NYC Restaurant Week Winter 2012: The Hurricane Club

Denise de Castro

12 years ago

Restaurant Week is the perfect time to discover new restaurants, or to dine at your favorites. The Hurricane Club in the Flatiron District whisks you away to the Polynesian Islands with their decor and cuisine.

The Hurricane Club’s dinner menu for Restaurant Week offers a great selection of appetizers, entrees and desserts for $35, an excellent deal. You’ll find typical appetizers, like shumai, spring rolls, and dumplings, to unusual items like PB & Guava “J” with Proscuitto and Thai Basil. Our picks: the PB & J and Fiery Pork Dumplings. Items are served as soon as they’re plated so the sandwiches arrived first: 5 mini PB & J sandwiches toasted to perfection and topped with a Thai Basil leaf wrapped with a thin slice of Proscuitto. Sounds interesting, doesn’t it? It was amazing! Who knew Proscuitto and Thai basil would complement each other? Each bite was savory and made you want more. The pork dumplings were excellent, topped with scallion, shaved Napa cabbage, peanuts and a sweet, yet spicy Hibachi sauce.

PB & Guava “J”

It was hard to make a decision on the main course. Lobster Noodles Fra Diavlo and Wok-seared Filet with Crispy Watercress like great winners, just from looking at what other diners were enjoying. We chose the Cashew Chicken and Sake Steamed Mussels. The chicken aka “stolen Shanghai recipe” was good – large chunks of chicken breast battered and fried and smothered with a chili cashew sauce. The Mussels were excellent. Large PEI mussels cooked in a sake broth made with big chunks of ginger, chilies and cilantro. I’ve never had mussels prepared this way, but it was delicious, and a big portion.

Fiery Pork Dumplings

We opted for virgin cocktails – their signature fruit juice, which had hints of rose (or in this case, would it be orchids?) and a coconut cocktail served in a coconut. Fun! Both were excellent. Had we known the prices beforehand, we woulda had it with alcohol. The drinks were priced from $10-13 but it was worth it.

For dessert, you only have a few choices: Chocolate Kill-Devil’s Food Cake and 2 flavors of soft-serve ice cream – piña colada and Thai coffee. The chocolate cake was savory with a garnish of a crispy caramelized banana. The Thai coffee ice cream was great: light ice cream with ground Thai coffee sprinkled on top. Shame on us. We didn’t finish dessert because we were stuffed.

Overall, an excellent dining experience. We sure wouldn’t mind getting a couple orders of the PB & J. Yes, it’s that good!