Among New York City foodies, it is no secret that there are no secrets. A good thing, too --- a kept secret is more likely to become a closed restaurant or vanished food cart. However there are some hard to find spots, places that you are less likely to stumble across by accident. Kuma Inn is just such a place.



On the southern end of the restaurant and bar-filled blocks between Houston and Delancey Street, it would be easy ...

Among New York City foodies, it is no secret that there are no secrets. A good thing, too --- a kept secret is more likely to become a closed restaurant or vanished food cart. However there are some hard to find spots, places that you are less likely to stumble across by accident. Kuma Inn is just such a place.



On the southern end of the restaurant and bar-filled blocks between Houston and Delancey Street, it would be easy to miss Kuma Inn. Hidden away behind a relatively non-descript door and up a staircase you’ll find this cozy space serving excellent Southeast Asian-style tapas (from the menu: “small plate appetizers that usually accompany sherry or other aperitifs, in this case sake”) accompanied by an extensive sake list.

Once, the word tapas referred strictly to a single cuisine (Spanish) and a singularly illustrious, sherry-soaked tradition involving slabs of potato-and-onion tortilla and boquerones slicked with olive oil.



Now that it’s been appropriated by virtually every other culture, or at least their menu writers, tapas has come to mean one thing in lots of different languages: small plates at equally small prices.



The penny-pinching gourmet (and aren’t we all these days?) can make a satisfying meal of so-called French tapas (heretofore known as hors d’oeuvre), Italian tapas (chichetti), or Turkish tapas (meze). Or for something delightfully different, he can walk up a narrow flight of stairs into the unexpectedly welcoming premises of Kuma Inn and discover what tapas means to a Thai-Filipino New Yorker who cooked for Bouley and Boulud before rediscovering his culinary roots.