There’s not a ton of stuff going on down here at the southern end of Sixth Avenue, an area some call South Slope, and others Greenwood Heights. Not that the residents seem to mind — part of the appeal of this stretch of Brooklyn is the slow pace and quiet streets — but when one of the scattered local restaurants close, it leaves a hole.
That was the case when cozy, farm-to-table spot Lot 2 shut down in 2022 after a good 13-year run. So when Malcolm Ting opened his first ever restaurant, Unoriginal Noodles and Bar, in the space last week, he was a little anxious. “It’s a big moment for me,” Ting tells Brooklyn Magazine. “My last job was as a butcher, at the Meat Hook, and now I’m back in the kitchen after three or four years. I’m nervous. I’m excited. I wanted to open a place that I would want to eat in, and this is it.”
Tonkotsu ramen, $19 (Photo by Scott Lynch)
Unoriginal Noodles is a nifty little restaurant with a tight pan-Asian menu. “Simple things done well,” is how Ting describes it. There are noodles here, of course, including a rich and satisfying bowl of porky tonkotsu ramen, and an excellent version of Taiwan’s national dish, a spicy beef noodle soup. Ting’s connection with the Meat Hook, one of Brooklyn’s best butcher shops, serves him well with both of these dishes; he told us he gets all of the bones and scraps for his soup stocks from his former employer.
Spicy Taiwanese beef noodle soup, $25 (Photo by Scott Lynch)
Three other ramen variations are available as well: a seafood dish with salmon in yuzu saffron broth, a chicken offering featuring both legs and eggs, and a miso vegetarian bowl that’s given some heft by the roasted mushrooms and lotus root. Ting, who was born and raised in Bayside, Queens, said that he’s “not trying to reinvent the wheel here. Noodles are my comfort food. They’ve always been my go-to.”
Complementing your comfort food is … more comfort food, a half dozen or so appetizers such as Ting’s first-rate duck wings, sticky with his sweet and spicy glaze, and a pile of chewy mochi fried tofu that’s given a nice bit of crunch from its base of tempura flakes. Other choices include a trio of fried oysters with spicy pickles, a roasted miso hamachi collar, and a pile of karaage chicken.
Sweet and spicy duck wings, $18 (Photo by Scott Lynch)
There’s dessert too — Ting actually trained as a pastry chef under Jean George Vongeritchen — like the raucous “ube sweet potatoes ginger blueberry creme brulée.” Cocktails, beer, wine, sake and soju are available to satisfy your alcohol-related desires.
And you can expect to see Ting around the neighborhood when he’s not back in the kitchen making your dinner. He liked it so much over here he moved into an apartment upstairs during the build out. “This is a really cool area,” he says. “Kind of in a nice quiet corner. I feel good being a part of things here.”
Mochi fried tofu, $9 (Photo by Scott Lynch)
Unoriginal Noodles and Bar is located at 687 Sixth Avenue, between 19th and 20th Streets, and is currently open on Wednesday through Sunday from 5 to 10 p.m.
The post Unoriginal Noodles opens in the former Lot 2 space on Sixth Avenue appeared first on Brooklyn Magazine.
