Food: ☆☆½
Service: ☆☆☆☆
Ambiance: ☆☆☆
Cost: $$$
Must try: Charred Eggplant
Yunnan Kitchen is the new Asian hipster “it” place on the Lower East Side. Housed in a neat, trendy space, this spot is staffed by an extremely affable crew.
Travis Post, the chef, and Erika Chou, the owner present a small plate menu which is inspired by the flavors of China’s Yunnan province. It features dishes with plenty of fresh herbs, vegetables, fruits and edible flowers along with meats and seafood. With all of these wonderful elements in place I couldn’t wait to dig into the food. For me this was the most disappointing part. None of the dishes blew me away.
The best dish of the night was the Charred Eggplant which was beautifully cooked but other than that everything else I tried was just “meh”. The Pickled Green Papaya Salad though refreshing used papaya that was way too raw, the steamed market fish which should have been a delicate dish came topped with over oily mushrooms and heavy flavors which didn’t go well together. Unfortunately, a menu that looked so good on paper didn’t translate onto the plate for me.
I so loved the vibe and concept of this place and hope perhaps I visited on an off night…but I think it will be quite a while till I return to give it a second try.
Here is some of what we ate:
Pickled Green Papaya Salad
Charred Eggplant
Fried Pork Belly
Ma La Chicken
Chinese Greens