118 W Chippewa St., Buffalo, NY 14202
Web: Papaya Restaurant
Phone: 716.856.2444
Rating:
[learn more]Pros:
Interesting pan-Asian menu with a mixture of authentic and fusion dishes, allowing diners to sample regional Southeast Asian cuisines done pretty well; certain items are delicious.
Cons:
Small portion sizes given the relatively high prices; some dishes are lighter on sauce and flavor than they should be.
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Buffalo Chinese Japanese Korean Pan-Asian Thai Vietnamese
"The duck was uncharacteristically all meat and no fat, but the quantity of meat relative to vegetables and price seemed way off - we made our way through the dish far too quickly."
As we've noted in a prior review, Asian Fusion restaurants - and occasionally their counterparts, Pan-Asian restaurants - confront diners with an initial hurdle. Unless you read a trustworthy review or hear details from friends, it's generally impossible to know in advance what to expect: will the items you order taste like real Chinese, Thai, Vietnamese, Japanese, or Korean food, or will they be some half-hearted amalgam, the best that a chef specializing in only one of those cuisines can muster for the rest? When we visited Papaya, an attractively decorated Buffalo establishment next to The Chocolate Bar, we were presented with a medium-sized, substantially Pan-Asian menu, offering a handful of authentic-sounding dishes from each of the aforementioned cultures, alongside a few fusion choices. Better yet, the renditions were actually pretty good. But they were also very expensive, with inconsistent portion sizes, details we discuss further in our full review below.
The Story: There are certain frills that we tend to expect at restaurants with entrees that start at $18: great decor, outstanding service, and - of course - wonderful food. Thankfully, Papaya comes pretty close to those standards in all three categories. Once again, we were surprised to find that the interior of this West Chippewa Street location was sharper-looking than most of the Asian restaurants we see in the suburbs, attractively employing earthtones in the walls and furniture, with modern carpeting, padded booths, and clean plating that reminded us of Williamsville's stylish Black and Blue. It's obvious that this place was properly designed to appeal to a more discerning clientele, and our positive first impressions certainly prepared us for much of what was to come.
Service at Papaya was amongst the most memorable we can recall at an Asian restaurant, in a mostly positive way. Our server did a good job of keeping most of us topped off throughout the meal - aside from coffee - and employed a playful, intentionally slightly obnoxious attitude that wouldn't have worked with certain patrons. One drink order elicited a mocking claim that the bar didn't stock such "trendy" drinks, but a comment that the martinis were way too small resulted in the friendly delivery of an oversized sequel. Though some people might want more vanilla service, we enjoyed the banter and thought that it added to our meal.
Highs: Our table of four, filled with fans of Asian food, ordered pretty aggressively in order to get a good sense of how the place stacked up to our other local favorites. We ordered two of the menu's three soups, enjoying the Spicy Korean Seafood Stew ($5), a typical appetizer-sized soup bowl which used a red kimchee broth to float shrimp, mussels, and scallions; a very good combination.
A universal pleasure for the table was the single noodle dish we ordered, the Fiery Thai Udon Noodle ($12-16), one of four options that ranged in price from $10 to $18. Japanese udon, thick wheat noodles that seem like caricatures of vermicelli, are most commonly served in a broth, but here, the dish was remixed, employing a thin Thai-inspired basil sauce that was more sweet and savory than spicy. We picked pork as the dish's meat from a list that also included chicken, beef, and tofu for $12, or shrimp for $16; the noodles were appropriately chunky, delicious, and filling, with a fair amount of meat.
Another dish, the Sizzling Duck ($18), combined the obvious ingredient in a classic soy-based brown sauce with broccoli, shiitake mushrooms, and onions. While we loved the taste of this dish, which was interesting in that the duck was uncharacteristically all meat and no fat, the quantity of meat relative to both vegetables and the price seemed way off - we felt as if we'd made our way through the dish far too quickly. Still, we enjoyed every bit of what was there; the duck's own soft, chewy texture was fun to enjoy, with the lack of fat taking the emphasis away from what is normally a crunchy and blubbery combination of skin and grizzle.
We also enjoyed the Hot Pepper Crusted Chicken ($18), which was the most attractively plated dish of the bunch, served with a glaze of chili sauce, a drizzle of sweet cilantro sauce on the side, and a pile of both rice and steamed bok choy. While the chicken was surprisingly light, its flavor not as intense as "hot pepper" or "crusted" might suggest, it was pleasant, and the rice was actually coconut milk flavored, giving it added sweetness and stickiness. Despite the name, this was as close to a non-Asian, "fusion" item as we had during the meal, and it was quite good.
Finally, we had no complaints about our Vietnamese Spring Rolls ($5), three fried rice paper treats stuffed with the typical combination of pork and vegetables, then served with a sweet dipping sauce. Similarly, a vegetarian version of the typically shrimp- and pork-laden, unfried rice paper Summer Rolls ($5) preserved the lettuce, cucumber, bean sprouts and basil we expected, as well as the thick, peanut-topped brown dipping sauce that adds to their heft. Both of these appetizers came with three rolls, sliced in half, and we were pleased, though not surprised by their presentation and taste.
Lows: The worst of the dishes we ordered was the Spicy Lemon Grass Seafood ($26), which was accurately described on the menu as possessing "shrimp, scallop, squid, and fresh mussel," tossed with vegetables in what was claimed to be a "spicy lemon grass basil sauce." We tasted too little spice, and no lemon grass in this dish, which was also far too vegetable heavy and sparing in seafood for the extremely high price; the pieces of squid were tiny, and the other items fine in size, but far too few in number. Even in recent weeks, we've had better renditions of the same dish, served for roughly half the price; this item was a comparative embarrassment.
We were also generally unimpressed by Papaya's rendition of a classic, Wonton Soup ($4), which despite possessing a reasonable number of small, pork-filled wontons was served with a broth that was too light in flavor to really be called chicken stock. Visually, the soup looked perfect, topped with scallions, bits of crispy shallots, and typical hints of oil, but the taste just wasn't there.
On the so-so scale was a dish that Papaya still serves even in its absence from the menu, a Thai Panang Curry with Vegetables, presented in a clay pot. While the green beans, tofu, onions, peppers, broccoli and aggregate portion size here were more generous than with the seafood dish above, the sauce was deemed "fine, but too thin" by both of our table's yellow curry connoisseurs, suggesting that it wasn't an especially authentic or filling dish. It, along with the other items we ordered, was not enough - even with rice - to keep us from ordering fairly substantial desserts afterwards.
The Verdict: Ultimately, our group concluded that Papaya was worthy of a three-star rating, though it might have been a hint lower if we issued quarter stars - the food, decor, and service were almost entirely good, sometimes a little higher and sometimes a little lower than the word "good" would suggest. In any case, this is a very interesting experiment in pan-Asian dining, as the menu deftly combines authentic dishes, prepared pretty well, with fusion items that will appeal to less adventurous diners. Despite the existence of the conceptually similar Sake Cafe, which we found terrible, Papaya is the only local place we'd recommend to those looking to choose between a Japanese bento box, Seafood Pad Thai, or a New York Strip Steak without changing venues three times.
Bear in mind, however, that these items - and virtually everything else in the Entrees section of the menu - are more expensive, and in some cases a little watered down, relative to what you'd find at more value-conscious places, so you're paying a premium for the decor, the service, and the pretty presentation. Once in a while, that's a good thing, and for those times, we'd consider Papaya worth revisiting. Larger portions or lower prices would get us back here more often.
