Sunda (1st Review)

Hey all! The GG and I were invited by some girl friends of ours to try out Billy Dec and Co's new spot, Sunda. It seems as if everything Dec touches turns to gold, a la Rockit and Underground. Sunda is an Asian fusion spot with a mixture of Thai, Chinese, Japanese, and Korean. I was excited to be going with a group of five, as Sunda is known for its small dishes, which we were sure to get a bunch of.

The dining room is extremely large and very attractive. There is a main bar area, a sushi bar, communal tables, standard tables, and small private rooms. I had forgotten to take pictures of the place itself, but it was beautiful. Tony Chi was the designer, who is very well known in the restaurant industry, having worked on the Washington DC Hyatt and many hotels in Hong Kong. Sunda has commissioned the Food Buddha, Rodello Aglibot, as their executive chef. Aglibot comes from the well regarded Koi in Los Angeles. Enough of the background though, let's get to the good stuff.

We started out by ordering a few appetizers. We ordered a crab cake crusted ahi tuna sashimi, escolar with truffle shavings, potato chips and chive, lemongrass beef lollipops, roasted duck bao buns, and rock shrimp tempura. The crab cake tuna sashimi was definitely the hit of the bunch. A generous portion of quality crab meat bordered fresh tuna in a delicious sweet soy sauce.

The escolar was also tasty and of good quality. Very light, but slightly more expensive then most sushi restaurants in the city. It was a cool combination of ingredients that you wouldn't normally get with nigiri. Definitely something I'd get again.

The roasted duck bao bun's were also enjoyable. There is a Lettuce Entertain You place called Wow Bao that sells these buns. I have also wanted to try them but had been hesitant, as they always seemed very "dumpling" like. I am not a big dumpling fan at all, so I have always passed. After the Gourmet's Glutton's recommendation, I decided to give these a go, and am glad I trusted him. These were very light and fun to eat. The duck was smokey and each bun had the perfect amount of meat. The buns came with a plum sauce that was a good addition to the ingredients.

Some of the appetizers failed to make their mark however. The lemongrass beef lollipops were flat out disgusting. I refused to finish mine. The meat was tough and the marinate was way too overpowering. I would not recommend these. The rock shrimp tempura, although a good concept, had been coated with too much batter, resulting in way too much batter surrounding the shrimp. The dressing was also very sweet and didn't really do much for me.

After the apps we were still hungry, so we decided to order three main dishes. The first was a confit pork shank with garlick-foie gravy and pea shoots. The pork must have been cooked for hours, because it was so tender, it could have been mistaken for duck. The pea shoots seemed pretty meaningless, almost just for the decoration of the dish. I was excited for the foie gravy, but that tasted nothing like I had expected. It was almost like a watered down vinagrette.

The GG and I split the golden roll, which included escolar, mango, avocado, tempura crumbs, and ango creme. Again, this was tasty, but didn't blow my mind. The ango creme sauce also had a huge banana hint to it which didn't seem to work with the dish. It over-powered it too much.

The last dish we tried was the Food Buddha's signature dish, the crispy rice with kobe beef tartare. I had been expecting something in the form of fried rice, so when the dish was presented I was a little surprised. The rice had been sculpted in to little crackers with small pieces of kobe beef tartare on top. Definitely aesthetically pleasing, but taste wise, nothing special.

Sunda seems like a fun spot to go before you hit up the bars/clubs in River North. The place is filled with eye candy, which makes it fun. Other than the beef lollipops, none of the food was terrible, but nothing really stuck out either. For what we paid, I was expecting a lot more creativity, uniqueness, and quality then what we got. I think the problem with this place is that because it is Asian fusion and does not focus on one specific country's cuisine, it also does not excel in any of the region's either. The menu is too big and prices are 25% too high in my opinion. I will not be returning to Sunda, unless it is for a drink.

Sunda gets a C+ in my book, and as a result, DOES NOT MAKE THE LIST.

Sunda
110 W Illinois St
Chicago, IL 60654
(312) 644-0500
www.sundachicago.com