Kuta is a trip to Bali and beyond
BY IRENE SAX
Friday, January 25th 2008, 4:00 AM
Sunshine for News
Kuta's dimly lit interior makes for an inviting first date spot on the lower East Side.
Kuta is a good first-date restaurant. The L-shaped room is lit by low candles flickering on dark wood and Balinese masks that grin down from brick walls. The menu is familiar enough not to be intimidating, but quirky enough to give you something to talk about in those first awkward moments. How spicy is the Jimbaran spicy shrimp? (Very.) If you order satays, will you also want an appetizer? (Yes, if only one to share.)
The menu is Pan-Asian with an emphasis on Indonesia: One of the owners is from Bali, where Kuta is a surfing resort. The gimmick is that this is a satay house, meaning you'll start your meal by nibbling on small char-grilled skewers with your drinks. We tasted the beef teriyaki ($4.25), Malaysian chicken curry ($3.99), lamb tandoori ($5.75) and that lip-numbing Jimbaran shrimp ($6.95), all served two to an order with a shallow cup of sweet, cooling cucumber relish.
If you share a starter, try the pot stickers, six semi-circular dumplings filled with ground sirloin and chives. Fried until the edges turn golden-crisp and chewy; they're meant to be dipped in dark soy and sesame sauce ($7.95). Main dishes come from all over southeast Asia. (And farther: there's a burger topped with grilled pineapple.) In the pad thai, rice noodles are tangled with scallions, whole shrimp and chunks of chicken, and for once the dish is not too sweet ($10.95). Chinese cashew chicken is a lively stir-fry of chicken, pea pods, red peppers and whole cashews, served with sticky rice garnished with coconut shavings ($14.95).
Desserts are a problem at Asian restaurants. Does anyone really want canned pineapple chunks and fortune cookies? Kuta solves the problem with tropical-flavored frozen desserts like chocolate banana ice cream ($5.50) and a lemon-cilantro sorbet so bracing that you'll go out into the night wide awake and ready for anything ($5.50).