No Strings Attached Noodle Bar, also known by its acronym NSA, is an exciting new global noodle concept from restaurateur duo Chiwa Yeung and Spencer Cartledge in collaboration with Executive Chef Brooke Apfelbaum.
Chiwa Yeung and Spencer Cartledge met while attending Pratt Institute. Yeung got his start in the restaurant industry by working as a food photographer on the side, which developed his passion for Sushi Omakase. Soon after, he opened Takeshi Sushi in Soho, now known as Kintsugi. After the success of his first foray into the restaurant industry, he partnered with his college friend Cartledge to takeover La Margarita Pizzeria on the Lower East Side in March of 2020. It was here where they discovered the bright young chef, Brooke Apfelbaum, a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America with experience at Bar Boulud and Chef’s Club.
As the pandemic raged on and ghost kitchens became more popular, the three delved into creating pasta kits to earn extra revenue for the pizzeria, which planted the seeds for what would become NSA Noodle Bar. As the new concept began to blossom, the team decided to take their talents across the Williamsburg Bridge, where they found a location at North 5th Street and Bedford.
Yeung likes to partner with young creators who bring their own visions to his projects to usher in a new environment in the restaurant industry with hallmarks of teamwork, open communication and trust. The restaurant’s theme is creative collaboration, which can clearly be seen when browsing the expertly curated menu.
The cuisine at NSA is best described as a global fusion and will change seasonally to feature appetizers and noodle concepts from around the world, melding unlikely flavor combinations into seemingly familiar dishes. The current iteration of the menu features Japanese and Italian-American fare and has been designed to be eaten either in very generous individual portions or family style.
Highlights from the appetizer menu include seasonal gyoza (house-made gyoza filled with pork, cabbage and scallion, served with house-made spicy peanut butter sauce), stuffed macaroni bites (filled with four cheese cream sauce and Japanese sausage, served with arrabbiata sauce), miso honey burrata (buffalo burrata, miso-honey vinaigrette, charred grape tomatoes, toast sticks and basil) and shrimp butter crostini (white crostini toast topped with shrimp butter and grilled shrimp).
For their current menu, main courses are split into two categories: pasta and ramen, which are available with gluten free substitutes. All of the pasta is made in-house by Chef Apfelbaum and features dishes such as Washugyu Garganelli (braised American Wagyu ragu with garlic and basil), scallop parmesan fettuccini (pan-seared Japanese scallops and fettuccini in a parmesan cream sauce with garlic chips, parsley and chives), uni crème angel hair (seasonal uni and angel hair pasta in an uni herb crème sauce with nori panko, parmesan cheese crisps, garlic and lemon slice) and American Wagyu harvest stuffed shells (with Washugyu and harvest succotash over a pumpkin puree) is highlighted as the seasonal special.
Some of NSA Noodle Bar’s Ramen options include truffle tonkatsu ramen (made with house braised Chashu pork belly, seasonal truffles, Shio soft-boiled egg, menma, scallion, nori and Naruto), smoked tempeh miso ramen (smoked tempeh, menma, nori, grilled Shiraga Negi, Shiitake mushroom and corn in a shiro miso broth) and chilled Yuzu shrimp ramen (grilled shrimp, Thai chili pepper, grilled corn, red bell pepper and shaved carrots in a Yuzu shoyu broth).
The menu is capped off with the featured dessert Yuzu cream tart, a puff pastry filled with Yuzu infused pastry cream topped with a coconut sugar brulée and chocolate shavings that demonstrates the restaurant’s mission to fuse the cultural backgrounds of the leadership team.
The restaurant has enlisted Samuel Apfelbaum, the older brother of Chef Brooke Apfelbaum, to create and manage their beverage program. He brings experience from Lupo and Herringbone in Las Vegas and was training to be a sommelier at Chef’s Club New York when restaurants shutdown in March, 2020. As the team awaits approval of the liquor license, Apfelbaum has created a mocktail list to give diners a taste of what is to come which includes the “Virgin Mai Tai” (lemon-lime soda, pineapple juice, orange juice and grenadine), “Chinese Firebolt” (cherry grenadine syrup, lime juice and cola) and “Swa Lychee Love” (Swa Lychee, lemon, tender coconut water and lime juice).
