THIS RESTAURANT IS CLOSED Kare-Ken

THIS RESTAURANT IS CLOSED Kare-Ken Restaurant Review:

An ultra-casual staff, minimalistic but artfully conceived menu and to-go window from the sidewalk turn tiny, tidy Kare-Ken into a food truck experience without the truck. Relatively rare in the U.S. and only vaguely resembling its Indian ancestor, Japanese-style curry (kare) is unpretentious comfort food: sweetish, roux-thickened sauce on meat or vegetables atop short-grain rice. Served in your choice of mild, hot or eye-watering extra-hot, Kare-Ken's house-made caramel-colored sauce drenches whopping portions of hearty pork or chicken cutlet, dry-beef ragù, fried shrimp and fluffy, almost creamy vegetable tempura garnished with vivid magenta strips of traditional sweet-and-sour pickled cabbage, also house-made. Beef-curry hot dogs, chicken-curry sandwiches and curry sauce served straight over rice are savory options; big tempura onion rings are a guilty pleasure. Lending intimacy to the experience are a hand-wrought wood-slatted façade, blonde wooden counter and blockish wooden stools from which the cooks are literally close enough to touch.