First Look: Lunchers Weigh in on Danku

 Danku

Yesterday, dutch kroket chain Danku opened their first chain in the United States on 57th street just east of 6th Avenue.  I was pretty excited, not only because they serve krokets (fried balls of stuff) but they also have “Indonesian” items like curry, satays, fried rice and noodles.  (The Dutch occupied Indonesia until WW2, so that explains the connection.)  After visiting Bali a few years ago, I got to love Indonesian food; and while I wasn’t expecting the real thing- I was hoping it would at least be to Indonesian food what Panda Express is to Chinese (i.e. tasty!)

The dishes we tried, after the jump…

 Danku

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Curry beef with fried rice.

Danku

Chicken Satay in Peanut Sauce with Fried Noodles

Danku

Assortment of Krokets

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Kroket innards

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Dipping Sauces

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If a place is amazing on day one, I have no problem writing about how good it is.  But if it’s not, it is kind of unfair to criticize them based on their very first day of service. So… I think I’m going to give Danku a few more weeks to settle in before putting them through the +/-. I also didn’t get to try the mac and cheese kroket! (They either weren’t available or they sold out… not sure which.) However, there were some positive things being posted in the comments, mostly centered around the kroket “combo” (which comes with a salad that we didn’t try.)

“Just got back from my first Danku experience. Went for the same Kroket combo (8.13, incl. tax, for 2 krokets and a medium salad)…the salmon & dill kroket was a bit strange (wasn’t expecting a salmony-puree inside) but ultimately satisfying with the tartar dippin’ sauce. The chicken curry was better, with a gooey rich filling inside of a freshly-fried exterior. Glad to see that the pre-fried krokets didn’t get soggy inside their little cardboard boxes. The included mesclun/corn/tomato/cabbage/carrot seasonal salad was the real surprise: a GMD (generic-Midtown-deli) could easily charge $5.99 for the salad alone. Nicely done, Danku. Even though my initial reaction to the meal was “hey, lots of food,” my stomach is telling me otherwise an hour later. Good for those looking for a light lunch or handy snack. Oh—and for those who care, Danku’s ostensibly pro-green, with corn-based biodegradable utensils, organic ingredients, happy cows on the packaging, etc.”

52 Projects also filed this report, complete with photo of the kroket and salad combo.

19 Comments

  • I swear I had this dream last night that we all met up for a lunch thing and Zach brought a huge bowl of Krokets to share. Damn! It was only a dream! … I really need something fried right now…

  • That’s an amazing amount of brown Dutch food. Fried brown Dutch food. The kind that would enable you to give your loved one a nostril-searing Dutch oven.

  • I hate to break it to you all, but *real* krokets in the Netherlands are filled with icky, mushy, “wheat paste”-esque filling. As much as I love the Dutch, krokets are one export I could do without. Gross. Blech.

  • I tried the poffertjes this morning, and was sorely disappointed.

    My mother is Dutch — because of this, I’ve been to the Netherlands a lot, and my favorite childhood memory is going to this awesome poffertjes stand where they make the things right in front of you on a giant grill.

    Poffertjes are supposed to be light, fluffy, and round — these things were flat floury miserable things, just sitting there in grossness. There was no joy in what should have been a real treat this morning. I am very disappointed.

  • Sorry, by ’round’ I meant ‘puffed.’

  • I second the “wheat paste-esque filling” grossness and even called it that in the comments section of the earlier Danku post yesterday!

    The texture is just gross. Maybe the macn’cheese would have a little bite to it.

    I guess I expected that the croquets would have discernible ingredients in them…like the chicken curry would have actual pieces of chicken, but they’re just flavored mush with a few random tendrils of chicken here and there. Same for the chile con carne, the only thing I could identify was a stray piece of corn.

  • i desperately want to like things that are fried. does anyone have good news?

  • Those Krokets look like Chuckies Hamster.

  • The Dutch should stick to ovens, clogs, coffee shops and windmills.

  • I’m from Indonesia and grew up eating krokets as well as poffertjes, so I was looking forward to this! I hope that they will improve their products quality soon.

  • Just went there and sampled a lot of the things on the menu. I have to say the rice noodles “Danku noodles” were just okay, but the krokets and green chicken curry were excellent. I’ll definitely go again.

  • Shilly Mc’Shillington is that you?!

  • For someone who loves to try new food, New York is always the best. Not only do the best one-of-a-kind restaurants pop up in the City, but we tend to get the best international chains first. Dutch food, here i come! This stuff looks incredible….

  • The krokets are not my idea of a lunch, but I do think Zach hit it right on the head in an earlier post. This could totally be a pitstop on the way home after a few happy hour drinks.

    It seems like they slightly over-fry the krokets well past GBD / golden-brown-delicious, into DBT / dark-brick-(still)tasty territory, but I guess they have to do that for them to survive the trip back to one’s desk. I didn’t see Mac&Cheese on the menu, but I tried the Beef/ChickenCurry/Spinach&Artichoke/Chili, which were all very good. They could have probably made a better business selling these as barfood to the local pubs.

    Adam

  • I went back today & tried the chicken curry with rice. It was bland to me & left me feeling hungry still. As mentioned, they use “green” products- the take out box they put my order in kind of leaked as the take out box isn’t that sturdy and I only had a 5 min walk back to the office.
    If anything, I’d recommend to try the kroket/salad combo. But I too felt they were over fried.

  • Also forgot to mention- they didn’t have the mac and cheese kroket again today on the menu!

  • Went with a large group of work friends. The reactions were went from “cool” to “this is horrible”. It seems the 2 kroket + salad combo was a winner. The fried noodles were pretty similar to the Cup-a-Noodles you had in college, only not in a cup. The chicken satay was bland and not recommended. We agreed this might be a once a month or an every other month kind of place.

  • Zack, you got the location wrong. Danku is “just east” of 6th Avenue, not 7th (located in the space that used to be a McDonald’s). While Danku is in fact east of 7th ave, I think it’s more accurate – and probably what you meant to write – to say it’s “just east” of 6th ave.

  • I am sorry to say this place the so called dutch open is the worst place i have ever eaten at i hope no one in N.Y.C. goes to it and I promise you I love the Dutch but in this case let Americans run your food and the outcome is goe to Danku and you will understand I am sorry to say that Mcdonalds beats them and they as well have the worst food…please whatever you do don’t go there. when it first opened was nice but the food they were practicing to get it better and now its even worse like the management they have going..Wow is all I can say…
    The Worst place as far as food P.S. Don’t take your kids not kid friendly either…

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