Restaurants
Etsu
Etsu, a new addition to Baldwin Village that's taken over the space previously occupied by Bloom Cafe, came to my attention via a recommendation from my friend Heather, who raved about the restaurant's specialty: a slow-cooked soup-dish that must be ordered 24 hours ahead. The slight novelty of the whole thing prompts me to call ahead for a table for two.
Inside, Etsu looks like a typical Asian fusion restaurant: clean lines and black fixtures fill the room, vivid photography dots the walls and fresh flowers decorate glass tabletops. But exploring the fancy heavy-bound menu reveals a solid offering of typical Japanese fare: a full à la carte sushi menu, and tempura, teriyaki, katsu and noodle dishes as well. But I decide to focus my attention on the small offerings of Korean dishes and order a couple accompaniments to our main course.
We start with a simple green salad. The $3.00 dish is a generous portion of perfectly sliced carrots, cucumber, celery and cherry tomatoes over Iceberg lettuce in a house dressing. Unfortunately the avocado and green pepper mentioned on the menu are nowhere to be found, but no matter.
Next up is Pa Jun ($5.95), a pan-fried flat pancake with scallions, served with a soy-based dipping sauce, miso soup and a salad. The crispy layer is delicious and doesn't skimp on flavour. There is a wonderful home-cooked quality about this dish.
Breaking the Korean-cuisine theme, I order off the Japanese menu. Zaru Soba ($6.95) are cold soba noodles (made from buckwheat) served with dipping sauce. The portion is generous and garnished with dried seaweed, threads of scallion and pungent daikon.
And now for the pièce de résistance: the Sam Kye Tang is a whole chicken stuffed with a variety of oriental herbs, ginseng and sticky rice, and is boiled in a savoury broth. It's chicken soup, yes -- but elevated to a piece of culinary art. At $20.95, the portion is large and served with threads of egg, green onion, a generous dish of assorted kimchi and a salad, which is plenty to feed two.
This dish is so hearty it warms the soul on the cold evening in March when I make my visit. Small dishes of salt and pepper come on the side so that customers can flavour their our own bowls. My comrade and I get several portions each out of it, and by the end we can hardly finish the rest of the kimchi.
I ask the waitress about the process for cooking the Sam Kye Tang, and she explains somewhat obviously that it's cooked extremely slowly for hours, and thus diners must call ahead.
To end, a beautiful pot of blooming tea ($5.00) comes to our table: it's wonderfully soothing and very sweet -- flavoured with aloe, rose and honey.
Etsu has only been around for four months, but the downtown crowd ought to take note of this Baldwin Village restaurant. Their dishes are thoughtful, well crafted and reasonably priced for the fantastic quality you get. Diners should also take note of Etsu's lunch menu, over a dozen reasonably priced dishes (Bento box types) from 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. from Monday to Friday.
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Go down stairs to Hana Korea instead.