Sunda | The Restaurant Guide 2012

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10. Sunda | The Restaurant Guide 2012

Friday, August 10th, 2012

By Lawrence Karol

Great food and great design don’t always go hand in hand—but they should. From a small pizza joint in New York City to a massive art-infused former factory in Sydney, these amazing spaces will sate your appetite for both wonderfully-prepared dishes and creative interiors.

Chicago, Illinois

Watch the YouTube video Journey to Sunda, and you’ll soon have an idea of what inspired Brad Young and his co-horts Billy Dec and Arturo Gomez to open their popular New Asian spot. The video offers a quick trip through Vietnam, Cambodia, Hong Kong, Thailand, Japan, China, and Singapore, and the same can be said of the decor and menu. “With both the food and the design—furniture and art from different Asian cultures, ceiling tiles from China, Buddhist elements from Thailand—we wanted to make sure that people couldn’t put their finger on just one aspect of Asian culture,” says Young, the chairman of Rockit Ranch Productions, and one of the owners of Sunda

Young found the ideal partner to share in this vision when he hired the lauded designer (and former DB-feature subject) Tony Chi to create the restaurant’s interior. Chi believes in what he calls “invisible design,” which refers to undetected subtleties of how a space feels. And from the sushi bar’s hanging sculpture containing 1,500 wire fish (though I confess, I didn’t count them all), to the warm coral tones of the dining area, there’s a beautiful timelessness to this restaurant. Combined with Chef de Cuisine Jess De Guzman’s culinary creations, it pretty much guarantees that you won’t be disappointed when you make your actual journey to Sunda.

FOOD: New Asian, featuring Eastern and Southeast Asian regional cuisines

DON'T MISS DISH: Design Bureau's managing editor Kristin Lamprecht can't get enough of the crispy spicy tuna roll

RATING: 

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SUPER OFFICIAL RATING SYSTEM
   Design nirvana.
   Did someone say ‘wow’?
   Pretty damn cool.
   Hmm...interesting.
   Calling for a redesign.

Knock it down and start again.

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