Sookk Far Sookk Good

Greg and I ventured into Sookk tonight. It is a Thai restaurant that specializes in "Bangkok/Yaowarat Cuisine." Basically it's an Asian fusion restaurant and their specialty is the street food you find in Bangkok.

We were going to go with Christina, a couple of months ago, back when it was a BYOB place, but we ended up going to dinner in Williamsburg, which is never what it's cracked up to be. Tonight we were meeting a friend, and as we were standing outside, Greg began to protest.

"It ain't my kind of place," he said. "Too trendy."

That is true. Sookk has lots of lamps hanging from the ceiling, dark wood, skinny tables, and it's dark inside.

We were looking for a compromise restaurant. I wanted moules frites, and Greg wanted something cheap.

"But look," I said, peering closely at the menu, "The sign says beer. Buy one get one free!"

In we went.

Greg ordered his first two beers and I studied the drinks menu. I ordered a sparkling wine with lychee syrup, which was 3 dollars off during their happy hour. Happy hour is every day from 5 until 7:30. At $3.25 a pop for a cocktail, and $2.50 a beer, this is a very good deal indeed.

For appetizers we had sesame tofu, served with a sweet chili dipping sauce and chive cakes served with a "ginger sauce" that was unmistakeably made mostly of Worcestershire sauce. Both were mildly spicey, with the tofu winning out for flavor. The chive cakes were missing the funky tang that usually goes along with Asian chives, and so were a bit blah. I wasn't a fan of either sauce, though. I thought the red was too cloying and the black was too Worcestershirey.

For dinner Greg had steamed shrimps in a clay pot. He thought his dish was very tasty, and the shrimp was perfectly cooked. I, still in the spirit of compromise, and still seriously craving my moules frites, ordered a dish called mussel turnip cake. Accompanying were bean sprouts, scallions, and egg. The dish, overall, was kind of a mess, with the sauce and mussels overwhelming the turnip cakes. I had imagined something like a turnip latke, but instead got bland cakes that looked like soggy fish fingers and had very little flavor.

It was probably my fault for ordering this dish. I was too hungry for experimentation and should have stuck with the Pad Thai.

We skipped the desert menu and instead ate the lychees that came in my cocktail, which was the highlight of my meal.

On one last note, the service was fast and friendly and the music was nice but unobtrusive, with the volume turned down low enough that you can actually have a conversation.