My husband and I are meeting up with friends at the best little restaurant (BLR) Saturday night.
Looking for recommendations, thoughts, reviews since they reopened.
Thanks!
I’ll be interested to read your report. The last time we ate at Best Little Restaurant, in its previous incarnation, we weren’t too favorably impressed. Now it’s called BLR by Shojo. We couldn’t abide Shojo because of the noise level. Just across Beach Street is Five Spices House, which is really good.
Thats interesting to read, we are hoping to catch up with our friends. I think we are on the earlier side,
so maybe it won’t be too bad.
Thanks for the info, will report back.
it should be OK in BLR–it’s separate from Shojo, the bar. (Which I like the drinks at, but really haven’t been except in the mid to late afternoon when the noise levels were fine). I haven’t been to the restaurant since it changed from the old place, which used to be one of my regular Chinatown haunts. Let us know how it is!
When we stepped into Shojo, where we had reserved, the music was so loud that we couldn’t bear to stay. There was no question of turning down the music. That was their policy.
I like their lettuce wraps, forget what they are called on the menu. And the dried, sauteed string beans.
Back from our jaunt to the Cutler Majestic Theater (Reversible) and dinner at BLR.
BLR is totally separate from Shojo but is owned by them. We were on Hudson St, around the corner. Very quiet small space down a flight from street level. No noise issues at all.
We were there on the early side but it got busy pretty quickly.
And we had a really good meal. Four of us ordered:
Bone Marrow with scallion pancakes
Mushrooms with dashi (special)
Shrimp summer saldad
House rice
Best little trout
Duck confit mooshu
Sechuan chile shrimp w/asian salad (special)
Lionhead meatballs.
I enjoyed it all, the stand outs were the trout, which came completely deboned, duck confit. I ate this by its self, not wrapped with hoisin sauce and the house rice.
The shrimp salad had a nice heat to it. And the mushrooms came with an egg to mix with them. It made the dish interesting, in a good way.
The meatballs were fine, just a little sweet for me but the rest of the table enjoyed them.
Service was great, no complaint
This gets a return visit soon, I would like to try the rest of the menu.
Total with 3 Orion beers as about $140.00 before tip.
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Wow, sounds great. We’ll try it if we get a chance.
thanks for the writeup. need to go there.
Sounds terrific. How many of you were eating?
4 of us were eating, We might of squeaked through another bone marrow but didn’t!
The apps were bone marrow,mushrooms and summer shrimp salad. All large enough to share a bite but not huge.
The entrees were the trout, house fried rice, duck mooshu lion head meatballs (which came with a bowl of steamed rice) and Sechuan chile shrimp w/asian salad.
Not huge portions but plenty for us to share, we did order an additional white rice.
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Ws the bone marrow good? You didn’t list it as one of the standouts.
The bone marrow was very good. The sprouts gave it a good crunch texture and the pancakes complimented the marrow nicely. I liked it.
But I have not had it very often in my travels so didn’t feel I had enough context
to list it as a standout.
Does that make sense?
I’ve never been to BLR, and I’ve never eaten marrow. I think that needs to change in November.
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I would recommend it!
We ventured to BLR by Shojo for the first time before a performance at the Wang Theatre on a Thursday night.
While I’m not necessarily a big fan of fusion dishes, we’re always up for sampling something new. The short menu looked good to me.
The two of us shared wok-seared asparagus, Szechuan Bolognese, and duck confit mooshu. For us that was plenty, but since we had a little extra time before the show started, we decided to try the one dessert choice offered that evening. We liked it just fine: Japanese cheesecake served beside a pile of fresh whipped cream and drizzled with a thin cherry sauce.
We both came away thinking that BLR was a fresh and fun choice. I had forgotten ever seeing it on this board but this thread must have made an impression, so thank you @grumpyspatient!
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Glad you liked BLR, we haven’t been back since I posted. Its hard for us to get
past Sarma most evenings. I will have to mention it to my DH, put it on the list.
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Not being able to get past Sarma is an excellent problem to have.
For me, BLR is more the kind of place I’d go to when in the neighborhood. We were saying how it would be in our rotation if we lived closer.
BLR offers the sort of delicious, unfussy dining that I favor before taking in a performance or a show. Makes for a fun evening, so thanks again for the pointer!
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