Super Bowl Update: Asian

Showing posts with label Asian. Show all posts

Sushi Bar

2:50 AM | Labels: Asian, Broad Ripple Restaurants, Independent Restaurants, Japanese restaurant, kid friendly, sushi, Sushi Bar

I feel like I have been in a rut lately and wanted to try something new. I have heard some good things about the new Sushi Bar on Broad Ripple Avenue and wanted to check it out. We were both impressed by how cute the interior of the place was when we walked in (ok, hubby would not use the word “cute,” but whatever). They have done a really nice job of giving it a feel that is more than just your typical Japanese restaurant. There’s a bay window in the front with a large sunken booth that was full with a family when we walked in—I can’t wait to take the kids back to sit there, they would love it (and the rest of the restaurant can’t hear them as well—it’s a win-win.)

see the size of the glass?

Anyway, we sat down and ordered some drinks—one of the first perks of this place is cheap alcohol. They have $1 domestic beers and $2 imports and while the wine list is, um, well, what you expect of most Japanese places, when you order a glass, it is a serious glass. As in HUGE. So you get your money’s worth here too (I think my glass was $6.99 which was one of the more expensive ones).

We started with an order of veggie tempura ($6.95). They also have an eggplant tempura appetizer that I was intrigued by and asked the server if eggplant was included in the mixed veggie option—she said no. So it was a nice surprise when she brought it out and told us they had gone ahead and added a couple pieces of eggplant. I appreciate these things. I also loved that there was a piece of broccoli in there as well (and various squash and a couple of onion rings). The tempura was only ok though—it just wasn’t quite crispy enough. The taste was good, but it needed another minute or hotter oil.

Next they brought us our rolls—we ordered the “2010 roll” which was a special on the board and was a roll with shrimp tempura inside and avocado, spicy tuna and crispy crab flakes on the outside (around $13). We both enjoyed the flavors of this one—there was also a light sauce beneath the crunchy crab flavored bits—my only problem with it was it was so tall, it was hard to get it in your mouth. I also thought it was interesting that the pieces of shrimp tempura that were inside the roll were much crunchier than the ones in the veggie tempura appetizer. I think a lot of places must fry the stuff that goes inside rolls longer to keep them crunchier once they’re in the roll. I just wish they would fry the other stuff as crunchy. Loved the crunchy bits on top to give the roll lots of texture.

We also had the red dragon roll (I am almost sure that was its name—around $12) and it was very good. Probably more up my alley because it was a little easier to eat and the tuna on top was great. It was eel and avocado inside and fresh tuna on top (actually rolled almost all the way around). There was also a lightly sweet unagi sauce on top. This one didn’t have the texture of the first one obviously, but it had a great, more simplified flavor. And the ingredients were extremely fresh and well done.

We also had an order of tuna nigiri ($4.50 for 2 pieces) because hubby really likes nigiri(which is just the rice topped with the fish). It was also very good—a good way to really get a handle on the freshness of the fish—this was melt in your mouth tender and the rice had that slight sweet/vinegar taste that makes nigiri shine. I sometimes don’t like nigiri as much because there is wasabi added (often a bit is put under the fish) but this one didn’t have that problem.

Our server was nice, but had a little bit of attitude—I think she was trying to be funny, but sometimes it came across as a little snotty. As the restaurant got busier, she was more focused on getting food and drinks out and I enjoyed myself more (the giant glass of wine didn’t hurt either). I was also entertained by the couple who came in toward the end of the meal and asked the server to explain everything to them—they had never had any type of sushi before (I love eavesdropping on the tables around me). I have to hand it to them though—way to be bold and just ask for help. The menu is quite large—I think there are probably 20-30 different rolls alone, not to mention a menu full of other good sounding things, including several noodle dishes that I would like to try.

Overall, while there are certain things that could use some improvement (the tempura for sure, as well as the fact there is no website to be found), this is a good addition to Broad Ripple village proper. The food is good and the prices are pretty reasonable (particularly for beer-- although it is technically a “special,” the special sign looked fairly permanent). They have a kids menu, which so few Japanese restaurants seem to have, and I know we’ll be back with the kids to give the place a try as a family. So who has had the noodles and other dishes? What else is good?

Sushi Bar

911 Broad Ripple Avenue

Indy 46220

317/257-7289

There is no website (there is a facebook page with nothing really on it). It is hard to believe in this day and age that a new restaurant doesn’t have a website, but maybe that’s just me.
***Update 11/2/12: they have a website!
www.sushibarindy.com

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Pei Wei

7:36 AM | Labels: Asian, Chain Restaurants, Chinese restaurants, glendale, lunch places, Pei Wei

So, even though this place opened awhile ago right near my house, it has taken me awhile to try it—I guess partly because it is a chain, and partly because I imagined it as a fast food type of option, which is not something I do a lot. But I was in a hurry and needed to stop for something quick to go one day and decided, why not?

Well, first of all, it really isn’t fast food—in that it wasn’t really very fast. The carry out takes a good 10 minutes or so, which is fine, but just be prepared if you are in a real hurry. But it was made hot and fresh and took a bit. The interior isn’t really fast food-ish either, although it does feel very corporate (it is owned by PF Chang’s) (They also have one of those soda machines that you can mix a million different flavors of things if you are so inclined).

One of the things that had intrigued me about the place was the fact that a friend had told me he loved their hot and sour soup. So I got a cup of that ($2) as well as a couple of small portion items so that I could try several things. The flavor of the soup wasn’t bad, it had a good amount of the “sour” flavor that I like from the vinegar, but it suffered from the overstarchy consistency that really bugs me in hot and sour soup if it is overdone. You feel almost like you are eating warm savory jello or something.

black bean chicken in the box

I also tried the chicken and black bean sauce ($3.95). This was definitely my favorite of the dishes that I tried. Honestly, even though they sell these more as tapas types of dishes, one of these portions is a very healthy lunch in my opinion. There was rice on the bottom (your choice of white or brown, I got white) and the dish consisted of minced chicken, red onions, carrots, green onion and peppers with a “tangy black pepper sauce.” In theory there were Chinese black beans, but I didn’t see any. I liked this dish—it had more flavor and less sweetness than a lot of quick serve Chinese food, and I would consider getting this one again. It was a bit tangy and you could taste the garlic and soy; and the onions, while still crunchy, were sautéed enough that you didn’t feel like they were just raw. One benefit of mincing the chicken so finely, if it was a little dry (which often seems to happen with Chinese food), you didn’t really notice because it was little teeny pieces covered in the sauce.

about 1/2 of each dish on a dinner plate

The Singapore noodle dish ($3.95) wasn’t as good for me. It was sautéed egg noodles with bean sprouts, red pepper, carrots, chicken, sesame seeds and cilantro. This one had too much of that sweet and sour flavor for me (it was described as a sweet chili soy sauce) I liked the freshness from the cilantro and the crunchy veggies on top to break up all the noodles, but I couldn’t get past the overly sweet flavor. The chicken was dry as well. Although hubby came in while I was eating it and shared them both with me (all the food together was definitely enough for two people to share for lunch in my opinion), and he seemed to enjoy the noodles.

It’s an option, and it is better than actual fast food which is very prevalent around my house (as are chains sadly). It may work its way into my lunch every once in awhile, but I can’t say it will probably be a regular thing for me. But there really isn’t a lot of good Chinese around me that is relatively cheap and so I can see this being a possible option on occasion.

Pei Wei

6159 N Keystone Ave

Indy, 46220

317/205-9380

www.peiwei.com

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Tiger Lily - Revisit

3:16 AM | Labels: Asian, Chinese restaurants, Independent Restaurants, lunch places, Tiger Lily

After having a friend tell me that he really liked Tiger Lily, and since I haven’t been back since my first visit shortly after they opened, I met my friend wibia there for a quick lunch the other day. My friend who had recommended I go back told me that he really liked the hot and sour soup so I ordered that to start ($2.50). It was very good. It was very full of all the typical hot and sour ingredients (bamboo shoots, mushrooms and lots of tofu). I liked that the veggies were still fairly crisp, but not too crisp and I loved all the tofu in it. It also had a decent amount of acidity from the vinegar (sour) and just enough of the spiciness (hot). Our only complaint (we both had the same soup) is that it wasn’t very hot temperature-wise. Not cold or anything, just not hot.

So after ordering what I wanted, which was a noodle dish, our (very pleasant) server came back to tell me they were out of it. I went with garlic chicken ($6.50), which is sort of a standby dish for me at Chinese places. I am bummed I didn’t get to try the noodle dish because it sounded more interesting, and honestly, I wasn’t very impressed with the chicken. It was slices of white meat chicken with water chestnuts and mushrooms in a garlic sauce. One of the things I didn’t like about either of our dishes was that there was very little of the “sauce” other than what was directly on the meat. There was steamed rice with it, and there wasn’t enough of the flavor/sauce to make it onto the rice. The chicken was also a bit dry on the inside as well and the garlic sauce a little bland. Maybe if they gave a bit more of it.

Wibia had the pork bulgogi and I thought it suffered many of the same problems—it was dry and had little “sauce” to it… in other words, just not a lot of flavor. I do appreciate the crisp little egg roll and crab rangoon they give you with your lunch. I liked the egg roll because it was nice and crispy (it is on the small side) and not overly filled with stuff. The crab Rangoon was fine, but I have rarely met one that got me excited (not my favorite thing—cream cheese just doesn’t belong many places for me besides spread on a bagel).

Anyway, it was fine, and I liked the soup, but I wish I could have tried the noodles. So far none of the rice dishes have made me overly interested in returning and I have a feeling it may be awhile again before I do. When this place first opened, there was a lot of buzz about it, but less so as of late. Are there still some of you that are regulars? Love to hear what you think.

Tiger Lily Restaurant

1146 West 86^thStreet

Indy, 46260

317/848-9077

(they’re on facebook)

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Shanghai Lil--Revisit

2:49 AM | Labels: Asian, Castleton Area Restaurants, Chinese restaurants, Independent Restaurants, Northside Restaurant, Shanghai Lil

Shanghai Lil had been a fairly regular place for us (particularly for carry out and dim sum), but for whatever reason, we hadn’t been in ages (last time I posted about it was 2009, holy moley). One of the reasons we don’t go a lot is because my son is allergic to a whole host of nuts, which pretty much rules out Chinese food because of all the nuts used-- I fear that there is a lot of cross-contamination going on with woks, etc. It is just too scary. But the other night he was spending the night at a friend’s, so we took our daughter and went.

I noticed a change on this trip—there are no longer any of the Japanese offerings that they used to have. I always wondered about this, because we never ordered Japanese, and I never saw people eating it. That has got to be expensive to keep up the fresh fish angle (for sushi) if no one is ordering it. We went with a couple of things we have had before and a couple of new things as well.

We started with the stuffed eggplant ($6) and the dumplings in chili oil ($6). The eggplant was a new dish for us—kind of interesting. It is slices of eggplant stuffed with minced pork and tempura fried. It had a garlic ginger sauce. We liked it—a lot of stuff going on here, but the more we ate it, the more we enjoyed it. It was really hot and freshly fried, so it was nice and crunchy on the outside, even with the sauce drizzled on top. It is probably really more of a pork dish than an eggplant dish though—there was a lot of pork stuffed in there. I liked the sauce—it had a nice flavor and wasn’t too sweet.

The dumplings in chili oil are an old standby (one is already missing in the photo), and I am not sure why, but they just weren’t as good as I remembered. Maybe they weren’t made as freshly as other times I have had them or something. They just seemed a little bland and the insides (that contain pork, shrimp, and scallions) didn’t seem to have enough seasoning or something. They have a “spicy sweet” chili oil that was fine, but wasn’t saving the dumplings.

For a main dish, hubby wanted to try the pepper-salt flounder ($18) to see if it was as good as some salt and pepper fish we had in Chicagoawhile back. This is a dish that doesn’t really have a sauce—the fish is just lightly fried and has a very distinct salt and pepper flavor in the crust. There are chilies and scallions chopped and served with it. It was very good. The flounder was nice and tender and the seasoning on the crust while simple, was really good (salty and peppery, go figure). I think we may have even liked it better than the Chicago version. The crust was a little crispier, and it had more of a battered kind of feel than the cornmeal crust that we had before. Not the healthiest choice, but darn good.

My daughter got the crispy shrimp rolls ($4.50) and chicken fried rice ($11). I have had the shrimp rolls a lot before and they are pretty basic (a shrimp wrapped in a spring roll wrapper and fried). There’s a little seasoning in their (chives I think) and they are nice and crunchy, but nothing amazing. Their fried rice is pretty good—not a ton of veggies which my daughter likes. In fact she ate it for several days after for breakfast and was very content.

I still think Shanghai Lil is one of the better Chinese places we have on the Northeast side. It isn’t cheap, but the ingredients are fresh—I feel confident ordering seafood there, which I can’t always say about some Chinese places. And they have dim sum for lunch---and now I am craving that again. But remind me again, what are your favorite places for Chinese?

Shanghai Lil

8505 Keystone Crossing

Indy 46240

317/205-9335

www.shanghai-lil.com

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Sichuan

3:18 AM | Labels: Asian, Carmel, Chinese restaurants, Independent Restaurants

I seem to be on a roll right now of working through several places that have been on my list forever. Hubby and I intended to head to the west side to try one of the great ethnic options over there, but ran short of time and decided to head to Carmel and try Sichuan instead for lunch. They have a really interesting looking buffet, but hubby isn’t supposed to eat from them (long story) so we just ordered off the menu.

We made the mistake of ordering a couple of appetizers that were just too generic and not very good—the crab rangoon ($3.50) and the dumplings ($3.99). They were certainly generous portions for sure, but pretty sure you can get that same crab rangoon anywhere (and honestly, I am not a big fan of them anyhow). The dumplings were just pot stickers that weren’t pan fried. Typical minced pork filling. I thought the skin was a little overly doughy actually so we weren’t doing that well to start. And I kept eyeing the buffet wishing I had gotten it anyway. Lots of interesting looking things.

Then we got our entrée—chicken in garlic sauce ($7.99). Wow, was it good. There was a lot of white meat chicken that was not cooked to death with various veggies—mainly celery and carrots but with a few bamboo shoots and water chestnuts mixed in. The celery and carrots were a tad too al dente for my taste, but the chicken and the sauce alone were so good—a decent spicy kick with a lot of garlic flavor—I mean look at the close up shot and you can see all the minced garlic. We both really liked this. If it were close by my house, I would be getting this dish for carry out a lot. I really liked that it was spicy enough that you could feel it too; so many times I think Chinese places around here don’t really adequately spice their dishes, even when they are designated as spicy on the menu.

Sichuan

11588 Westfield Blvd

Carmel, IN 46032

317/844-7559

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Naked Tchopstix

2:34 AM | Labels: Asian, Broad Ripple Restaurants, Japanese restaurant, Naked Tchopstix, sushi

I don’t know if it was because it had been so hot or what, but lately I am craving sushi. And we needed somewhere that had a wide enough menu to make the kids happy too (meaning, they have not developed their true love of sushi. Yet.) A friend of mine really likes Naked Tchopstix so we thought we would give it a try.

They certainly meet the criteria of a large menu—our server came back like 4 times before we were ready to order—and even then I didn’t feel like I had enough time to really read through everything. They have a lot of sushi and Japanese food, but they also have a lot of other things—Korean, Thai, Chinese etc. Everything from soups to noodles to rice dishes.

We settled on trying their tuna tartare ($9.99) because in many places it is one of my favorite things, so I always want to try it somewhere else. This one was different from most in that it was more like the tuna mix that is used in rolls that list “spicy tuna” as an ingredient. It is more of a finely chopped mix of the tuna mixed with spicy mayo—it isn’t the large raw pieces of Ahi that are my favorite thing. So it was this “spicy tuna” mix combined with mango and tobiko (fish eggs) with deep fried wontons on the side to eat them with. There seemed to be a sweet sauce on top as well. This one wasn’t for me—I guess I like either a soy based sauce or an acid based sauce with something like this. And something about just scooping up the prepared tuna made me think of canned tuna fish. I don’t mind it inside a roll as much along with other ingredients, but just eating it straight up like this seemed strange. Hubby liked it better than I did.

We also got two rolls. Again, we were having a hard time deciding because there are a lot of choices. I like there to be some contrasting flavors in a roll—something with some crunch or texture as well as something creamy (either the fish or the sauce). I am also always partial to a roll that includes avocado. The first one that grabbed my eye was the corona roll ($10.99). It included avocado, more of the spicy tuna (I didn’t realize they were going to have the same ingredients), and tempura chips and was topped with white tuna and lime. It had a light wasabi mayo sauce as well. I really liked this. It had a nice citrusy flavor and wasn’t overly sweet. I personally like a crunch from something tempura in my roll and the little chips did the trick. The white tuna was pretty tender. I like the flavor from the lime on top, but ended up picking most of them off because I just don’t like chewing on the skin of the lime slice, even when it is really thinly sliced. This roll was the best thing we had.

The other roll was the Tokyo roll ($12.99) which had eel, avocado and crab inside and tuna and spicy mayo on the outside as well as various flavors of roe. It normally comes with cucumber inside as well, but cucumber isn’t our favorite thing in sushi, so we had them leave it out. That is probably not a good idea because it probably gives it the extra crunch that the roll needed. It was good, but nothing that I would crave again. The ingredients were good, and the tuna on the outside was nice and fresh, but it just didn’t wow me for anything. The corona roll was much more memorable.

We also shared a small order of frites ($4.99) with the kids, which seemed like a weird thing to get at a place like this, but they wanted them, so we tried them. They are pretty good—the really thin kind that were nice and hot and crispy. They served them with 4 different sauces—all things that I think they are using in their other food items—a teriyaki type sauce, a sweet chili oil, a spicy mayo and a wasabi mayo. Honestly, none of the sauces were really necessary—the frites were fine on their own. I am guessing these are on the menu for the late night Broad Ripple bar scene. But the kids liked them. The kids split a chicken teriyaki dinner ($11.99) which they were fine with but my daughter informed me the all white meat was “a little dry.” I had one quick bite and would say she was right about that.

All in all, I would say this is a good place to go to meet a sushi craving, even though there are other places that I like better. They do have a nice wide-ranging menu though to appeal to many different tastes. So what have other people had non-sushi wise that they really like? Or do you have a favorite roll there?

Naked Tchopstix

6253 N. College Ave.

Indy 46220

317/252-5555

www.tchopstix.com (why do restaurants not put prices on their websites?)

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Sensu

2:25 AM | Labels: Asian, Downtown Restaurants, Independent Restaurants, Sensu

I am pretty excited about this place. To be honest, we had sort of put off going for a couple of reasons—one, it is also a nightclub, and I sort of feel too old for nightclubs, and two, when you look at the menu online, it looks like you get a lot of food on each plate, and with only 2 people, I was worried that we wouldn’t be able to try too much. It IS a nightclub after 10 pm, and certainly has a nightclub feel, but it was a very enjoyable experience going earlier in the evening and there were quite a few people there that were even older than us, so that was reassuring. It is a very dark modern interior (hence the dark-ish pictures), and the music while in the forefront, wasn’t so loud that you couldn’t easily carry on a conversation. As for the portion size, I was totally wrong. At the time we went, it wasn’t reflected on the online menu (now it is), but many of their plates come in half portions, or you can buy them by the piece (the tacos, etc.) making it very easy to try a lot of things. And essentially, that is what they intend for you to do. Most of the things are fairly small—in fact we ordered an extra thing at the last minute.

The first things we were brought were the lobster tacos (half order (2) was $9). They were delicious. Each taco had one small warmed soft tortilla shell filled with small chunks of lobster meat (tender and not chewy at all) and mixed with lots of good stuff—salsa, avocado and cilantro as well as some little lightly crispy bits of something (just tempura bits maybe?) giving it just a little interesting texture in each bite. I would get these again in a heartbeat.

Next we had the snapper sashimi—also really, really great (1/2 order, $9). It was four thin slices of the raw snapper, which was impeccably fresh and tender with a light ponzu sauce (generally a soy based sauce mixed with citrus). There were crispy toasty tasting garlic chips and a little slice of jalapeno on top giving it a bit of a kick as well as a bit of a crunch. I loved this one—again another one I would love to get again.

The next item we were served (they sort of space them out so you just get one at a time) was the “toast and jam” which was shrimp toast with Ahi tuna jam ($15). A very interesting concept indeed, and we both loved the toasts themselves—they were little triangles of bread that were dipped in a batter with the shrimp in it and fried. Seriously, I could much on these alone all night long. The “jam” part was made with the tuna, and other seasonings—garlic and cumin I believe, as well as house made strawberry preserve and a bit of sugar. While I loved the consistency of the jam to spread on the toast, it wasn’t my favorite because it was a little too sweet for me—I tasted the fruit more than anything. Hubby liked the combination more than I did. But just to try the toast alone—this dish is worth getting.

We also shared the seared Kobe beef ($28). This was by far the largest portion of anything we had, although, it wasn’t huge or anything. The beef itself was perfectly cooked, and I liked that it was sliced into manageable pieces, but unfortunately, it lacked enough seasoning. It was supposed to be served with a yuzu cilantro butter which sounded like it would be great. Yuzu is a type of citrus, and I think the flavors as described would be lovely with the beef, but you just couldn’t taste them at all. The beef was good, but plain. It was also served with some asparagus spears.

So after all this, we had so enjoyed ourselves, we decided to skip a dessert and just get one more small plate to share. This time we chose the Albacore salad ($11). It was mainly a salad, as in greens, but was mixed with cubes of mango, tuna, and pink peppercorns and dressed with a Yuzu-vinaigrette. The dressing was nice, and adequately coating the leaves. The salad would have been nice if it weren’t for the severely under ripe mango. This is the kind of dish that the mango is a big part of, and my advice, if it isn’t ripe, don’t serve it. The dices of mango were hard and dry.

Even with the less than stellar ending (although, truly the salad would have been quite good if not for the mango), this is a place that got me and hubby both very excited. The service is extremely professional, all questions were answered with a lot of knowledge, and the dishes were all brought out in succession, but in a perfectly timed manner. And I am happy to see a new independent restaurant opening downtown. We look forward to returning to get a couple of the dishes we had on this visit, as well as several new ones.

Sensu (I hear a version of it has opened in Carmel as well)

225 South Meridian

Indy 46225

317/536-0036

www.sensuindy.com

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Asian Grill

3:33 AM | Labels: Asian, Chinese restaurants, Independent Restaurants, kid friendly, lunch places, Noblesville, Northside Restaurant, Vietnamese

My sister is a Groupon addict and often buys Groupons for random restaurants all around the city, which works out well for me, because she tries places all over and when she finds one she really likes, she lets me know. This is how we ended up at Asian Grill. They went and liked it and then we all went together (and several of you guys had recommended it as well). So, the first thing I noticed is that I think this may be one of maybe two or three restaurants in Indy I have been to that had a significant wait at 6:00. Luckily we had made a reservation, so we didn’t have to wait the hour that many were waiting for a table (we did have to wait about 10-15 minutes past our reservation time). Seriously, this place was heaving. That always kind of gets me excited, because when you see so many people, you figure something must be good right?

So this is another of the restaurants that calls itself “pan-Asian” so it can incorporate various influences from various cuisines. They offer dishes that are Chinese, Japanese, Thai, Vietnamese, Korean, Indian and Cambodian. This seems to be a popular thing right now, and if it is being done well, it is sort of nice to have lots of different things to choose from.

We sat down at our table (which was unfortunately very close to the door which was opening quite frequently and which made for a very chilly spot--a curtain in front of the door might be nice) but we were just happy that we had a table! We started with some apps—the crab wontons, the vegetable samosas, and the Thai beef salad.

My favorite of the apps was the samosas ($4.75). There were two decent sized fried patties filled with seasoned potatoes (Indian spices) and some mixed veggies. They were very hot and crispy and served with extremely fresh tasting cilantro chutney. These are the kind of Indian flavors I like—especially the bright cilantro dip on top. The crab wontons ($5.95) were a little different from most I had though because they were large triangles of wontons that were deep fried. They were exceptionally hot when they came out of the kitchen. Hubby likes these and was happy to have someone to agree to share them with him, since I usually refuse because they aren’t my favorite thing to order. They were served with a thin, sweet sauce. For crab wontons, they were good and hubby quite enjoyed them.

Crab Wontons

My least favorite thing was the Thai beef salad ($5.50) which I normally really like, but not in this case. It is a cold beef salad, and the beef was actually tasty and tender, but the vegetables it was served with were pretty much all raw red and green pepper chunks, which are not my favorite thing to eat by the forkful. In the past, I have had this served with lettuce and pickled red onions which I preferred. It is described on the menu as being in red wine vinaigrette, but it seemed a bit sweeter than that to me.

Thai Beef Salad

We got three entrées and shared them. They are really good sized, and in my opinion you could share one between 2 people. Anyway, we had the Lok Lak Beef, the Orange Chicken, and Red Pepper Shrimp. Actually, the main dishes were all good. The Lok Lak Beef ($14.25) is Cambodian in origin and was large chunks of sirloin that were sautéed. The edges were slightly crispy from what was probably caramelization of the marinade when the pieces of beef were sautéed. It was served over sliced onions and with a side of cucumbers, lettuce and tomatoes. The beef was really tender, and had a nice flavor of garlic that combined with the onions was really good. This is a Cambodian variation of the Vietnamese Shaking Beef (speaking of which, I ran across the recipe online for the Slanted Door’s version—which was one of my favorites in San Francisco. Thought I would share here.) Anyway, I would certainly order this again.

Lok Lak Beef

My brother-in-law ordered the orange chicken ($12.50), which is something I never would have ordered on my own, because if just sounds too sweet, but this dish was quite good, and wasn’t as sweet as I would have thought. It is described as having an orange pulp infused sauce—and while it was somewhat sweet, it did maintain a bit of the tangy flavor of the orange as well. The pieces of chicken were white meat and were lightly battered and fried and pleasantly tender.

Red Pepper Shrimp

The pepper shrimp were also good ($14.50), although a little dry (as in, without sauce). They were even more lightly breaded than the chicken and sort of dry fried and served with toasty peanuts, green onions, and red chilies. The shrimp were a nice size and were cooked very well and were seasoned with black pepper. All the dishes came with three types of rice—white rice, fried rice and seasoned Indian-style rice. They were all good—the rice was a bit sticky, which is how I prefer it.

I have read some complaints about service, and I have to say, other than waiting past our reservation time to be seated, I was surprised with how good the service was. They were certainly very busy, but we did not wait long for anything once we were seated. We all really enjoyed the experience and I would say we will certainly be back. I know some of you will say, how “authentic” is any of it? But honestly, who am I to say what is authentic or not, when I have never been to Asia? Much of it tasted good, and that is what I go by.

Asian Grill

74 North 9^th Street

Noblesville, IN 46060

317/773-9990

www.asiangrillindy.com

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