"I totes spent half my paycheck here while making out under a palmtree that's no longer there and eating tofu and sauce with my girlfriend/boyfriend/person i needed to impress/first date/ex-boss/lover/landlord/twitter pal! It's edgy and modern and makes me feel like my $80 blouse was worth it and that I'm worldly and cultured and blah blah blah blah blah...". There's no fighting what looks like a small legion of wanna-be hipsters and pseudo romantics who can't get enough of this place or it's food. 

And who apparently feel great about dropping $50 to $100 for 1.5 ounces of food. VERY impressive. Good for you.

In my opinion, it ain't all it's cracked up to be: first, pay attention to how many fried foods are on the menu....fried tofu, fried quail, fried wontons, fried chicken wings, fried pork on sugar cane. Yeah - it's a LOT of fried items. They even fry some of the shrimp in their salad items, i'm told. Hmmmmmmm. Bit overpriced for what you get. Some items are either smothered in gobs of soy sauce (duck breast), or have so little taste that they NEED the sauce (spring rolls - lay off the Anise!!). So....basically you're paying higher prices for gussied-up, MSG-ridden, fried nibbles - even if they ARE tapas. Funny how many people write reviews of this place stating that they were WASTED when they went...maybe because we naturally desire greasy food when we're drunk?

I've had friends go and love some items(lime mint beef, red curry tofu, miso) and dislike others (fried pork, gyoza, overcooked fried wontons). I've also had friends tell me they've seen everything from cooks picking food out of their teeth with their fingers behind the counter to death looks from Chu because they clicked their chopsticks together too loudly, or asked for their food to come out on time. It seems he's not the little "darling" that some make him out to be.

The music  (on some nights) can be occasionally good, but also gets repetitive and loud. Sometimes this place tries too hard to be New Yorkish - while existing in the remote patchwork of dirt lots making up the roosevelt district (or as some call it, "Cenpho". still looks like a lot of empty dirt lots to me).

And occasional HOUR wait times?! What is this: Matt's Big Shumai? It's small food! Get over it!

Looks like a lot of people "need" this place to be something it just isn't, for whatever reason. You are a fickle, mysterious and too often Lemming-esque crowd, my dear phoenix.