Franklin Street & West Broadway
(directly across from the 1 train)
We were in the area last night, and it was pretty nice out so when we got to Franklin Station Cafe (which was in the most obvious of places, once we found it), we chose to sit outside, which was a great idea. Not one of us actually stepped foot in the restaurant itself the whole night.
The outside “patio” is a little small for large groups, it was already pushing it a bit for the three of us and we’re not big girls. Well, maybe I am, but my two dining companions are nowhere near even medium sized.
Amusingly, as we were being led to our seats, I noticed chopsticks of takeout-style on the tables (in paper wrappers) and I was confused. I hadn’t realized this was actually a French & Malaysian fusion restaurant. Silly me.
We chose to start off with only one appetizer since none of us were particularly hungry, and chose wisely: duck rolls. Spring rolls except stuffed with taro root and duck pieces, along with a sweet, slightly tangy orange dipping sauce, these were pretty good. I would definitely order these again, were I to go back. The presentation was nicely done and the taro surprisingly blended nicely with the duck, although perhaps they blended together too much: they were a little blah without the sauce.
For entrees, the birthday girl, who wasn’t feeling well, chose to get chicken udon to soothe her throat. Unfortunately, and this isn’t mentioned on the menu, it was slightly spicy and perhaps aggravated her throat further. It looked pretty non-descript, nothing stood out about it as you can see from the picture.
The other girl and I both chose to get the chicken istimewa; grilled chicken with scallions and red peppers. I have to say that my chicken was extremely soft and I liked the dipping sauce, although after a few minutes it got to the point where it tasted spicier and spicier. The pickled salad on the side was a nice, cooling touch to my tongue after all the spices. I didn’t touch the rice, but the other girl noted that the rice was presented nicely but clumped together and was a bit hard, something that would have annoyed me greatly as there was no real sauce to mix it with to soften it up. 
We were all not hungry enough for any dessert, and the dessert menu was lacking in much creativity anyway.
Yvo says: If you’re in the area, it’s worth a try, inexpensive (entrees were around $12 each)- we all got [non-alcoholic] drinks, and our total bill came out to $64 for all of the food pictured here (the 2nd entree times two). The food menu was interesting enough that I wouldn’t mind trying some of the other dishes, and everything definitely smacks of South East Asian flavor (a lot of coconut, tropical fruits, etc.) with a bit of French influence tossed in. I wouldn’t suggest going out of your way to come here, although being right across the street from a train station makes it easy enough to get here.
middle of the road – not recommended and not “not recommended”
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