Stationed just outside the Downtown Mall, in an inconspicuous building that looks more like a house than a restaurant, Bang! is a modern fusion tapas restaurant and Charlottesville small plate staple.
Open each day of the week from 5 to 9:30 p.m. — with modified hours on Fridays and Saturdays — Bang! participated in Charlottesville Restaurant Week, offering a modified menu that featured any three plates for $35. Offering vegetarian, vegan and even gluten-free tapas as well as a limited dessert menu, my friend and I were intrigued by the convenient bundle and trekked to the restaurant on a cold February Wednesday.
With red light emanating from the small neon sign in the window and the creeping vine of LED lights twisting around a tree in the yard, Bang! casts an inviting glow to the street. My friend and I had a late reservation, walking in around 8:15 p.m. Upon arrival, we were greeted by friendly staff who were eager to help navigate what can be a unique dining experience. We were introduced to the tapas-style dining, which includes a paper list of the menu and pens to mark off the dishes you’d like to order.
Each table is given a large glass bottle of water to share, and I appreciated being able to grab water whenever I needed without having to rely on refills. After deliberating over our three dishes, my friend and I decided on our orders, striking a balance between vegetarian and non-vegetarian options to get the most out of this diverse and flavorful menu.
I ordered the Flash Fried Brussels, Chicken Tikka Masala and the Sweet Soy Tuna Poke Crispy Rice while my friend chose the Tempura Smoked Salmon Nori Roll, Crab Rangoons and the Firecracker Shrimp — a $3 additional charge to the set price of $35. I’d visited Bang! twice before, and had the Firecracker Shrimp and the Crab Rangoons — a restaurant week special — so I wanted to branch out and to try their Chicken Tikka Masala since their Crispy Rice and Flash Fried Brussels are classics to me.
The dishes were brought out as they were prepared, with about 10 to 25 minutes in between, reflecting the casual, communal atmosphere that defines tapas-style dining. My first dish, the Sweet Soy Tuna Poke Crispy Rice, was a trio of golden brown crispy rice cakes topped with fresh ahi tuna, soy sauce and a spicy aioli. Perfect for the chopsticks provided at the table, the rice cakes combined the crispy fried crunch of the rice with the freshness of the tuna, making it a perfect start to the meal.
I also felt the crispiness could have been stronger, perhaps if the rice cakes were smaller or not as thick, but the plate was both filling and combined some of my favorite flavors of soy sauce and fresh fish. However, I did have to wait a bit to start eating as my friend had not yet received her first dish.
My second plate was the Chicken Tikka Masala, which I had never had before at Bang! but was pleasantly surprised. Served in a small round bowl and accompanied by cilantro rice, the dish also came with four fluffy triangles of naan bread, making it far and away the most satisfying dish I ordered.
The sauce was a warm orange color with a sprinkle of sesame seeds and scallions on top, packed with chunks of tender chicken and an array of spices. The four pieces of naan were perfect with the sauce and chicken, but I found the rice a little bland — likely a side effect of having already had the crispy rice dish. My friend enjoyed her Tempura Smoked Salmon Nori Roll and Crab Rangoons, noting the flavor of the smoked salmon and the creaminess of the fried wonton filling.
The last dish, which came out a little after my friend’s order of Firecracker Shrimp was delivered, was the Flash Fried Brussels. The brussels were drizzled with miso mayo and sweet soy sauce, topped with a few thinly-sliced radishes. Somehow simultaneously saucy and crisp, as it always is, this dish was well worth the wait. Its only drawback was that I could hardly finish it after my previous two plates.
Our check was delivered after we finished our last dishes, as the restaurant was preparing to close. Our server kindly split the check for us, and we left feeling the $35 menu for Restaurant Week was a great deal and a much-needed moment of respite in the middle of our school week.
While driving was harder than usual with the bricks of snow still lying around downtown Charlottesville, Bang! is adjacent to a convenient parking lot, leaving patrons in a perfect spot if they want to take a post-meal walk to the nearby Downtown Mall. This small-plate restaurant is perfect for both celebratory dinners and a casual midweek catch-up session with a friend. My friend and I left both full and grateful we had gone out of our way to visit, and Bang! had certainly put an exclamation mark on a cold Wednesday night.
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