1 review

1. Dario Peterson  

   on April 13, 2015
   

   This late night Chinese restaurant in Brooklyn's 8th Avenue Chinatown was a nice surprise after returning from a short road trip from out of town.  After Yelping late night places, Fu Mun Lou came up and gave us a new alternative to our 2 favorite Manhattan haunts.  (8th Avenue has more than a few late night restaurants so take note if you're ever foraging for food in the wee hours and don't want to go to Billyburg).  You should know that Fu Mun Lou is a Fukianese or Fujianese restaurant, not a Cantonese restaurant if you are looking for a beloved Cantonese dish like we were.  They didn't have it but they have other interesting choices.  Fuzhou cuisine is known for its soups and stews but when we were ogling the typo-ridden menu we saw things like "duck tone", "pork life", "sautéed tortoise meat" and "dai chang" (which for those who know southern dialects, means large intestine).  I chose some more familiar innocuous dishes so if they weren't good we would blame the cook and not our prejudices with exotic organ meats.  The iron plate grilled short ribs albeit tenderized with baking soda and a little on the sweet side according to my foodie friend was tasty and a sizzling sensation.  The shrimps were sweet in the salt and pepper fried shrimp dish but not jumbo sized as the menu described them which made the shelling a little annoying.  Be also forewarned, the shrimps have heads which I love but not good for patrons who may be concerned with potential gout attacks.  The crispy salty shrimp shells though are edible and good with beer if you want to make the dish a bar snack instead of a dinner entree.  Instead of the ubiquitous white rice accompaniment, we had E-fu noodles which were a perfect plate of stir-fried spongy wheat noodles with vegetables.  For $32 we were fed well.  Comparably, kalbi, a Korean barbecued beef short rib favorite of ours would have cost nearly the same for just one dish.  The service however, was a little lacking due to an engaging Chinese novella playing on the TV which all the staff seemed to be distracted watching but somehow the short ribs were served so quickly that I'm sure it was nothing short of witchery.  It would be worth it to go back just to see if the chef can repeat this magical feat.

   Log in to Reply