You might hear King Phojanakong’s Umi Nom referred to as the Brooklyn outpost of Kuma Inn, the chef’s six-year-old Asian tapas place on the Lower East Side. Outpost is an apt descriptor. Umi Nom moved into an old Laundromat on a block of Classon Avenue in Clinton Hill that feels much farther from Kuma Inn’s Ludlow Street address than the 3.5 miles that separate the streets.

 

Phojanakong’s restaurant doesn’t announce itself too loudly.The name was printed directly onto the previous tenant’s awning, and you can still make out the words Drycleaner Laundryland. But step inside and you’re through the looking glass:The sleek brick-and-dark-wood interior and jaunty indie pop soundtrack are a world away from the Crown Fried Chicken next door and the housing project across the street.

Odd as they appear in context, though, Umi Nom’s formal trappings aren’t overly formal. As at Kuma Inn, Phojanakong opted for a minimalist design, cultivating an atmosphere of laidback urbanity. An angular wood-slab bar and the bamboo-and-paper sculpture hung above it dominate the tiled and woodpaneled front portion of the rectangular space.

Past the bar is a brick-walled dining room decorated only by slim pendant lights and wallmounted half cylinders of polished bamboo.

On both visits, our meals began with an amuse-bouche of fried crab-and-cream-cheese wontons (AKA crab Rangoon). Fried to a perfect crispiness and not too oily, the wontons recalled those I used to order from a favorite Chinese takeout. Except Umi Nom’s are filled with deliciously fresh and toothsome, not fishy mock, crab and topped indulgently with a dollop of mayonnaise. Like the décor, Umi Nom’s menu takes its cues from Kuma Inn (though few dishes appear at both places), offering a lengthy list of small plates for sharing plus a small handful of rice and noodle dishes. Unfortunately for vegetarians, dishes devoid of meat or seafood are in short supply. And some are better than others. Bok choy sautéed with garlic ($9) was good but unremarkable, a victim, you might say, of its own simplicity. Shitake mushrooms in a soy-mirin glaze ($10), on other hand, were astoundingly good. Soft, supple, rich and earthy, the shitakes were given a buttery, almost vanilla-tasting lift by the salty-sweet soy-mirin blend. An adobo-style pork belly special ($12) succeeded with a similar flavor combination, blending sweet-sour and rich, meaty tastes in char-edged and often melt-in-your-mouth bites. Other dishes expertly applied bright, tangy flavors to a meaty foundation. A chililime sauce added spice and acidic notes to the garlicky Chinese sausage ($11.50), each bite of which offered a satisfying snap. And a simple tomato-chili relish topped the peppery and perfectly tender grilled skirt steak ($12) with sweet-sour tanginess and a bit of serious heat.

Sometimes though, as with the bok choy, less aggressive tastes were overwhelmed. Lollipop chicken wings ($10) were dusted with salt and pepper, batter-fried and tossed with vinegar and Anaheim chiles.The batter was light and crisp, the dark meat oily and tender and the salt-and-pepper seasoning and vinegar-chili sauce applied with balance and restraint.That kind of subtlety, however, is easily lost in the pell-mell of a tapas meal, especially one here, where the best dishes prime your taste buds for full-on flavor intensity.

The Asian-style fish and chips with wasabi–fish roe aioli ($12) suffered a similar fate. Like a gourmet fish stick, with a uniformly crunchy Panko crust surrounding perfectly tender tilapia, the dish was appealing but under-seasoned (even the wasabi aioli lacked punch) and extra flat in the context of our meal. Noodle and rice dishes, too, were well prepared but faired poorly next to the bigger, brighter flavors on the table. Chicken fried rice ($9) impressed me, like the wontons, as fresher and more flavorful but otherwise identical to the Chinese takeout version. Enjoyable bite to bite, though it was forgettable next to better dishes.The same was true of the pancit Canton ($9), a dish of egg noodles with fish sauce, lime, soy and a sprinkling of sausage and chicken.

Dessert, not typically a strength of Asian cuisine, capped my last meal at Umi Nom beautifully.The molten chocolate Thai chili cake with blackberry sauce and thick, freshly whipped cream ($8) deftly wove together heat, rich sweetness and berry tartness, all of it leavened by the sour-sweet cream. It was a sweet version of Umi Nom’s best dishes— full of big, aggressive flavors deftly balanced.

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Umi Nom
433 DeKalb Ave. (betw. Classon Ave. & Taaffe Pl.), Brooklyn, 718-789-8806