Alden and I both work on Kinzie street just a few blocks away from each other. One day we decided to go to lunch and decided to hit up a nice spot that we wouldn’t normally go to instead of the usual Singha or Potbelly. There are a lot of nice restaurants in River North that we never go to because 1) it’s River North and no one hangs out there on purpose, at least not any of our normal friends, 2) it’s a crazy stupid douchey scene at night, 3) the restaurants and clubs get really pricey at night.

At first I suggested Mercadito, right on Kinzie, but Alden and I both live in neighborhoods where we tend to overdose on Mexican food on a regular basis, so even a high-end Mexican spot did not appeal to us. We ended up deciding on Sunda, a restaurant that “showcases contemporary interpretations of traditional dishes from Japan, China, Vietnam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines and the rest of the Southeast Asian islands.” I’d heard a lot of great reviews of Sunda, and probably heard especially more because one of Dallas’s friends is an investor in the venture, so I was excited to try it out.

The interior of Sunda is beautiful. It looks modern, but at the same time there are a ton of antique-looking Asian pieces that give it an old-world look.

Right away we were served these chips. They were kind of like the consistency of shrimp chips, but thankfully didn’t have that shrimpy taste that I’m not crazy about. Light and airy, kind of styrofoamy, like they’re supposed to be. I don’t know why they were pastel colors, but whatever.

To drink, Alden got the mango tea and I got the mango soda. This is how they arrive:

It looks a bit like a mango car bomb, no? It took a minute, but the idea here is that you have your tea or soda and you have your mango flavor separately, so in the glass of ice you can mix in the flavoring to your liking. When we drank it all, we were given another glass of plain tea and soda water and then we were free to mix more mango flavoring in. I’d already used mine all up in my first glass. Oops! I thought this was a neat presentation and made our beverages more fancy and interactive.. but for $8/glass, they’d better do something!

Alden and I arrived for lunch early, at like 11:45, because of work meetings and such. That said, we weren’t like starving. Our waiter was really friendly and nice and helped us pick out the right amount of food. He also gave us recommendations on what he thought were stand-out dishes and wasn’t afraid to answer honestly about things he didn’t think were that special. I’d asked about the bao, because I’m a bao-aholic, but he said they were good, but just a standard bao you could probably get anywhere. I appreciated his honesty.

Our waiter told us that the signature sushi is what Chef Rodelio Aglibot is known for. (Sidenote: I just read in his bio that Rodelio, Rod, is known as “the Food Buddha” and he is a Filipino American who grew up in Hawaii. I should read up on this stuff ahead of time, but I don’t!) Anyway, the signature sushi differs from regular sushi in that the rice is pan fried in ghee (clarified butter) and glazed with soy sauce. Then you can have it topped with hand cut spicy tuna and jalapeno, seared American kobe beef tartare, or shrimp tempura with avocado and wasabi. We opted for the spicy tuna.

I wasn’t sure how this would be, but I was willing to give it a shot. Alden and I both thought it was delicious. The rice on the bottom is cooked and so flavorful, then the fresh raw tuna on the top an a slice of fresh jalapeno. I was afraid it was going too be too spicy, but it wasn’t, and I’m sensitive to spicy. Great balance and combination.

A second recommendation from the waiter was the rock shrimp tempura with glazed walnuts and creamy honey aioli. I found these really addicting, but who doesn’t love something fried up and drizzled with mayo and mixed with some glazed walnuts for a nutty crunchy sweet contrast?

Well, maybe Alden doesn’t. I think he liked this dish, but I was the one constantly popping “just one more” throughout our meal.

For an entree we split pancit Canton. This was also a recommendation from the waiter and one Alden was attracted to because his Filipino father used to always make this dish when Alden was growing up. I read on Wikipedia that pancit is the term for noodles in Filipino cuisine and that this dish was first introduced to the Phillippines by the Chinese. Pancit means “something conveniently cooked fast.” There are about a billion variations on pancit, ours had crispy pork belly, lap cheong (Chinese sausage), shrimp, green beans, cabbage, and egg noodles.

I liked this dish, but I wanted something more out of it. I don’t know if I wanted more salt, like a dash of shoyu, or a little more spice or what, but it was not my favorite of the day. I wonder how Alden felt, having grown up with pancit.

Finally, one more interior shot. I was laughing when I turned around, leaned over my high-backed bench and aimed my camera at the sushi bar. The sushi chef saw me immediately and smiled. Alden said I’d make the worst private investigator ever.

I thought that Sunda had great food, a great ambiance, and good service. It is pricy. We paid about $30 each, and that was just for lunch. I’m sure dinner is a lot more. That said, we did have leftover pancit and tempura. The serving sizes are plentiful and our waiter did mention a lot of people split dishes family-style like we did. We probably could have had a third person at lunch and have ordered the same amount of food, which would have made it more economical. I’d recommend Sunda to anyone who needs to take a client out to a high-end restaurant, someone who wants to impress a date, or someone celebrating a special occasion.