Talde

Dale Talde, the eminently watchable "Top Chef"-testant and talented Buddakan chef, takes a cue from surname-only-powerhouses like Bouley and Boulud with this eponymous Asian-American eatery in Park Slope. "It's putting my professional career and my personal life on a plate," says the Filipino-American chef. "Being Asian American and taking my favorite dishes throughout Asia and using what's local in Brooklyn—that's the essence of the restaurant." Expect a Southeast Asian/Malay bent—"all that funky goodness, fish sauces, shrimp paste"—evident in his take on an iceberg lettuce salad, which comes with braised Chinese bacon, Sriracha powder, buttermilk ranch and blue cheese. Talde's unabashed love of bacon pops up again in a bacon pad Thai with crispy oysters. ("Pad Thai, it's one of my hangover cures!") There's also a sweet-salty longganisa sausage sandwich with garlic-vinegar mayo, on homemade bread inspired by King's Hawaiian. Sweet meets salty? Bingo. Talde says he toying with the idea of a dim sum brunch with a twist: one cart with traditional dumplings and another with Western grub like pancakes with Sriracha and maple syrup. Hear that? We just setting our alarm clocks early!

See more: Park Slope restaurants, Asian restaurants, Dim sum restaurants