| Address | 809 King St., Alexandria, VA 22314 |
|---|---|
| Phone | (703) 836-1515 |
Great selection of various Asian dishes, including Thai, Chinese, Japanese ... perfect if you are not sure exactly what you are in the mood for. Lunch specials are great deals!
An extremely pleasant surprise in restaurant value and service in Old Town and the food was excellent. The menu offers many choices to please just about any Asian craving and the dining atmosphere was casual, but intimate. We ordered the vietnamese spring rolls, 3 sushi rolls and one entree for 2 of us and we still had extra to take home. The sushi was very fresh and tasty - rolls were on the slim side, but packed a great punch in taste - loved the wasabi tuna! Will definitely be going back!
We were looking for a new sushi place, and happened upon this place, with serves Asian fare and has a sushi counter in the back called Sushi Corner. We were plesantly surprised witht the freshness of the food. The spicy yellowtail hand roll is a favorite of mine, and they made the best I've ever had. The seaweed was crisp, the fish fresh and flavorful, and they added a sprinkling of tempura flakes with made the whole thing out-of-this-world. I can't wait to go back. This place is are new favorite!!
Can one restaurant be all things to all people? Of course not, but Alexandria's Asian Bistro takes a well-aimed stab at it. Its street-level dining room is both upscale and casual, its butter-yellow walls discreetly decorated with trinkets from all over the Far East, its glossy-topped tables and high-backed chairs stylish but also wipe-cleanable. It's dark enough for chic couples on dates, well enough lit for solo workaholics and families with adventurous-eating toddlers. And the menu, as befits a place billing itself as pan-Asian, is large and catholic. Alcohol options range from a few standard beers through a respectable wine list to drinks with names along the lines of "Lychee-tini." Soups include miso, wonton, and tom yum; appetizers include Vietnamese summer rolls, Japanese fried gyoza, and crispy Malaysian curry puffs, stuffed with minced chicken and potatoes and served with cucumber relish. The larb--minced chicken with cilantro, mint, and slivers of carrots and onion to be scooped up in a fresh lettuce leaf and eaten with your hands-- is almost alarmingly sharp and sour from its spicy, citric marinade. Main courses are divided into dishes "From the Land" and "From the Sea"; curries; noodles and rice; and a catch-all vegetarian category, which includes pad thai, spicy red curry, and several Chinese-style options. A few unusual ingredients suggest more ambition on the kitchen's part than at your typical pan-Asian place; you can get monkfish in red curry, for example, or buffalo sauteed with garlic, chili peppers, green onions, and fresh basil. Venison is given the typical Chinese sweet/hot treatment, large flecks of the lean, tender meat stir-fried with crispy green beans, sweet red and hot green pepper strips, and dainty strings of onion in a rich, caramel-brown sauce, tinged with heat and basil. Desserts include mango and sticky rice (in season), Thai-style pumpkin custard, a Thai crispy banana wrap, and, improbably, something called "chocolate souffle," described on the menu as molten-in-the-middle chocolate cake.
