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A recent thread in colleague Joe Bonwich's forum Eat at Joe's asked for input on what type of restaurant St. Louis was lacking. You can read the meandering 10-page thread...or simply read on. St. Louis needs a restaurant like ChoLon.
It's a restaurant that distills its French, Chinese, and Viet influences into a spare, 30-item menu that, had it not become a culinary curse word, would epitomize the word "fusion;" a restaurant that doesn't need to kowtow to sushi, sashimi, and 30 types of rolls; a restaurant where all flavors are bright, intense, and well-defined; where innocuously-named starters like "soup dumplings," (one-bite xiao long bao that burst into a perfect mouthful of classic French Onion Soup), are the shining stars; and where even the bane of all restaurants--the bread service--a giant, sesame rice cracker, perched on a plate stand with a chile jam "salsa" for dipping, is both whimsical and cost-effective.
If a constantly-packed house at ChoLon (a name that translates to "big market') is any indication, Chef Lon Symensma has proven that the ubiquitous shotgun-menu approach is no longer necessary, that shooting wide (especially with Asian menus) can result in a lot of misses. At a recent dinner at ChoLon, there were no misses. Just clean, fresh, solid hits.
We'd love to see if that kind of approach would work here as well.
