Profile

B-Bap takes bibimbap, the traditional Korean mixed rice “salad,” and transforms it into do-it-yourself fast food. This décor at this sliver of a Hell's Kitchen storefront combines the natural and the modern. There are three tiny wooden tables with stools made of upright bundled logs. Exposed-brick walls sport color photos of bicycles, and a white-painted wall displays an oversize menu, complete with instructions. Customers can choose a base of rice, noodles, or salad, a topping of beef, chicken, or tofu, various seasoned veggie toppings, as well as a mixing sauce. There are also six preset specials, all well conceived. The classic has a base of white rice topped with beef, shiitake mushroom slices, bean sprouts, yellow pepper and carrots slivers, and micro-julienned cooked egg whites and yolks. It’s served with a homemade spicy chili-pepper sauce that binds the dish when everything is stirred together. The snappy noodle b-bap has rice vermicelli beneath little mounds of arugula and cooked spinach, as well as matchsticks of yellow peppers and carrots. — Michael Anstendig

Wow meat dumplings, $5.50; spicy chicken b-bap, $8.50; noodle b-bap, $8.50; classic b-bap, $9