Nasu Blanca

Nasu Blanca
1036 E. Fort Ave.
Locust Point, Baltimore
Spanish/Japanese
410-962-9890
Cost: $$$$
Reservations: recommended
Date of meal: Wednesday September 29, 2007 (6:30pm)
National Price-Quality Frontier: Inside It
Baltimore Price-Quality Frontier: Inside It

I don't know of any other Spanish/Japanese fusion restaurant in the U.S. This means either that the owners of Nasu Blanca are incredibly creative, or that this combination doesn't make a lot of sense, or both.

I went to Nasu Blanca for a work dinner party with 4 other people. While the restaurant was relatively empty when we arrived (at 6:30pm on a Wednesday) it was full when we left. Nasu Blanca has two floors. The lower floor has a bar and a bit of seating, but most tables for dinner are upstairs. The Nasu Blanca site is a nice, stylish gut remodel. The downstairs decor was swanky and upscale but in a way that seemed a bit hollow and forced given the unrenovated buildings around it. The upstairs decor was a little boring for my taste, but they were trying and it was pleasant. Unfortunately, the upstairs feels like overflow seating even though it is not. I'm not sure what they can do about this.

The menu has two sides. The left had appetizers; the right entrees. At the top of each page were Japanese dishes, with Spanish ones below. The Spanish entrees were all paellas, which seemed needlessly narrow. What's the point of being Spanish-Japanese fusion if you aren't going to have fun in mixing and matching striking flavors? The menu looked more standard "New American/eclectic" than sharply Japanese/Spanish; I'm not sure I would have guessed that it was more than pan-Asian eclectic except for the large numbers of paella options. The alcohol menu included a wide variety of sakes, as well as wine and beer. Food was quite expensive, with entrees in the $30 range.

We ordered:

• Japanese eggplant ($8), grilled with a miso sauce.
• edamame ($5), no surprises
• spicy tuna tempura ($13), sounded more interesting than it tasted, but still not bad
• sashimi appetizer was amazing
  
• braised short-rib appetizer ($12+/-), I love short-ribs and these were great but it wasn't that interesting.
  
• panko-crusted walu ($28), got good reviews from my colleagues
• pumpkin-seed crusted lamb chops ($32+/-) were excellent
• scallops ($32+/-) had a nice pan-Asian flare but were a bit generic.

Food was brought at a glacial pace, and this was clearly not intentional. The server was nice but the lowness was a problem all around and made the meal less pleasant. (Our guest almost missed her train as a result despite ample warning of our constraints.) The prices were very high. I know Baltimore has a 20-25% markup compared to other cities for nice restaurants and ethnic ones. I guess I should not be surprised that a nice ethnic-fusion place has high prices. Still, entrees here would be more appropriately priced in the $22-$26 range rather than the $28-$45 range. Nasu Blanca would be a good place to go if you wanted a fun work dinner, but only if you weren't paying for it yourself.

Saigon Remembered

Saigon Remembered
5857 York Road
Belvedere Square/Govans, Baltimore
Vietnamese
410-435-1200
Cost: $$
Reservations: Not Needed
Date of meal: Wednesday September 26, 2007 (7pm)
National Price-Quality Frontier: Inside It
Baltimore Price-Quality Frontier: On It

Saigon Remembered has a lot in common with Cafe Zen down the street. Both offer good but standard American versions of Asian (Vietnamese and Chinese, respectively) cuisine in a market without much competition.

Saigon Remembered is housed in a large space with high ceilings. It is far from fancy, but not unpleasant or dirty. Furniture, flooring, utensils, and such are all functional but no more. They have a full bar and several Southeast Asian beers (Singha from Thailand and 33 from Vietnam). Service was helpful and prompt.

The menu includes pretty standard Vietnamese fare like bun (steamed rice noodles) and lots of stir-fries with lemongrass and basil. The two main points of departure are a sushi menu (complete with a sushi bar; I didn't try it but it seemed like a weird add-on to me) and a "roll" menu. The rolls are not sushi but instead are the fresh spring rolls typically found in Vietnamese restaurants. My spouse and I (particularly my spouse) are big fans of these. Unlike other restaurants, there are about a dozen options for rolls, with a variety of meat and seafood options. Some of these are quite creative, like the salmon roll.

We stuck to standards. We ordered a pair of fresh spring rolls with beef (either $5 or $6), which was very good. The nuoc cham (fish dipping) sauce was great; the peanut sauce only so-so. We had a bun ($12) with grilled pork and fried spring rolls which was outstanding. The pork was served still on the skewers on which it was grilled. This was quite good. The basil tofu stir-fry ($12) we had was fine but did not wow me. These prices are roughly 40% more than comparable cities with more Vietnamese immigrants (e.g., Seattle). I also noted that many entrees had higher prices in the $13-$17 range.

In the absence of serious competition, I would be happy to eat there again if I wanted Vietnamese food. Take-out would also be a good option if you live nearby. I probably would not recommend it to anyone who had to drive more than 15 minutes to get there. Honestly, the prices seemed high to me, even for Baltimore.

Nam Kang

Nam Kang
2126 Maryland Ave. (at 22nd St.)
Charles North, Baltimore
Korean
410-685-6237
Cost: $$
Reservations: Not needed
Date of meal: September 5, 2007
National Price-Quality Frontier: Inside It
Baltimore Price-Quality Frontier: On It

Nam Kang is a medium-size restaurant in the basement of a rather sketchy block of Charles North (south of Charles Village and North of Mt. Vernon); there are lots of Korean establishments right around here. The inside is far from fancy, but it is clean and has homey touches. (The bathroom could have been worse but it could have smelled better.) A few excellent signs about Nam Kang:

1. When I called, the hostess answered in Korean.
2. Nearly all the patrons were Korean, the main exceptions for the night being my spouse, me, and a Caucasian graduate student I know who speaks in Korean and lived in Korea.

Nearly 100% of the speaking we overheard was in Korean (except for the annoying flat-screen TV showing CNN which we asked them to turn down). While I'm not a stickler for excellent English skills for servers in ethnic restaurants, our server's English was not really good enough to do her job. We were unable to successfully communicate the question "Can we have dish x served without ingredient y?" Despite her limited English, the server was attentive, competent, friendly and tried hard. They were not understaffed.

Panchan were outstanding. For those who haven't done these before, these are the little bowls of vegetables, kimchi, and such that they bring out before the meal. These are free. The highlights for me were the fish cakes (sweet and savory) and a chili-rubbed green vegetable (spicy but not overpowering). The tofu was a little bland.

We ordered bolgogi ($17, Korean barbecued beef in a sizzling platter) that was a bit sweet and quite good, though the price was a bit steep. The Bi Bim Bap ($11 since we got it in a hot stone pot, which is rice with egg and vegetables) was also very good. The stone was hot enough that you got the crispy rice goodness that comes from the rice getting seared against the stone. These are standard dishes and they were perfectly prepared. We also got one of our favorites, which is a scallion pancake (with not-too-spicy green chilis, $11) which was out of sight. Thing of a pizza-sized vegetable-laden version of what you can get as an appetizer in Chinese restaurants. Huge chunks of scallion and chili would just fall out of it. It was oily enough not to be dry but not so much as to be heavy and gross. This could not have been better.

At the end of our meal, they brought complimentary desserty beverages. These were latte colored and cold, with visible grains of rice. It had a rice and (????) bean-paste taste. Normally, I do not really like Asian desserts (a horrible generalization, I know, but I have tried a lot of them in my day) but this one was refreshing, palate cleansing, and tasted pretty good.

I absolutely loved Nam Kang. I think it would be a strong contender is Seattle, LA, or San Francisco (cities with lots of options for Korean food), though it would have to cut prices 20% to be competitive in these cities. I would be happy to bring Korean friends here.

Cafe Zen

Cafe Zen
38 E. Belvedere Ave. (at York)
Belvedere Square, Baltimore
410-532-0022
Chinese
www.cafezen.com
Cost: $$
Reservations: Not Needed
Date of meal: various
National Price-Quality Frontier: Inside It
Baltimore Price-Quality Frontier: On It


I've eaten at Cafe Zen once and had take-out from there three or four times. As far as I can tell, this is the best Chinese place in Baltimore. This is really sad; while Cafe Zen is solid, it isn't amazing. I've also heard you have to go to the suburbs of DC to get edible dim sum. It's too bad we don't have more authentic options.

Decor is one step up from the usual Chinatown look, or maybe it's one step down. It is clean and simple but very far from elegant or even nice. Service is fine but unexceptional. The menu is totally standard generic American Chinese fare: mu shu pork, General Tzo's chicken, etc. Execution is better than average, but nothing special.

Cafe Zen is owned by the same folks as Zen West and is next door.

Ambassador Dining Room

Ambassador Dining Room
3811 Canterbury Rd. (at University)
Tuscany/Canterbury, Baltimore
410-366-1484
Indian
www.ambassadordiningroom.com
Cost: $$
Reservations: Not Needed
Date of meal: late June or early July, 2007
National Price-Quality Frontier: Inside It
Baltimore Price-Quality Frontier: On It


If you sit outside at the Ambassador Dining Room, you overlook a beautiful garden. This is a bit surprising given that the place is in one of the large nondescript apartment buildings on the north side of the Johns Hopkins Homewood campus. Still, if the weather is nice, this makes it a great place for a date. I wouldn't both coming if weather ruled out outdoor seating. The food is standard Indian fare. It was good but not special or interesting. Honestly, the entrees were quite expensive ($15-20) given the quality. In any major city there are a dozen restaurants of this quality with $10 entrees and excellent service. Of course, almost none of these places have the beautiful garden. To the degree you are paying for the garden, this is a very poor choice for take-out. I also think that Baltimore restaurants are on average 20-25% more expensive than restaurants of comparable quality in other cities. This explains some of the cost of the Ambassador Dining Room.