Mission Chinese opened its Bushwick brother last weekend inside club Elsewhere. If you like the buzzy Danny Bowein restaurant and live in Bushwick, this is a reason to rejoice. If you don’t get the hype (we don’t) then swing by Birds of a Feather or General Deb’s.
So far reviews are positive, though they are getting lots of grief for selling $8 spicy ice:
The small dish costs a whopping $8, which feels insane because it is mostly composed of frozen water. According to the menu, additions to the crushed ice include smoked habanero, caraway, and hibiscus.
“It took me a while to realize what it was,” says critic Robert Sietsema, who dined at the new Bushwick location this week. “About two-thirds of the way through the meal, as it lay melting with neither of my guests touching it, it began to dawn on me, ‘Wait, this is just a bowl of ice.’”
Bowien tells Eater.com that the dish is supposed to be “an interpretation of water kimchi” with “Napa cabbage, radish, and hibiscus fermented in a water and salt brine, served with some of the pickling liquid and topped with pebble ice, tingling chili oil, and aloe salt.” But both Sietsema and former Eater staffer Kendra Vaculin only had bowls of ice, with no vegetable additions.
Mission Chinese at Elsewhere
599 Johnson Ave.
Brooklyn, NY 11237
HOURS: Monday – Sunday 5:30pm–11pm
Spicy ice, credit Robert Sietsema/Eater