Rising from Allen Street is the newest cool downtown NYC hotel – Thompson Lower East Side. It’s a jarring yet undoubtedly strong structure: blocky, boxy and gray. Inside it’s the hospitality equivalent of black on black on black, with shiny mod surfaces and ambient music. And it’s Thompson’s raison d’etre (as we showed in an earlier review of The Libertine, at their Gild Hall hotel in the financial district) to put a star chef in a cool restaurant.

Here, they enlisted Susur Lee, Chinese star chef (and “Iron Chef America” participant), to head up the hotel’s eatery, Shang-- a big, red-hued space with bulbous, oversized light fixtures, expensively glossy paneling and draperies, and curvy leather banquettes that were clearly conceived (like the whole hotel was) in an economic boom.

In this incongruously extroverted 130-seat space, Lee served up Asian fusion cuisine. Yes, Asian fusion. That is very 1997. The menu is as uneven as it is cheeky – my friend and I saw that in the dim sum alone. Taro puffs with curried beef were insanely tender and delicious. But tiny scallion pancakes were boring and dull. Soy miso flavored cucumber salad was intensely bright and bursting with subtle flavor; yet fried oysters with Kung Pao sauce were greasy with no payoff. The salads looked interesting – the one my friend and I tried, Singapore Slaw, has 19 ingredients, from jicama and daikon to roasted hazelnuts,, carrots and even pansies, and a plum dressing that was a perfectly-spiced delight.

Wish the entrees had been as good. The slow-cooked pork belly I had was very disappointing … the pig is already dead, so there was no reason to kill it again. It may have been slow-cooked, but it was over-cooked well past the point of tenderness. The apple puree on the side was nice, but that didn’t save it. My friend called his sablefish – admittedly not an easy one to prepare -- “just bland – disappointing. Not bad but not memorable.”

And now a note on service. Thompson people: get it improved, quick. Our waiter came to the table, and said, “Hello and welcome…” then apparently he received a signal from another staff member, and immediately said: “I’m sorry – please excuse me,” and did not come back for approximately three minutes. This is the time when I should point out that the bill, with one drink each, was around $150. This is a very bad bill total to combine with being abandoned by a waiter for several minutes. After the initial abandonment, service was relatively rushed, with the waiter doing that annoying thing where he said “excellent choice!” after every choice.

No need to go too far into the economic situation, but let’s just say that we know it’s not great, and high-end restaurants have to be absolutely first-rate to be true survivors. This one isn’t first-rate. It’s interesting, and has potential, but for now, it’s in the gray zone.

Shang, 187 Orchard St., 212.260.7900

~Stephen Milioti

The Final Verdict

Taste- 7/10
Value- 5/10
Looks- 7.5/10
Service- 5/10

Total... 24.5/40


First, third, and fourth photos by kathyylchan via Flickr
Second photo by Lois Seigel