Sunda New Asian restaurant spans a sunny corner in Fulton Market, sharing a warm and cozy space that offers warm and cozy dishes. In addition to this location at 333 N. Green St., there’s an eatery at 110 W. Illinois St. as well as in Tampa, Detroit, and Nashville, where founder and CEO Billy Dec currently lives.
Dec’s journey to his mother’s home country of the Philippines to deepen his culinary inspirations was chronicled in the PBS documentary Food Roots. Those cultivated pan-Asian influences are evident in Sunda’s vibrant and varied menu. Green Street’s culinary director chef Mike Morales is also Filipino and has been with the restaurant since its founding, initially at the Illinois Street location.
Chef Morales is passionate about his work and engrossing when sharing his origin story. He was a troubled gangbanger in LA before restaurant work welcomed and saved him, especially after a serious motorcycle accident, much like Anthony Bourdain shares in his fabulous memoir Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly.
“We chefs are successful losers,” Morales said. “But every plate matters, because food warms your soul and makes you feel safe and loved.” He also talked about how a lifetime of memories can flavor both culinary and life experiences. Equally engaging is operations manager Vanita Rao, also personally recruited by Dec, who shared her memories of growing up in India, operating in various hospitality capacities around the world including Dubai, and working in most of the Sunda locations to gain a deep understanding of this business. Dec’s compatriots are equally enthusiastic and kind.
The Sunda dining room is comfortably stylish, with cultural textures on fixtures like bamboo, dangling seashells and woven lamps, and an outside space for warm nights. The well-curated menu runs the gamut from dim sum to sushi to noodles, as well as rice dishes and salads from Japan, Vietnam, China, Thailand, and, of course, the Philippines, including several gluten-free options.
The Commence menu offers some edamame options, miso in soup or in ginger and cauliflower salads, as well as a tofu salad and crispy Brussels sprouts, tangy and light rather than sticky or heavy as some can be. Caviar service is also offered, featuring delicate Kaluga caviar with truffle tamago maki, yuzu crème fraîche, and chives on a roti puff for a pricey but perfect bite.
The dim sum offerings are several steamed buns (Korean fried chicken, crispy eggplant, pork belly, Peking duck) as well as lumpia, oxtail pot stickers, char siu ribs, and lemongrass beef lollipops. The Kamayan Feast is a colorful array of several Filipino dishes for up to four guests to sample.
Larger plates are offered in the New Asian Creations menu. Several seafood dishes include salmon crudo, yuzu tuna, baked snow crab handroll, crunchy Hamachi, lotus madai snapper, yellowtail with jalapeñoor as tartare, and the recommended Escolar “The Great White,” a buttery white mackerel morsel topped with delicate truffle shavings and light vinaigrette.
The Main Flavors section adds turf to the surf, including beef with a ribeye, short rib, and Wagyu tomahawk steak selections, plus pork belly sinigang, massaman scallops, chicken inasal or Szechuan, and a grilled vegetable plate of shiitake, bok choy, red onions, asparagus, eggplant, and squash under khao soi curry. The Indonesian-inspired crazy rice special features umami, sweetness and heat with chicken, tiger shrimp, crispy shallots, cucumber, topped with ghost pepper sambal and a fried egg (Sunda is also a geographical region in Indonesia, which also means clean, clear and pure, apt for this menu).
The Signature Sushi is also a well-selected set of options, from lobster to tuna to shrimp, including the dynamite Red Dragon roll, a sumptuous mix of unagi (fatty eel) and unagi sauce, shrimp tempura, spicy tuna, jalapeno, and avocado. The Nigiri and Sashimi can be ordered as two or four pieces, and the sea urchin and toro (fatty tuna) are offered at market price.
The kids’ menu features California rolls, shrimp tempura and baked snow crab rolls, fried rice, lo mein noodles and a child-friendly Bento box. Six desserts are available if there’s any room left in your stomach after all this bounty, including four types of ice cream and sorbet, a molten chocolate cake and an opulent yet light coconut cheesecake with mousse, caramel and berries on a graham cracker crust.
The cocktail menu is equally innovative and lush, including three non-alcoholic offerings, in addition to espresso martini and sake flights. Fruits are well incorporated into these gin, bourbon, and vodka drinks, as well as into the yummy, salted-rim Meiji Margarita, with Espolon reposado, yuzu liqueur, and passionfruit syrup. The Strawberry Fields drink, usually made with Grey Goose, can also be made with tequila, along with triple sec, ginger syrup, strawberry and lemongrass essences, and muddled lemon, lime, orange, and strawberries, to offer seasonal freshness with a welcome buzz.
The Sunda experience is a refreshing mix of passionate purveyors, a relaxing, culturally inspired space, and a dynamic menu of distinct flavors that evoke a caring culture of hot and cold dishes meant to be shared communally. Chef Morales said that as he came into his own, he remembers many Yoda-like mentors who helped him reach this level of success. “And now I get to be Yoda to others,” he said, because Jedi masters “always pass on what they have learned.”
Sunda Fulton Market is open for dinner Mondays through Thursdays and Sundays 5 to 10pm, and Fridays and Saturdays 5pm to 12am.
This coverage was made possible by a promotional invitation. Our opinions and editorial choices remain entirely our own.
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