Nondescript exterior hides Japanese/Korean treasures
I was a half-hour late when I showed up for dinner at Las with two members of the diplomatic community, hereinafter known as Ferret Woman and Dog Boy. The Japanese/Korean eatery was in the most unlikely of places, according to Dog Boy, who said he would have passed its inconspicuous doorway on the ground floor of what looks like an old-style milk bar. The inside was sparse, too.
"Our first thought was they forgot to decorate," said Ferret Woman, leaning back and taking it all in. "It's sort of minimalist with communist interrogation lamps."
I couldn't resist asking, "Have you ever been interrogated in a communist country?" That's the sort of conversation stopper that's difficult to recover from, so it's good we had the menus to study.
The Japanese/Korean mix means a complex, multi-page binder that takes a while to process. The perky and friendly waitress brought drinks and left while we studied the tomes in front of us.
Dog Boy and I enjoyed the hot sake (zl. 45). Neither dry nor sweet, it was a little bitter on the tongue. Ferret Woman washed down her meal with multiple mineral waters and some complimentary iced herbal tea. I thought it was jasmine but Ferret Woman was inclined toward oat grass. Of course, the distinct undertone may have just been tap water.
Soups ranged from zl. 8-zl. 12. Sushi and sashimi were anywhere from zl. 12-zl. 30 for two pieces of sushi to zl. 100 for the sashimi sampler. A set of 10 rolls cost zl. 27-zl. 40. Grilled meat dishes were zl. 38-zl. 40, with shabu shabu for two at zl. 100, mains for two at zl. 80 and for four at zl. 150. Other mains were zl. 35-zl. 50, with noodles for zl. 25-zl. 35, and udon for zl. 30-zl. 40. The wine selection ranged from zl. 90-zl. 160.
We decided to order family style, so we could all sample a wide selection of both Japanese and Korean dishes. The waitress appeared as soon as we shut our books, and once we'd ordered, suggested we might want to trim our selection. The service was excellent throughout.
Before we started, a series of small salads and appetizers arrived unbidden at the table. There was a portion of kim chi, which was good but not superb; kim chi has many variations and this was not the type that had been aged long. The zucchini and chives sprinkled with paprika in a light oil was bardzo smaczne. And there were some surowki, again with paprika, as well as zucchini tempura and miso soup. The tempura had too much batter and the vegetable had been overcooked. And the miso, usually a clear broth, tasted as if it had been prepared in chicken stock.
We decided to start with hae-mul pa-dzon (small-zl. 30, medium-zl. 50, large-zl. 70), a seafood omelet with chives. This was a big hit, and we were all fighting for pieces and dipping them in the accompanying soy, sesame, garlic and onion sauce. For the sauce, I have to give a slight nod to Ohh! Sushi Seoul Garden, but Las serves a lighter, less greasy accompanying "pancake." You can't go wrong at either place.
Peppery salads and spicy dipping sauces cleared our sinuses. Soon there was a boat of dead fish and rice in front of us the Modum sushi set (zl. 60). Dog Boy was the most enthusiastic, diving in and enjoying all those questionable pieces the ones that require a guinea pig to ensure they're edible. We awaited the verdict as he picked up the most suspicious chunk. "It's definitely fishy," he said.
Dog Boy handled everything with tentacles while Ferret Woman and I stayed with the more conventional forms of fish. The wasabe was sufficiently strong to give Ferret Woman an overdose and send her grabbing for more water. The fish had that once-frozen blandness but it was clean and certainly not old. Overall, the sushi was as good as you can get in Warsaw.
We then opted for two dishes bul koki (zl. 38) and sam gyop sal (zl. 38) that came with a show. The waitress removed the cover of the gas burner in the center of our table and replaced it with a cast-iron dome-shaped grill. She brought out the ingredients of the bul koki and set them to simmer. It was up to us to determine when the delicate strips of beef were cooked to perfection. Raw cloves of garlic and a sauce were added before the mixture was wrapped in lettuce leaves and eaten like an exotic taco ... but I forget, tacos are exotic in Warsaw.
When we had happily devoured the bul koki, the waitress brought out a different cast-iron grill to cook the sam gyop sal. This dish consisted of strips of fatty bacon cooked to our liking and mixed with greens, garlic and a wonderful spicy sauce. These also ended up wrapped in lettuce leaves. The dish came with a special oil, sesame and salt dip, which made it very easy to oversalt your tacos. Not quite as delicious as the bul koki, but still very tasty.
We also ordered zazang myon (zl. 35), a forgettable pork noodle dish in a black bean sauce. It was lackluster and we never were able to determine where the pork was.
After all was done, we received a pleasant surprise in the form of green apple slices. The apple was a palate-clearing finish to an excellent meal. Dinner for three with sake came to zl. 318.15 ($72) and included a 5% service charge. The meal was a wonderful cross-cultural experience that left us wondering what to do with some of the ingredients. Las is a restaurant for people who like to play with their food, although it is also a place where it would be easy to order the wrong dishes and have an unpleasant experience.
After we were done, we toured the labyrinth of private dining rooms and the basement karaoke room, which looked like the site of secret, smoke-wreathed deals. A group of Asian men with beers and bottles of vodka on the table invited us to join them. We declined, but are all secretly wishing to go back.
