The Restaurant Review

Chinatown This Is Not

I don’t know if I’d return to Buddakan again and again, in the same way that I don’t know if I’d return to Spice Market again and again. But the hyped-up, high-tone atmosphere (sepulchral lighting, black, Armani-style powder rooms, thrumming house music) did nothing to detract from the quality of my meals there. The battalions of black-clad wait staff were usually genial, well informed, and diligent to an extreme, Sherpa-like degree. The pastry chefs, for their part, have a sophisticated knowledge of chocolate and an appreciation of the pleasures of a good crunch. Order the soft ganache tart (Crying Chocolate) or the chocolate mille-feuille (slats of crunchy dark chocolate layered between slices of banana and a crème anglaise made not with crème but with avocado). “Why, this is almost effete,” said one of my foodie friends as she tasted the avocado. She’s right, of course. And in a restaurant as big as an aircraft carrier, that’s quite an achievement.

Buddakan
75 Ninth Ave., at 16th St.; 212-989-6699
Hours: Sunday through Wednesday, 5 p.m. to midnight. Thursday through Saturday, 5 p.m. to 1 a.m.
Prices:Appetizers, $8 to $14. Entrées, $22 to $47.
Ideal Meal: Taro-puff lollipops, tuna spring roll, Chiang Mai chicken, sizzling short ribs, chocolate mille-feuille.
Note: We hear that if you ask politely, the kitchen may prepare off-the-menu traditional Chinese dishes.
Scratchpad: Three stars for food, one and a half for atmosphere. Also, we wonder what kind of bridge-and-tunnel madhouse the place will be six months from now.