One of my consistently favorite restaurants in New York over the years is Kuma Inn. I remember my first experience there many years ago (but barely since I got wasted on their sake flight). The food was great, the service was friendly, and I was amazed that the chef personally came by each table to see how everybody was enjoying everything.
So I was very excited recently when I read King Phojanakong (seriously, that’s the chef’s name – no relation to Tut) opened another restaurant. I was less excited to read that it was in the sketchy Brooklyn neighborhood of Bedford-Stuyvesant. It’s not so much that I was scared to travel out there – it was just far and foreign to me. Well, time for an adventure. And thanks to Time Out’s list, I’m going to get to know Bed-Stuy very well in the next few months (there are four list items in the ‘hood).
Umi Nom, which is similar to Kuma Inn in that they offer Asian fusion small plates, is really on the border of Bed-Stuy and the much more gentrified Fort Greene. We had a reservation and I was surprised that they didn’t tell us in advance that it was BYO, so we headed back onto the streets to find some beer or wine or something. It wasn’t as dangerous or desperate as it sounds.
We were seated in a nice little corner table with a partial view of the kitchen. We could see that it was there, but we could discern no action (aside from the noise and the aromas). And these tickets weren’t even discounted.
The service right off the bat (aside from the host) was just silly. Our waitress was completely apathetic and robotic. She mumbled terribly as she recited from her well-rehearsed script: “Have you been to Umi Nom before?”. I didn’t understand half of what she said. And nothing was wrong with the service the rest of the night. All the food came out and no spills or anything. I just felt so completely ignored. I wanted just a little attention. Is that too much to ask when I travelled all the way to Bed-Stuy?
The waitress also talked us into ordering a side of rice. She assured us we’d need it to soak up the sauces and she said the portion was small.
We heeded her advice and ordered the garlic rice. I have to say that this was the biggest portion of rice I have ever received from any restaurant. I was amazed. We didn’t need all this rice – especially with all the food we ordered.
The adobo pork belly was on special and since I read a lot about it, we ordered it. The pork was tender and juicy, but the flavor of the sauce was a bit lacking. Not so with the BBQ ribs which were sticky, chewy, tangy, sweet, earthy, etc. etc. Great flavors. And the meat fell right off the bone. We also got the charred beef with cold rice vermicelli (which was reminiscent of Vietnamese dishes I love – even though this places claims to be mainly Thai and Filipino). The noodles were cold, refreshing and light which were complemented nicely by the smoky char of the tender beef.
But the thing that finally got us to come out here was the list. And number four on Time Out’s Top 10 are the Roasted Manila Clams. They were all opened in a beautiful black bean sauce. The sauce was light and buttery with intense balanced flavors – spicy, salty, and savory. As good as the clams were, the sauce was by far the stand-out here. It wasn’t until later that I realized I should have used the empty clam shells to basically drink up that amazing sauce. But thankfully, I had a huge portion of garlic rice.
Would Umi Nom’s Roasted Manila Clams make my Top 100 of the year? Even though the service and commute were annoying, the dish gets a 9 out of 10 because the sauce in combination with those beautiful clams added up to an amazing dish.
