Thursday, October 28, 2010
Food Chain / Food & Drink Going Down at Richland Center, Chinatown
Posted by Mike Sula on 10.28.10 at 10:53 AM
- Mike Sula
- They cut your okonomiyaki for you
When someone told me you could get okonomiyaki from a relatively new food stall in the basement of Richland Center in Chinatown, I sought it out, even though this savory mayo-and-barbecue-sauce-drenched octopus-and-onion pancake, sprinkled with shivering bonito flakes—aka "Japanese pizza"—is something you probably could only love if you grow up with it. It's a gloppy, sloppy, mushy mess, and the stand's octopus balls (takoyaki) weren't much better, unforgivably undercooked and filled with gooey wet batter.
- Mike Sula
- Takoyaki
What I find remarkable and hugely promising is that someone sees enough potential in the concept to open a dedicated teppanyaki stand in a relatively isolated basement on the heretofore desolate far end of Chinatown Square. Kylin Teppanyaki is one of three food stalls to stake themselves one floor below Tony Hu's much-hyped small-plates spot Lao You Ju. Apart from Kylin, there's only a little buffet and a sushi bar right now, along with a few retail shops—but there's room for eight more food stalls.
Jing He of the Richland Group tells me there's a Korean noodle stall on the way, and Hong Kong sandwiches and Thai food in the planning stages. "A lot of little entrepreneurs I come across don't have enough revenue to start a full-fledged restaurant," he says. "But here it is much cheaper for them to run. The goal is that each stall will be different. There will not be overlapping food items."
I can't help but be reminded of the magnificent food courts in Flushing, Queens. Surely there's room for a lamb-face salad stand in Chinatown.
- Mike Sula
- Noodles go here, please
With the Chinese liquor store and a few other retail spots, as well as great soup dumplings at Tao Ran Ju and a handful of newer Hong Kong-style cafes—to say nothing of a real live noodle puller working the window at Hing Kee (a place that serves something called "sushi pizza"), is it premature to say that Chinatown Square is undergoing a renaissance?
Maybe it is. But I'm still going to keep my eye on that food court, if only to test the theory that everything tastes better from a basement.
- Mike Sula
- Richland Center
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