The family behind Buffalo plans to remodel the 292 Castro St. space and open a second location of a Cambodian restaurant they also own in Mountain View, chef-owner Brandon Poon confirmed Monday.
Poon said Buffalo was doing "great," but "we’re just trying to grow our family business."
Patrons at Buffalo in Mountain View have lunch in November 2014. Photo by Veronica Weber/Palo Alto Weekly.
Seventeen years ago, the Poon family opened Express 7, a Chinese restaurant at 225 Middlefield Road in Mountain View. In 2015, they closed Express 7 and opened a new concept: Srasa Kitchen, where diners can build their own Asian-fusion bowls by drawing on an array of fresh Cambodian, Thai, Vietnamese and Chinese ingredients.
"Srasa" (pronouced s'ross) means "fresh" in Cambodian language Khmer, according to the restaurant’s website.
Customers start by choosing a base (jasmine white rice, brown rice, cold vermicelli noodles, salad), then a protein (grilled lemongrass chicken, pork and chicken meatballs, eight-hour roasted pork belly, grilled beef short ribs or crispy tofu) and continue to customize with vegetables (charred corn, zucchini, sautéed kale or seasonal fresh vegetables, sauces (from curry to fish sauce and a soy-ginger vinaigrette) and toppings like cilantro, pickled daikon, bean sprouts, crispy onions and homemade kimchi.
All bowls start at $8.50, but some special add-ins come with an extra cost.
The menu also includes pre-designed bowls with Srasa's own combinations. The "Cambo" bowl ($11.75), for example, comes with vermicelli noodles, pork belly, seasonal vegetables and green curry topped with papaya salad, cilantro, bean sprouts, cucumbers, crispy onions, Thai chiles, a boiled egg and lime wedge.
Poon, a Bay Area native who grew up in the family’s restaurant business, went on to receive a culinary degree from The Art Institute of California in Sunnyvale. After graduating, he had a short stint at Madera in Menlo Park, interned at the Cheesecake Factory in Santa Clara and also cooked at AT&T Park in San Francisco. He opened Buffalo in February 2014.
According to the Buffalo website, the new Castro Street Srasa Kitchen will be open sometime this summer.
