ChoLon opened in Lower Downtown last autumn to much breathless ballyhooing, with lots of talk about how head chef Lon Symensma had trained at Michelin- starred restaurants in Europe and worked with the acclaimed Jean-Georges Vongerichten in New York City and Shanghai.
Now Symensma was parking his well-stamped passport in Denver, teaming with Alicia Pokoik Deters on a venue offering creative contemporary Asian cooking served by a crackerjack staff in a room that evoked Manhattan style.
No one asked Denver diners to genuflect in gratitude — not exactly — but the buildup carried a whiff of “We’re bringing big-city sophistication to flyover land. You’re welcome.”
Good thing we’re used to that. It’s also a good thing that Symensma and Co. generally deliver on the hype, their audacious roll of the dice paying off.
The room’s cool elements of steel, glass and tile are balanced by warm, dark woods. The young staff is outgoing and knowledgeable, serving a crowd where downtown loft denizens rub shoulders with well-heeled suburbanites. This is a dining-centric crowd. They are there to woo and coo, cut a deal, maybe impress someone with the deft use of chopsticks, but it’s ultimately about the food.
And the food by and large succeeds in spades.
The compact lunch and dinner menus share three sections: small bites (rib-eye satay, crab rangoon with ricotta among them), small plates (lemongrass-beet salad, yellow curry mussels) and small wok dishes (Chinese sausage fried rice, egg noodles with scallops and calamari). Lunch offers sandwiches but no big plates. Dinner is vice versa.
It’s a good excuse to visit at both services, akin to worshippers who attend morning mass and vespers.
You’ll work your way through Symensma’s take on contemporary Asian flavors.
A dish of soup dumplings ($8) delivered four bite-sized noodle packets in a bamboo steamer. The dumplings are packed with caramelized onions and gruyère cheese. In short, they’re a charming and flavorful bite of French onion soup, with the dumpling wrapper subbing for the crouton.
Curried duck spring rolls ($9) resembled Mexican taquitos, the stewed and shredded bird stuffed into the crisp, open-ended roll-ups. The savoriness is brightened by a cilantro- yogurt dipping sauce.
Lobster shu mai with tarragon ($12) bordered on the cloying. The natural sweetness of the shellfish, which could have benefited from a coarser chop, competed with the sweetness of the dumpling. The dish needed a plainer dumpling or a freer hand with the tarragon.
One of the more interesting small bites was the Kaya toast ($7), which came with coconut jam and an “egg cloud,” which was created by inserting a CO2 aerator into a yolky custard. The server described it as deconstructed French toast. She was right.
Perhaps the best $9 you’ll spend at an Asian restaurant in Denver is on ChoLon’s stir-fried brussels sprouts, toasty and mixed with ground pork and mint. The mint is not the first herb I’d think to marry with the mini-cabbages, but it works, a fine yin-yang of spark and smoke.
A word about the plating, which is artful but accessible. ChoLon is not one of those restaurants that send out leaning towers of comestibles, which threaten to collapse at the first touch of a fork. The dishes are constructed to be eaten, not eyeballed for minutes on end. Bravo.
Another nice touch: The first thing that arrives when you sit down is a 10-inch-wide rice puff studded with black sesame seeds. It sits upright in a rack that resembles the gizmos your Aunt Estelene used to display her commemorative dishes. A zippy tomato jam accompanies it.
The wok-fired green curry tofu ($12) was studded with broccoli, cauliflowers, mushrooms and onions, but the standout was the okra, split lengthwise to expose the pods to the curry sauce. The tofu was cubed and griddled. My companion thought it a bit flavorless, but I felt the neutrality of the protein made it a good backbone to all the other teeming flavors in the dish.
Large plates range from Symensma’s original creations to dishes inspired by the deeper recesses of traditional Chinese menus. (One note about authenticity: While cobra-and-scorpion infused wine can certainly be found in Beijing, does the average Western tippler need to see a bottle of the ghastly stuff staring down from the bar? I’d rather chance a herd of pink elephants any day.)
Ginger-glazed veal cheeks ($26) made use of one of the finest cuts around, which has happily resurfaced on menus in the last decade. It came with a melange of cippolina onions, carrots and zucchini, plus a spring pea puree that was bright on the plate but could have used some thinning. Texturally, it could have used a more delicate touch.
The kung pao chicken entree ($22) was a nod to two parties: folks who flat-out crave this staple and diners needing the comfort of the familiar. It was a balance of fire and salt, the skin properly crisp and sprinkled with whole spiced peanuts.
ChoLon isn’t perfect, but it is in hot pursuit. Symensma, Deters and their crew have a winner.
William Porter: 303-954-1877 or wporter@denverpost.com
CHOLON
Contemporary Asian 1555 Blake St., 303-353-5223 cholon.com
*** (Great)
Atmosphere: Sleek, spacious main dining room with a large bar to the left of the host stand
Service: Friendly, professional
Beverages: Wine, beer, cocktails
Plates: Compact menu emphasizes smart and stylish variations on traditional Asian dishes. Appetizers $7-$12; entrees $22-$30.
Hours: Monday-Friday: Lunch starts at 11 a.m.; dinner at 5 p.m. Saturday: Dinner starts at 5 p.m.
Details: Reservations recommended on weekend nights.
Three visits
Our star system: **** : Exceptional *** : Great ** : Very Good * : Good
