BUDDAKAN- CHELSEA, NEW YORK CITY

Buddakan in New York City is located next door to the charming Chelsea Market. This place is one of the most trendy and expensive restaurants in the city. The restaurant was even featured in the movie Sex & The City for Carrie’s engagement dinner to Mr. Big! lol. Serving unique contemporary Asian cuisine, not only is the food amazing but the decor of Buddakan is extravagant, grand and absolutely beautiful. My sister, friends and I had a great experience. The service was great, the food delicious and the atmosphere was fun and lively.

Best thing of the night. I would have never in a million years ordered this off the menu, but our amazing server brought these from compliments of the kitchen, and I couldn’t believe how delicious it was. Inside was an edamame puree, in a delicate, thin noodle dumpling. The sauce tasted like truffle oil broth. It melted in your mouth and had amazing flavor. For not ordering this myself, it happened to be my favorite dish of the night. It makes me think of how many incredible dishes I miss out on! I’m going to start ordering things I would usually never order because of this dish. Edamame dumplings- highly recommended!

Another great dish with loads of spices and flavors! Tender and light.

Diced raw tuna atop a egg salad mixed w/ mayo & scallion. It was definitely different and interesting, but I think I’ll stick to the tuna tartare and avocado combination. The egg salad was a unique mix w/ the tuna, and it was worth trying, but I like avocado better with it 🙂

BONELESS SPARE RIBS– w/ Chinese Mustard

Great appetizer to share. Loved the flavor of the sauce. Very tender too. Yum!

Similar to Rock Shrimp Tempura. It was creamy and crispy, and had a sweet taste to it. Another great dish.

Great addition to our meal. The rice was flavorful and loved the chunks of lobster and scallops in it. Can’t go wrong!

Loved these noodles. Anything that has minced pork in it already adds loads of flavor, but these tender noodles had the perfect amount of sauce. Not often you have noodles with marinated cucumbers. Really great combo. Another great addition to our meal.

Crispy whole duck. This dish is meant for two, which I shared w/ my sister. It comes with small little tortillas (pictured below), and you are meant to make your own Peking duck tacos. You can eat it without tortillas, which I did for most of the meal. But I loved the hoisin sauce and the crispy skin on the duck was delicious. The skin was favorite part- it had so much flavor. The duck meat was juicy and duck is all dark meat which I love. Great duck dish.

CLEMENTINE CLOUD– Silken Vanilla Cloud, Young Coconut, Passionfruit Udon

Another compliment of the kitchen. Very unique dessert. I’ve had nothing like it before. On the bottom was creamy vanilla custard. It tasted kind of like sweet cheese custard. There were slices of fresh coconut, then on top was a passionfruit foam. Not my style dessert, but I love trying new and different things. I appreciate everything. This was actually very light and refreshing. A pleasant surprise.

CRYING CHOCOLATE– Melted Chocolate Ganache, Milk Caramel, Jasmine Tea Ice Cream

Amazingness. That little chocolate circle on the top left on the plate was a little piece of heaven. Crispy chocolate on the outside, and once you dig your spoon into it, it oozed w/ hot, melted chocolate. The name “Crying Chocolate” is the perfect name for this dessert. The slow ooze of the chocolate trickling out of the cake, and the fudge drops on the plate, like tear drops. The Jasmine Tea ice cream was the perfect flavor for this dessert too. It would be too ordinary for simple vanilla ice cream- Buddakan seemed to make sure all their dishes had a unique twist.

Everything at Buddakan was amazing. They even have a unique and delicious cocktail list. If you need cocktail recommendations, I ordered the cocktail “FATE”- Elderflower liqour, pinapple and prosecco. Also “CHARM” was amazing too. Buddakan has the whole package: a sexy and beautiful atmosphere, amazing food and cocktails, and a very lively scene filled w/ hip and trendy New Yorkers. It is pricey, so it’s not the place to go on a budget. Enjoy!!!