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“Brooklyn Wok Shop by Dara Pollak”

Occasion:	Cuisine:	Area:	Cost:	Rating:
Night Out	Asian	Brooklyn	Cheap Eats	Good

If there is one thing the area of Williamsburg is lacking in, it’s Chinese food. Good Chinese food. No one knows this better than Husband and wife team Edric and Melissa Har, who have opened up Brooklyn Wok Shop in hopes of bringing the traditions they grew up with along with the tastes they loved from their previous home in Chinatown. I sat down with both of them prior to my meal, and I got the scoop on Brooklyn Wok Shop, from the lack of an actual Wok to the delicious house-made hot sauce.

Chef Edric Har is a professionally trained chef (Cru, Le Bernardin), albeit in French/Italian cuisine, as opposed to stir frying and noodle pulling. That said, he wanted to take his skills and apply them to his new concept: Chinese food that you know and love, made with quality ingredients, aka Chinese 2.0. For example, the beef in “Beef with Broccoli” is actually made with a tender cut of hangar steak. The noodles in the wonton soup are hand made every day by Chef Har, and all meat and produce is cleaned with filtered water. I’m going to go out on a limb and say that this is not typical Chinese takeout practice. It’s special touches and attention to detail like these that make Brooklyn Wok Shop different. And no, they don’t own any woks; Chef Har uses black steel sauté pans, per his French culinary training. “I don’t know what to do with a wok”, he proudly admits, “it’s a little inside joke”. You’ll see some other French influences here, like the swapping of the traditional vegetable shortening crust for a fluted pate sucre (sugar crust) in the Egg Tart for dessert.

Situated on North 10th street between Bedford and Driggs, Brooklyn Wok Shop keeps a clean, low profile, with blonde wood slats and a mural of Mandarin blue China bowls on the walls. You place your order at the wooden counter for either dining in or taking out, and your food will arrive hot, fresh, and delicious. The menu is comprised of snacks and appetizers like wings and pork buns, to soups and entrees like General Tsos chicken. Melissa’s father owns restaurants in Orlando, so this husband-wife team really know their business and more importantly, their recipes.

The wonton soup was a favorite of mine; normally wonton soup is just a few dumplings (that are mostly dough and no meat) sitting in broth with maybe a few shavings of roast pork. Brooklyn Wok Shop’s wonton soup i ... [more, click below]

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Posted: February 18, 2012

Other restaurants in Brooklyn :
+ Chickenbone Cafe-- Closed   + Pier 116-- Closed   + Chestnut   + Lunch at Peter Luger's   + 360   + Palo Santo   + The Good Fork   + Porchetta-- Closed Now   + Bocca Lupo   + Flatbush Farm   + DuMont Burger   + Dressler   + Farm on Adderley   + The Grocery   + Saul   + Black Mountain Wine House   + The General Greene   + Char No. 4   + James   + Chestnut   + No. 7   + Vinegar Hill House   + Motorino   + Buttermilk Channel   + Buttermilk Channel   + Vutera   + Watty & Meg    + Prime Meats   + Aqualis Grill   + Jack the Horse Tavern   + Roman's   + Fatty 'Cue   + Thistle Hill Tavern   + Broken English   + Trix, by Dara Pollak   + An Ode to New Orleans in Williamsburg: Maison Premiere, By Dara Pollak   + Brooklyn Wok Shop by Dara Pollak   + Arthur on Smith   + La Vara   + Gran Electrica   + Pok Pok Ny   + Ganso    + Reynard   

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