Púsù is the newest addition to the Williamsburg food scene and we cannot wait for more people to try it out
Last week we were able to try out a new restaurant called Púsù, located in heart of Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Púsù is a modern vegetarian Chinese restaurant that takes classic Chinese dishes and delivers it with a more modern lens through presentation and preparation. Púsù, translating to “uncut gems” seeks to embody and embrace raw and natural elements and present in an elevated yet unpretentious way.
When we first walked into Púsù, we immediately noticed the warm interior at the front of the restaurant. Adorned with beautiful wood finishing, the front bar and dining area is dimly lit and creates a beautiful intimate setting that is perfect for a date night. And as you make your way to the back of the restaurant, a beautiful open dining area unfolds. This dining area’s décor marries the old with the new perfectly. The wooden seats that are placed in each table feel rustic in a way with the design. And paired with the beautiful fabric booths and the warm lighting creates a modern feel that you would think to see at a Michelin restaurant. The pièce de résistance for us were the thin lighting fixtures on the walls of this dining room from it making it feel like the light is peaking through the cracks on the wall.
After we were seated at our table, we looked through Púsù’s cocktail menu. The menu is separated into four section: Kailyard representing the more vegetable forward drinks, Forest representing herbal drinks, Garden which had drinks featuring citrus and stone fruit, and Orchard which had cocktails that centered around berries and fruits like apples. Each cocktail was a type of play off of some of the classic cocktails like an espresso martini or a whiskey sour, but featured ingredients you wouldn’t typically associate with those cocktails. To start, we tried the Osmanthus and the Sea Fennel cocktails. The Osmanthus was made with Woodford Reserve Bourbon, Apricot, Lemon, and Osmanthus and was paired with a honey and a puffed rice accompaniment. The fun thing about Púsù’s cocktail menu is that each drink comes with a little accompaniment that accentuates the flavors of the cocktail. This drink was Púsù’s take on a classic whiskey sour but they took it to the next level with the osmanthus and apricot addition. The taste of apricot is so distinct with the first few sips and plays with the bourbon’s notes of oak and caramel. The lemon adds a beautiful brightness and helps bring the flavors of the osmanthus forward too. The drink had incredible balance and didn’t overwhelm your palate at all which made is quite addicting for us to drink. 
The Sea Fennel drink is Púsù’s take on a classic martini and is made with Hendrick’s Neptunia, Sea Fennel Brine, Italicus, and Verjuice. The snack that Púsù paired with this were a few slices of citrus that paired beautifully with the salinity in this drink. We aren’t usually big martini drinkers but if every martini could be this drink, we would be hooked. The sea fennel brine adds a touch of saltiness to the drink but what brings it to life are the notes of fennel and the hint of bergamot from the Italicus. The Italicus adds a bit of earthiness to the cocktail which adds to the botanical flavors that come from the Hendrick’s gin.
Púsù’s dining menu is extensive and has such a wide variety of food options that there is something for everyone. Parsing through their menu, each option sounded delicious so it was quite hard to whittle down our order to just a few items. For starters, we opted for the Deep-Fried Mushrooms with Salt & Pepper, the Crispy Tofu Popcorn, and the Hot and Sour Soup. We started picking at the deep-fried mushrooms which was made with a wide variety of mushrooms used in Asian cooking such as shimeji, shiitake, Mongolian mushroom, enoki mushroom, and pleurotus ostreatus. These mushrooms were lightly fried but still maintained a lot of the moisture in the mushrooms leaving us with an umami bomb in each bite. There is a hint of salt that helps draw out the mushroom’s natural flavors and the hint of truffle oil adds an extra layer of mushroom goodness. The mushrooms felt so light and airy making it the perfect snack to pick out throughout the night. 
The crispy tofu popcorn was next and it was a very straightforward dish that resembled popcorn chicken. The tofu was lightly fried in a perfectly seasoned batter where the exterior had a light crunch to it. Once you bite in, you immediately feel the tofu melt in your mouth and coat your palate in a silky blanket. You get hints of sesame throughout the bite and it finishes with a nice smokiness at the end. To wrap up the appetizers, we tried the Hot and Sour Soup which is made for 2-3 people. This was one of our favorite hot and sour soups in the city and us discovering this soup just in time for soup season was a blessing. The soup is thick and rich with burst of umami coming from the plethora of shaved mushrooms soaked into the broth. The mushrooms, along with adding the umami flavor to the soup, add in a meatiness to the dish that makes this soup filling. This soup also had the perfect balance of tanginess and spice that warmed up your palate and readied it for the next bite.
For our main course we ordered a few dishes including the Tri-color Cold Noodles Púsù, the Pumpkin Mapo Tofu, and the Stir-Fried Spicy and Sour Shredded Potato. We started with the Pumpkin Mapo Tofu. This dish is an experience just with the plating. The dish is served inside of a pumpkin and upon delivery to the table, the dish is set on fire to fry up the rice at the bottom. When taking our first bite, we immediately get the spice and heat we were expecting from a mapo tofu dish. The tofu is silky smooth and glides right into your mouth. There are notes of ginger and garlic with each bite that helps accentuate the spice of the tofu. The only thing we wished there was more of was a bit of the pumpkin flavor to the dish to really embody the pumpkin mapo tofu presentation.
There are fried enoki mushrooms on top to add a little bit of texture to the dish but the star of the show is the tofu. The tri-color noodles were next ans to get the variations of color in the noodles, Púsù added spinach juice and beetroot juice to the noodles respectively to get a beautiful and vibrant green and beet red color on the noodles. The dish was served with bean sprouts, cucumber, chopped spinach, dried chili, roasted bran and served alongside a sesame sauce, garlic, and chili oil. The noodles were so tender and perfectly cooked. And the way that these noodles soaked up all the flavors from the sauces added an extra kick to this dish. The sesame sauce coats the noodles in a thick nutty sauce and helps balance the chili oil’s warmth with each bite. The cucumber and the bean sprouts add wonderful textures to the dish and added a nice bit of freshness and earthiness to the plate.
Lastly, we tried the stir-fried potatoes which were made with dried chilies, shredded green peppers, garlic, shredded ginger, and pickled peppers. This dish was one of our favorites where the shredded potatoes lose the tough starchiness in the cooking process and adopt this noodle like texture instead. The potatoes then were coated in an the garlic and chili oil that added a nice acidity to it and maintained an essence of garlic and ginger to it. The dish felt fresh but also balanced that out with a nice heat from the dried chilis.
Our lasting thoughts on Púsù is that this restaurant is a welcome addition to the Williamsburg food scene. We have not been to a restaurant quite like Púsù. The chic interior design takes classic Asian décor and gives it new life. And the modern take on some of these classic Chinese comfort foods is innovative yet still respects the original recipe that it took inspiration from. Moreover, Púsù does not shy away from bringing spice, heat, and bursts of flavor that we would expect from a Chinese restaurant. All of this being said, we absolutely loved our time dining at Púsù and we will definitely be back for more.
Púsù (pusuvegetarian.com) is located at 318 Bedford Avenue, between S 1st St & S 2nd St, and will be open from Monday to Thursday, 12:00pm to 11:00pm, and Friday to Sunday, 10:30am to 11:30pm. Reservations can be made by calling 347-889-5555
