The Early Word on Bushwick Newcomer King Noodle

Former Roberta's chef Nick Subic recently opened a Pan Asian spot in Bushwick called King Noodle. The subversive menu takes classic dishes like kimchee and adds Doritos, putting an American spin on Asian dishes?or what some are calling Asian stoner food?served in a dining room filled with neon lights, marine graffiti, and a disco ball. So far, the diners are split on the inventive flavor combinations and the acid trip décor, with many less pleased with the prices. Here's what the early reviews have to say:

The Good News: Bushwick Daily loves the dishes and the portions: "The spicy milky Green Curry, made with peanuts, green beans, bean sprouts, bamboo and a wanton noodle, is perfectly portioned and leaves you satisfied but saves enough room for dessert. You can taste each of the fresh ingredients perfectly.The sweeter Wavy Noodles with shrimp and pork and pickled ginger, carrots, and runny egg was fantastic! The pickled ginger and sweet sauce balanced each other out, and it's fun to break the egg and mix it into the noodles." [Bushwick Daily]

The Bad News: This Eater commenter hates the food and the decor: "Ordered to-go: Wings-absolutely horrible-how do you mess up chicken wings? No flavor...Ribs-disgusting-undercooked, rubbery, again, zero taste, my dog wouldn't eat them ...The decor is much worse in person, I do believe this kind of thing was done to death a long time ago, and the space is cramped and uninviting." [Eater Comments]

The Mediocre News: Over on Yelp, an unflattering comparison is made to stoner food: "Stuff I would cook if I came home at 3 in the morning drunk and stoned.... Which I would usually love, but NEVER love to pay $15 for. Sorry. All three of my dishes were mediocre at best." [Yelp]

The Expensive News: This Gothamist commenter explains the problem of being a high priced restaurant with stoner appeal: "Either the food quality needs to seriously improve or the price needs to drop. Stoned and piss drunk, this place would satisfy the sort of carnal cravings you get at two a.m. when you are too blasted to really know what you want other than some greasy noodly stuff, but to sate that crowd, the prices need to come down. [Gothamist comments]

The Hipster but Delicious News: This reviewer loves the food despite the overly hip setting: "$1 for a handful of crushed up Doritos? Gladly. That's what it costs here to add some nacho cheese Doritos to the Kimchee Carbonara noodles ($14), one of the several delicious and inventive dishes at this super hip(ster) new spot in Bushwick. That genius combination is as awesome as it sounds. The carbonara is nice and creamy, and the Doritos provide some nice crunch and cheesiness to offset the pasta. ... It definitely feels like you are on the set of Girls in here, but the music is good and is loud enough that you thankfully don't need to listen to all of the sure-to-be annoying conversations. Even the entire waitstaff is super hipster-looking, but it's a cool, fun atmosphere, and pretty much exactly what you would expect these days in Bushwick." [Yelp]

The Overpriced News: Another Yelper says that the food doesn't merit such high prices: "I understand what these guys are trying to do here but the bottom line is that the food just doesn't justify the price. PERIOD. I'm spending 15 dollars on a medium sized bowl of noodles with a few bits of pork and shrimp in bushwick while i could be eating a super legit bowl of ramen at ippudo that is one dollar less and super delicious. ... it's hard for me to walk out of places like this and not feel like they're just trying to pull a fast one on me. I won't eat here again unless someone does something about the pricing." [Yelp]

The Meh News: This commenter dislikes everything but the ambiance: "Ate there last night. The kimchi carbonara was bland and greasy, the fake crab-mozzarella dish edible but leaden, and the appetizers roundly mediocre (the broccoli was fine, but not exciting enough to warrant a return). All in all, too much to pay for gag food. On the plus side, the decor was entertaining -- if there were a bar, it'd be a fun place to fart around over a beer or two." [Eater Comments]

The Not-So-Legit News: This Yelper dislikes the price to quality ratio and affirms a bad smell reported by others on Yelp: "This place is a joke. Went there last night, walked out hungry and ended up going to a MUCH MORE LEGIT place... We ordered the Chinese Broccoli (this was decent but tiny for $5), Green Curry (this was okay...kind of tasted like mac and cheese with green curry, wayy too little food for $12)... The place is too pricey for the quality of food, servers were fine, seemed a bit confused. And yes, it smelled like cat piss. Will not be going back." [Yelp]

The Foursquare News: This Foursquare tipster is pleasantly surprised by the food and the drinks: "The flavors, every single one. Unexpected, new and completely delicious. The rice cakes and krab is my go to, the drinks are perfect. You must drink at least two of the Zombies, my new flavorite spot." This one loved some things and was unmoved by others: "This Kimchi carbonara was pretty lackluster, but spicy wings and Chinese broccoli were awesome. Spam fried rice looked so good! [Foursquare]
· All Coverage of King Noodle [~ENY~]
?Layla Khabiri