In short: we left $50 poorer, a little tipsy, but still hungry. While Bang has a lot of fun and unique flavors (and a great drink menu!) its portions are tiny and overpriced.
I came with two friends on a Thursday evening at 6:30PM. To our surprised, we were seated immediately, but Bang is known for having long waits during peak times. When we left around 7:30PM, there were definitely many parties that were waiting.
As tapas goes, we got 7 things to share and two drinks each. I'll rank below the dishes we got from my favorite to lease favorite.
Kale tortellini (4) - A ricotta, cheese, and kale mixture wrapped in a wonton wrapper. Very tasty, but didn't care much for the wonton wrapper -- tasted kind of slimy
Pork spring rolls (6) - spring rolls wrapped in a rice paper I think? and fried so the outside was crispy and bubbly. I thought this was very unique and haven't seen anything like it before! Perfectly seasoned, which is rare for spring rolls sometimes. Didn't care much for the sauce it came with.
Chicken cilantro wraps - These were pretty savory and a good balance of salty and slightly sweet, with a lot of sweet onions and peppers. I think it was all white meat, but would've probably been more flavorful with dark meat. A full wedge of iceberg lettuce came on the side, which was very fresh and crisp. I actually liked it more than the butter lettuce that I've usually had lettuce wraps with/
Coconut rice - Slightly sticky, sweet, and creamy, and good to pair with the other dishes. However, we got a double portion and it was SO tiny! Like smaller than a side of rice you would get from a Chinese restaurant...yet this portion was $6...
60 second steak (6) - Very meaty and smoky, but not for everyone if you don't like your meat raw/very rare. The mushrooms it came with were meaty and flavorful too and helped amp up the small portion. The cilantro sauce it came with too was refreshing and herbacious, but very, very light and hard to taste unless you drenched the meat in the sauce. Two very disappointing things about this dish though: the plate was cold and I would've preferred this dish served room temp or warm. Also the portion was TINY. We each got literally two bites fo steak and it was $11.
Brie nachos (4) - The brie had a surprisingly meaty flavor which I enjoyed, but kind of a predictable dish overall. Unfortunately, like the steak, this dish came out cold-- by that point the previously melted brie had solidified and was not melty anymore. I would have preferred this dish if it came out warm so that the brie was still melty.
Goat cheese dumplings (4) - I was most excited for this one and most disappointed :( These were basically like pierogis except the filling was strangely sour (not like in a tangy goat cheese kind of way). Portion was big though.
Drinks - Everyone was most pleased with their drinks. We tried Sin City, Lemon Drop, Lychee, Diva, Prickly Pear -- all were good options.
Service was very friendly (although kind of annoyed that our waitress kept on pushing and pushing us to buy drinks) and pretty fast too. Overall food was fine, but I probably won't return because the portions were so small and execution was very mediocre. read more