Eat: Moongate Lounge & Mister Jiu's
I learned about Brandon Jew after watching the “Fried Rice“ episode from David Chang’s Ugly Delicious and many friends had recommended this place. We typically steer clear of fancy, expensive Chinese restaurants because well, Chinese food is not meant to be super expensive or super fancy (minus Chinese celebration banquets, but even then it’s not so much fancy as it is just an abundance of good food and it’s expensive because there is so much of it).
I do like to chase Michelin stars however, and so I’ll admit I wanted to try it for the superficial reasons that 1) it was David Chang approved and 2) it has a Michelin star.
My first experience with the food was at Moongate Lounge which used to be a Chinese banquet hall in the heart of Chinatown. The entrance for Moongate is the shared entrance to Mister Jiu’s and you ascend the staircase to find a beautifully modern, Chinese influenced space. The bright purple lights illuminate the bar and Brandon Jew and team are serving up some of the most creative cocktails around. The menu boasts that they base their ingredients on the lunar calendar and because I’m a sucker for that, I believe it and wanted to try them all.
The small dishes are great, they come from the kitchen of Mister Jiu’s. It’s almost like you’re getting a sneak peek of what Mister Jiu’s has to offer. We got many many oysters, spaceman in a blanket (their take on mini hotdogs in a bun), some different baos, fried chicken and lamb skewers.
Onto Mister Jiu’s… four of us went there to celebrate my good friend Ricky’s birthday, and we were not disappointed. We ordered the dutch crunch BBQ buns filled with savory and sweet char siu, fermented seasonal vegetable which was daikon at the time, seasonal cheong fun (caviar), shiu jao (scallop and shrimp dumpling, nothing to write home about), bok choy with roasted garlic and smoked oysters, spicy szechuan eggplant, silken mapo tofu (this was awesome) and shared the large format Peking duck. Our waiter helped us select dishes to balance out the flavors and really everything was great.
The Peking duck was unique because they served it with peanut butter hoisin and rich, fatty pate. I’m a huge fan of Brandon Jew and can’t wait to try his less fancy, less expensive Chinese restaurant called Mamhuhu that specializes in Chinese-American food. Right now, it’s piloting as take out only but if all goes well it’ll be a full fledged restaurant. Let’s hope things go well!
Moongate Lounge - in the heart of Chinatown.
Don’t skip out on the cocktails at Mr. Jiu’s!
Caviar Cheong Fun