Adam Platt is Unimpressed by Mission Chinese Food

This week, New York critic Adam Platt files on the two big West Coast Asian imports of the year: Pok Pok NY and Mission Chinese food. Platt grumbles about the wait at the former, and notes that the backyard is filled with a "rabble of hipsters, Thai-food freaks, and assorted Manhattan culinary thrill seekers." But he digs Andy Ricker's Thai food, and awards the restaurant three stars overall.

Plattypants is not blown away by Mission Chinese Food. He gives the restaurant just one star, and notes:

Eaten separately, or in tiny doses, Bowien’s antic, umami-bomb creations have a certain gut-busting charm. But with a handful of exceptions (tea-smoked eel rolls, lamb-cheek dumplings, the smoky thrice-cooked bacon, a deliciously restorative salted pepper broth with pumpkin and wild pepper leaves), the one-note, meat-centric focus on Sichuan cuisine sent my fellow diners and me into a peppery, protein-induced death spiral from which there was little relief or escape.

But as Mission Chinese Food's chef Danny Bowien points out, his restaurant does take reservations (for the seats at the bar, and a few of the tables).
· Platt on Pok Pok Ny and Mission Chinese Food [~GS~]
· All Coverage of Pok Pok NY [~ENY~]
· All Coverage of Mission Chinese Food [~ENY~]
[Photo: Angela Pham]