Blue Ginger

Checking out TV's latest star chef

by Robert Nadeau

DINING OUT

Blue Ginger 583 Washington St., Wellesley (781) 283-5790 Open Mon-Thurs, 11:30 a.m.-2 p.m. and 5:30-9:30 p.m.; on Fri, 11:30 a.m.-2 p.m. and 5:30-10 p.m.; and on Sat, 5:30-10 p.m. Closed Sun. AE, MC, Visa Full bar Sidewalk-level access

Although much of Blue Ginger's fame is driven by chef Ming Tsai's program on the TV Food Network, the best thing about the restaurant doesn't show up on television. It's the service. The "service" part of our service economy so deteriorated during the rude '90s that the poshest new restaurants have had to depend on punk waiters. At Blue Ginger, by contrast, we have fully professional and experienced service. The room is also larger and nicer than one expects, even in the suburbs. This gives a feeling more of Paris than New York (or Boston).

The food likewise starts with a rather French breadbasket, with a crusty white bread and a rich eggy bread, and a signature cracker bread with various seeds baked on. There is fresh, unsalted butter for them. There is also some discussion of drinks before the food is ordered. I try the house ginger ale ($2.50), which is something like a Vietnamese drink of soda mixed with a fresh-ginger paste. It has different qualities in different parts of the glass, sometimes like Jamaican ginger beer, sometimes much milder. When it comes to ordering the wine, the waiter steers me to a less expensive bottle than the one I first mention. I have never encountered this in more than 25 years of reviewing restaurants.

The inescapable appetizer is foie gras and shiitake shumai ($12). Shumai are little barrel-shaped dim sum typically stuffed with a fatty pork or shrimp mixture. They are normally served in a bamboo steaming basket, but at Blue Ginger the steaming basket sits on a bowl. The foie gras steps right in to add a note of richness to the dumplings, but the real bonus here is the rich onion broth in the bowl below, bejeweled with fresh green soybeans.

Shiitake-leek spring rolls ($7.75) are of exaggerated length and classic crispness, and the flavor is dominated by hoisin sauce, which is great if you like hoisin sauce. The dip is a peppery version of the Vietnamese nuoc cham, and it only intensifies the flavor. Poke of wok-stirred ahi tuna ($11) is an attempt to bring Hawaii into the picture, with a modernization of a native Hawaiian dish (poke) developed by chef Sam Choy (a guest on Tsai's Food Network show). You're looking at some just-seared tuna and seaweed salad served in a martini glass. As the original was a raw-fish dish, I think this needs a more distinct pan-searing -- crusty outside, raw inside -- to work. It isn't bad, but is perhaps underflavored. Generally this is the way dishes at Blue Ginger fall short; the ingredients are always terrific, but the chefly approach means that some combinations will really sing, and some dishes will fall apart into lists of ingredients.

That's exactly what happens to an Asianized version of pork alantejana ($21). The original, as you can check in the Portuguese restaurants of East Cambridge, is a sealed stew of pork and clams that develops an exquisite broth. The Blue Ginger version is neatly arranged on a plate (always a bad sign with stew): three steamed littleneck clams, four impeccable slices of pork tenderloin cooked medium. In the middle are tiny cubes of taro, potato, and zucchini in a wildly oversalted reduction. This is postmodernism misapplied.

Tempura Maine-lobster pho ($25) is a much better idea. Working here from a Vietnamese soup, the chef has his team put up a chicken broth filled with thin square noodles, marvelous chunks of steamed lobster, and even more marvelous chunks of tempura-fried lobster, with pea tendrils wilting on top. The only thing wrong is that there's too much pepper in the broth. I also would rather have less-substantial noodles, such as the rice fettuccine the Vietnamese put into their pho. (And I prefer my pea tendrils sautéed with garlic, but the truth is, I'd prefer my morning newspaper sautéed with garlic.)

Soybean-miso Chilean sea bass ($23) is another signature dish, and it not only sings, it hits all the high notes, cuts off the monster's head, and brings the opera home. Chilean sea bass is the kind of mild, buttery fish that was created for soy-based sauces, and this one just won't quit. A Japanese-style seaweed salad and some polenta (I think that was polenta -- I ate it mighty fast) underneath are likewise perfection, and even the toppings of flying-fish eggs and green-chili sauce are divinely inspired complements.

The wine list isn't cheap, but the wines have some chance against Asian-inspired sauces, especially the featured Schlumberger whites from Alsace. The good list of beers will often work better, although we do well with the '97 Bourgogne rouge of P. Rodet ($26) -- a light, clean Burgundy with some berry and cherry fruit that is surprisingly effective with these dishes, although I'll ask them to chill it next time.

In any case, save room for dessert, because here's where we want a chef with French training. Jasmine-rice pudding ($7) is gloriously gloppy, wound in a cylindrical cookie so it can be vertical, and decorated with bits of orange and caramel sauce. Vanilla crème brûlée ($7) is played relatively straight, with some rich cookies. And my notes on the bittersweet chocolate cake ($7) are, "Oh yes intense." I don't punctuate well while eating chocolate. The scoop of cardamom-ginger ice cream and the butterscotch tuile on the side are lovely as well.

Now, I should point out that this is a restaurant that has been open for a while, and my review is based on a weekend evening with the owner-chef actually present. Thus my advice to stick with the dishes that everyone is already raving about is likely to stand. Being a critical person, I will also have to mention that having a long open kitchen means you can watch the line cooks swilling cans of Coke; that by the time our waiter remembers our request for chopsticks they've run out of them; and that the service does thin out a little as the restaurant fills up.

Robert Nadeau can be reached at robtnadeau@aol.com.

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