Review: 609 Restaurant & U Lounge in Joplin

Where was I? A minute ago I was running late for a dinner reservation, and the next thing I knew, I was standing on a bare concrete floor. Far off in front of me, at the end of a sparsely decorated room, were three curtained-off semi-private alcoves, each with a low table and what looked like either small ottomans or large floor pillows.

To my right was a group of people lazily smoking an enormous hookah. Oh, sure, a guest on one of Dave Glover’s “Paranormal Tuesday” segments claimed he could sell me a time machine for $299, but I thought he was the one hitting the poppies. And yet I must have somehow traveled back in time, because this is exactly what “The Simpsons” taught me an opium den in the East End of London would look like, only cooler.

Luckily, spotting my obvious confusion, a vision of Oscar Wilde appeared, opened a huge metal door and led me through the brick archway, back into reality and to my table. For those of you who don’t want to enter through a tear in the fabric of space and time – otherwise known as the U Lounge – the adjoining 609 Restaurant has its own entrance.

The restaurant’s Web site used vague words such as “cross-cultural,” “eclectic” and “global fusion” to describe the cuisine. (Seriously, pick a marketing buzzword and commit to it.) The menu mostly draws from Asian, French and American cuisines, but you can also find influences from Latin America, the Middle East and India. I suggest ordering sake – like a 10-ounce bottle of crisp, dry, faintly floral Y-Sake Wind from Oregon – and then diving into the appetizers.

Chefs Andy Huang and Ben Poremba’s lobster and crab wontons were what every self-respecting crab Rangoon aspires to be: long, crispy wonton tubes (no overcooked, superfluous wonton here) stuffed with generous amounts of filling containing real crab and lobster with a sweet and fiery chili sauce for dipping. Mussels were cooked very well, tender and succulent, but the Thai coconut-fennel broth stumbled a bit with too much fennel.

Although the smoked chicken pot stickers appeared not to have stuck to a pot at all, they proved a playful and tasty Asian take on barbecued chicken. Completely jammed with juicy meat, these bulbous green wontons paired well with the caramel and brown sugar flavors of Andy’s Barbecue Sauce. Instead of overpowering everything in its path, the smoked salmon adorning the pizza appetizer left room for the dill, the restrained wasabi crème and the salty pop of the caviar to come through, while the buttery avocado and the warm, chewy dough added fine textural elements.

Mixed with a significant amount of cilantro and supple scallops, the bright, tart, sweet and faintly acidic tastes of the scallop ceviche’s tropical fruit salsa acted almost like a palate cleanser before dinner.

It is rare that you meet a pork chop entrée that isn’t big enough to feed you for a week, and the portion control exercised here felt refreshing. A succulent chop rested atop a sweet and earthy mélange of corn, bell peppers, portabellas and pancetta and was topped with a thick sauce that called to mind hot braised pork at a Chinese buffet. Nicely blackened miso-marinated salmon was cooked to soft, moist perfection and perched atop pancake-sized sweet pea ravioli in a carrot-ginger purée. The purée and ravioli played excellent supporting roles, allowing a nice piece of fish to get its due.

Pan-roasted chicken had a crisp, flavorful skin and tender meat that could be dipped in a restrained cilantro-mint pesto. The mixture of potatoes, cauliflower and parsnips with it was fine but not terribly memorable. The tricolor rice with apricots, lentils and citrus zest that sidled up to the duck breast, however, made me take notice. An unexpected crispy element, like puffed rice, along with the apricots and earthy lentils paired beautifully with the duck breast and the savory duck glaze.

A knife was brought with the short ribs, but I don’t know why – the meat fell off the bone when I accidentally knocked the plate with my elbow. I realize that whipped parsnips sound all fusionistically eclectic, but they were too sugary for the braising jus and so gluey in texture that they held the dish back. A perfectly grilled strip steak served with demi-glaze is a pretty easy dish with which to win friends, and Huang and Poremba nailed it. It was served with string beans and a potato pavé, which is a roughly 2-inch cube made of alternating layers of potato and sweet potato, roasted and then browned in a sauté pan. I don’t know what I love more, eating potato pavé or saying it.

After the meal, the chocolate soufflé cake with a honey-caramel sauce was interesting with banana ice cream but better with vanilla. I loved the idea of a crème brûlée sampler, but when the samples came out, none had a good caramelized sugar barrier and most were fairly gritty in texture.

The wine list is pretty abbreviated, but it has solid, reliable wines and it is affordable, rarely straying out of the $20 to $40 range. However, other than some pairing suggestions listed on the menu, you will probably be on your own making selections.

At the end of the day, is 609 living up to the aura it projects for itself? I’d say absolutely. When your cheapest salad is only $4, your most expensive entrée is only $23, your cuisine spans at least four continents AND people leave happy, you have definitely achieved Globocrossclecticultusion.