Urban Bistro adds city cool to new foodie development

One of the most exciting new additions to the dining scene is 808 Center, a development at 808 Sheridan and Rycroft streets. This corner was a food desert before the building’s arrival, home only to Choi’s Garden (temporarily closed for renovation).

When completed, 808 Center — also home to an automated-lift parking garage — will primarily be home to about a dozen eateries, across the street from the HMSA building. The first handful of food tenants has already moved in, chief among them Urban Bistro.

True to the name, the restaurant attempts to bring an urban cool factor to the neighborhood, with inside/outside seating and nods in decor to the capitals of cool: San Francisco, New York via its metro signs, and a photograph of Boston’s brick-lined Beacon Hill. The wall-size image is a favorite of the Instagram-inclined, who are using it as a trompe l’oeil backdrop for their foodie pics.

Instead of rushing to be one of the first to open in the new complex, Urban Bistro could have used an extra month to work out some kinks in its menu. Given that the true signifier of cool is being yourself and making everything you do appear effortless, there was rigorous effort in the beginning to force out a vibrant and interesting menu, such that it forgot “delicious” should also be part of the equation.

I dropped in for the first time about a month ago and liked only three things on the menu: the hand-cut Urban wedges (steak fries, $7), a puree of escargot boursin ($9) served with flatbread, and crisp Red wings (five for $9) that didn’t veer far from classic Buffalo wings.

Other dishes we tried were a fail, from pizzas to entrees, because they incorporated a tomato sauce laced with enough sugar to fill a Halloween trick-or-treat bag. I was glad I was leaving town for two weeks, which gave this restaurant time to find its bearings. A friend left word to fix the sauce.

Happily, the restaurant listened and improved the tomato sauce, automatically upgrading a fourth of the menu, starting with “Grillzas,” or grilled pizzas. The options range from a basic pepperoni ($10) to the J.O.B. ($11), topped with jalapeno, onion and bacon, and the Moroccan ($17) with lamb/beef, onions, bell pepper, hummus and mint tzatziki.

Also benefiting from the remixed sauce were the M.E.A.T.-stuffed zucchini ($13) — the acronym a shortcut for mushroom, eggplant, arugula and tomatoes topped with Parmesan — and the Pier 39 seafood stew of fish, shrimp, calamari and mussels served with corn pilaf. Initially a throwaway, the new stew is now crave-inducing. I just wish the portion were larger for $22.

And, if you love adobo, you’ll find the Portuguese-style “vina dosh” ribs ($14), marinated in red wine vinegar, garlic and spices, worth a try.

Prices will seem more reasonable knowing that this is a no-tip restaurant, largely thanks to the efficiency of manager Richard Smith, who works the tables alongside personable restaurateur Margaret Lin. The impact of the no-tip rule only hits you when you are paying your bill and you realize you just saved yourself $10 to $15. While the restaurant is in the process of getting its liquor license, feel free to B.Y.O.B.

Place orders by writing down dish numbers on slips of paper at the table, the same way you’d order a karaoke song. Those Red wing appetizers turn up as a lucky “7” on the menu. Pulled-pork 109 sliders with slaw topped with the delicious spiced house ranch sauce are No. 15.

Those with a sweet tooth might find themselves gravitating to Urban Bistro’s take on chicken and waffles: chicken and pudding ($16). The “pudding” is a soft sweet potato bread pudding, and the whole dish is drizzled with maple-mustard sauce stronger on the syrup than astringent mustard.

Burgers ($12 regular, $13 barbecue) are said to be popular but are on the smallish side.

And, with the continuing trend of savory-meets-sweet desserts, you can’t leave without trying the garlic creme brulee, which, depending on your palate, can be too faint to detect or pack enough wallop to ward off vampires. Good to know this close to Halloween.

Here is how the 808 Center’s foodie businesses are shaping up:

Open
» Fortune Noodle: Sichuan noodle and soup restaurant (see Bite Size)
» Infinitea: Tea and fruit smoothies
» Hawaii Pot Shabu Shabu House: Second branch of a restaurant that uses a conveyor belt to deliver hot pot ingredients to customers
Coming
» Pho Ca Dao: Pho and Vietnamese specialties
Rumored
» A Japanese-style wedding cake shop and custom-made desserts
» An all-day pancake cafe
» A French patisserie
» A sushi bar

Nadine Kam’s restaurant reviews are conducted anonymously and paid for by the Star-Advertiser. Reach her at nkam@staradvertiser.com.

BITE SIZE

Sichuan flavors shine at Fortune Noodle

We did not have a true Sichuan restaurant until the arrival of Fortune Noodle at 808 Center, the first Hawaii branch of a Chinese-based restaurant chain.

The small, casual restaurant specializes in a short menu of noodle soups, grilled meat and meat-and-vegetable sautes.

Dan dan noodles (below) are the star of the menu, at $6.99 for a small bowl. It will be an eye-opener for those who think they know dan dan noodles. This is the authentic version in which a sauce of chili oil, garlic and crushed Sichuan peppercorns lies at the bottom of the bowl, topped with noodles, ground beef and green onions. Mix it all together to get the full impact, which is not as much hot as mouth-numbing, thanks to the herbal pepper.

Though delicious, the numbing factor is off-putting. It made me want to reach for something to rinse out my mouth. That didn’t stop me from going back for more. On the second trip I left the sauce at the bottom of the bowl and dipped the noodles in only as much sauce as I could tolerate.

Warm up to the peppers with red chili oil dumplings ($6.99). Then cool off with a dessert of iced “noodle” ($2.99), plant gelatin molded in its bowl and topped with a strawberry-brown sugar puree. It looks odd, but it’s so worth ordering.

Fortune Noodle is at 808 Sheridan St. Call 349-3711. See more photos at honolulupulse.com/takeabite.

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