our slightly-larger small plates, there was a significant wait, maybe 20 minutes? It was looooong. Eventually, our chicken fried chicken came out. This was another special. The first thing I should say is that, while it was what I was expecting, it was not chicken fried chicken, but rather fried chicken. Fried chicken is chicken, usually on the bone, breaded and, um, fried. Chicken fried steak is a steak cutlet, breaded with the sort of breading you put on a chicken, and fried. Chicken fried chicken is a derivative dish: it's chicken pounded to be about the size and shape of a chicken fried steak, and then fried like the latter. "Fried chicken" sounds less exciting, but if that's what you're serving, call a spade a spade. Chef Max Levy from New Orleans!The chicken was very good. I've had juicier, tastier fried chicken, but this was very good. But the breading-- oh!-- it was fantastic. Crispy and crunchy, clinging perfectly to the bird and not shattering or sliding off, peppery and perfectly salted, I was picking little bits of breading from between rib bones. I could eat two plates of this all to myself. I've heard lots of good things about the chicken fried cobia (yellowtail) on the menu, and I will be certain to come back for that.
Finally, we got the unagi fun, "Roasted eel over crispy sushi rice & pickles." I didn't see no pickles, not that I hadn't had enough for one night. When the SCMP visited, the rice wasn't crispy, but ours was very crispy, maybe too much so. The eel was tender and flaky like a fish, but more robust, kinda like snake. It was a good dish, but nothing overwhelming and for a B side menu that promised "bolder," I kinda wondered where the boldness was.The food here is fabulous. The fried chicken, brussels sprouts, and kimchi, were all things I categorically loved. Nothing else fell below 'good,' maybe even 'very good,' it's tough to tell when the restaurant itself is setting the bar so high. Though the menu is limited, I kinda wanna go back. That's not like me at all.
The main drawback is the seating. Usually restaurants put some barrier between diners. It could be as simple as empty space, but sometimes it's fancy stuff like chair backs and booths. This restaurant says it's an extension of Okra 1949, but have you seen that place? You could park a boat in there. Here, I was the seatback for the guy behind me. What's more, the barstools are uncomfortable in themselves. I guess it's better than standing, but much in the same way that being kicked in the rear is better than being kicked in the head. Okra seems to have realized that some of its prior arrangements (like the bizarre reservations policy) were in need of tweaking, and one can only hope they tweak this one too.
I've rolled "guy behind you pokes you every 30 seconds" into my "Decor" rating and "fried chicken takes half an hour" into "Service." The servers, however, were excellent.
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