Umi Nom

King Phojanakong, the Bouley-trained chef behind Kuma Inn on the Lower East Side, has branched out with this Clinton Hill eatery serving upscale Filipino small plates with a Thai touch. But unlike Kuma, Umi Nom will have a liquor license (the name means "to drink" in Filipino), and the booze menu includes popular Asian suds like San Miguel Beer and about 15 sakes. Natch, the food here adheres closely to Phojanakong's mixed heritage-—dad's Thai, mom's Filipino-—with a pronounced accent on Malay-Chinese flavors: Asian beef jerky marinated in soy sauce, calamansi and garlic; spicy-sweet longganisa sausage in a chili-lime sauce; grilled beef-pork patties with soy-sake dressing and pickled veggies. And, of course, lotsa rice, including a signature fried rice called "Bahay Kubo," tossed with chicken, sausage, shrimp and egg. "It's just a little bit more refined," he says about the dishes, "so people don't have the misconception that all Filipino food is [cantina-style] fast food." The restaurant space was once an abandoned 100-year-old laundromat, and in a humorous nod to its roots, Phojanakong kept the old sign and just superimposed Kuma Inn's logo on it.

See more: Bedford Stuyvesant restaurants, Filipino restaurants, Thai restaurants, Asian restaurants