05.15.08
Review of Kuta Satay House, Thursday April 2008
65 Rivington & Allen/Eldridge Sts., 212-777-5882
Great for: sharing lots of satay skewers, noodles, cocktails in this BYOB neighborhood, spicy food lovers
My friend D had a visitor from California, and we ended up having dinner together with another friend of hers. We’re all fairly broke (they’re at NYU, my life is… complicated) so I picked Kuta as a good, cheap place. Most importantly, it actually serves alcohol besides wine or beer. On the Lower East Side it’s hard to find casual little places that even have a liquor license.
Kuta does a lot of satay, so it’s great for sharing many different meats. The girls aren’t as carnivorous as I am – we just tried two kinds. The Korean kalbi (short ribs) with Asian pears cooked in sesame barbecue sauce was very spicy and tender. The Heavenly Kuta of flank steak, coriander seeds, garlic and sambal was great too.
I loved my Jakarta mie goreng egg noodles with beef, snow peas, sambal and crispy shallots. It was so well-executed. The softness of the meat and noodles contrasted nicely with the crunchy snow peas and carrots. The pad thai was excellent as well. One of the girls found her spicy drunken noodles still too spicy after she asked them to make it milder, so I would recommend being very clear with the waiter on how much fire your mouth can take. I love spicy food, though, and I thought that dish was very good.
We had fun with the bellini flavors. All of them – guava, raspberry and mango – are delicious. The pomegranate kutahito, a mix of soju, sake and fruit juices, was also tasty. I found it a cozy little place with lovely patient servers. It was a good choice for our girls’ night out – easy on the wallet, yummy on the tongue.
Rating: 8 /10
Our cost: $150 (4 people, 2 cocktails each)
Noise level: happy hum
Chance of walking in: medium.
They do a $25 dinner prix fixe (on weeknights only, I think) for satay, starter, entrée and dessert. They’re closed Mondays.
I got takeout here in May and it wasn’t quite as good. The satay of Singapore fish balls tasted very strongly of curry and weren’t as spicy as I’d expected. The beef Madura satay was a bit bland and chewy. And the Sumatra beef rendang was only pretty good, with a curry-ish sauce and lots of tendons in the meat. I think the lesson is to stick to the spicy stuff and noodles – which I did next time I came in June. We liked the crab cake and the spicy tofu entrées. The Saigon beef noodles were not very good though. Be warned, the menu they have online is not exactly the same as the menu in the restaurant.
