Going Out

By Kyle Wright

Photo Credit: Dan Watkins

To say that chef Patricia Yeo had a rough start to 2011 would be an understatement. After her well-reviewed Ginger Park suddenly closed in the South End in late 2010, she considered returning to New York before ultimately landing at Harvard Square’s Om. Initial criticisms abounded, and while making the restaurant and lounge her own has been a slow process, she believes it’s yielded positive results. “It’s never easy to enter somewhere that’s already established, but we’re getting there,” Yeo says. “Right now I’m focused on getting everything set at Moksa, and then we’ll start to make some changes to Om.” Those changes, she hints, will result in much-needed renovations and updates in the kitchen and lounge. “There is a sense of a new beginning.”

Moksa, the hyped Pan Asian street-food spot she’s been readying since the fall, promises a more immediate return to form. The enormous 8,500-square-foot space is industrial in design and straightforward in execution. Many will remember the ornate $380,000 curved wood ceiling of Ginger Park, but here it’s all concrete floors and comfortable tables. “Do you know how many bowls of $14 noodles you have to sell to make up for a ceiling like that?” she says. “I wanted the food to be the focal point, not the design.” Naga, an adjoining cocktail lounge, will share a kitchen but have its own entrance. There’s also an event space, large enough to host a 150-person wedding reception, but sufficiently intimate for Yeo to teach cooking classes.

“It’s like Ginger Park on steroids,” Yeo says. “Our menu is diverse enough that I can use traditional ingredients, like chicken hearts, without scaring people away.” There’ll be plenty of her handmade noodle dishes, like the famous dan dan mein (the star of Ginger Park’s menu) and steaming bowls of ramen, plus an array of meats charred on custom-built grills. Nothing on the menu tops $15, save for the reservation-suggested prix fixe she’ll serve at the eight-person communal chef’s table. Citing the impressive number of vegan, gluten-free and vegetarian dishes, Yeo is confident that, here, there’s something for everyone.

Moksa
450 Mass. Ave., Cambridge | 617-661-4900 | moksarestaurant.com