Dec. 3rd, 2010 04:58 pm
New food: Café 527
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muckefuckDisgruntled by the delay in reopening the Korean place, I decide to check out the "Korean tacos" at Café 527. The name is really a misnomer, since instead of being served in a tortilla, the Korean ingredients (pulgogi and kimchi) are piled onto a couple sheets of rice-lined laver. So what you really have is a deconstructed maki--and since I've had pulgogi kimbap before, this was not a new adventure for me. The only novel element was the chipotle mayo.
That said, it's a generous portion of meat at a reasonable price. I just wish it tasted more...Korean. Take away the token amount of kimchi and you're left with some tender beef that could've come out of almost any Asian stir-fry. And where were the scallions? Because if there's a savoury Korean dish in this world that isn't garnished with them, then I certainly haven't come across it. But what's especially disappointing that you can't actually eat it as a taco--at least not without getting a messy explosion of juice and filling all over your hands.
I guess I shouldn't be surprised by these lapsi given that--judging from their specials--the owners were actually Taiwanese. I thought I'd give them home field advantage and ordered the Taiwanese sausage fried rice on a whim. Again, not bad: a generous amount of food well cooked. In fact, the serving of meat was so generous I had to leave some of it uneaten. I like the taste of Chinese sausage, but the fattiness gets to me after a while.
Which is why this dish struck me as another lesson in missed opportunities. I was expecting them to dice the sausage instead of slicing it and then fry it up first in order to render some of fat. The rice itself was flawless: not too oily and with the right amount of crispness. And I was surprised by the complete lack of soy sauce--a plus for sodium-adverse me, but I can see how a lot of people would find the results too bland.
One can't really speak to service as the set-up is order-and-we'll-bring-it-out. The cashier was friendly and prompt, but it took longer than I expected to get my food given that it was very simple and the place wasn't crowded. This really makes me wonder about their business model. It takes some chutzpah to open up a shiny fast-casual Chinese place right next to Joy Yee--particularly with such a limited menu when your competition's goes on for pages and pages. It could work if everything you had was a world apart from what you could get next door, but if all their fusions are this uninspired then, well, I'm glad I checked the place out while I still had a chance.
That said, it's a generous portion of meat at a reasonable price. I just wish it tasted more...Korean. Take away the token amount of kimchi and you're left with some tender beef that could've come out of almost any Asian stir-fry. And where were the scallions? Because if there's a savoury Korean dish in this world that isn't garnished with them, then I certainly haven't come across it. But what's especially disappointing that you can't actually eat it as a taco--at least not without getting a messy explosion of juice and filling all over your hands.
I guess I shouldn't be surprised by these lapsi given that--judging from their specials--the owners were actually Taiwanese. I thought I'd give them home field advantage and ordered the Taiwanese sausage fried rice on a whim. Again, not bad: a generous amount of food well cooked. In fact, the serving of meat was so generous I had to leave some of it uneaten. I like the taste of Chinese sausage, but the fattiness gets to me after a while.
Which is why this dish struck me as another lesson in missed opportunities. I was expecting them to dice the sausage instead of slicing it and then fry it up first in order to render some of fat. The rice itself was flawless: not too oily and with the right amount of crispness. And I was surprised by the complete lack of soy sauce--a plus for sodium-adverse me, but I can see how a lot of people would find the results too bland.
One can't really speak to service as the set-up is order-and-we'll-bring-it-out. The cashier was friendly and prompt, but it took longer than I expected to get my food given that it was very simple and the place wasn't crowded. This really makes me wonder about their business model. It takes some chutzpah to open up a shiny fast-casual Chinese place right next to Joy Yee--particularly with such a limited menu when your competition's goes on for pages and pages. It could work if everything you had was a world apart from what you could get next door, but if all their fusions are this uninspired then, well, I'm glad I checked the place out while I still had a chance.
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