Cleveland's Asian restaurants

[torakris]

This week's Friday Magazine in the Plain Dealer had a review of Mekong River a Cambodian/Thai restaurant right by me in Cleveland Heights. It wasn't the best of reviews but looking on the internet I found many more very favorable reviews. Has anyone ever been?

What are some of the best Asian restaurants Cleveland has to offer?

Two of my favorites are Hunan on Coventry (Chinese) and Pacific East (Japanese) also on Coventry road.

[torakris]

On a trip to Trader Joe's (Chagrin Blvd) yesterday I noticed PF Chang's China Bistro as we were getting off 271. My sister had said she had heard good things about it though she has never gone herself.

Anyone been?

[ronnie_suburban]

Hi Kris,

It's a chain; pretty sure it's a national one. There's an outpost very near my house in north-suburban Chicago but I've never been.

Here are links to a couple other discussions about it:

PF Chang's, West New York, NJ

PF Chang's China Bistro, That was... weird

and here is a link to their web site:

P.F. Chang's

=R=

[JayBassin]

Chang's is a chain. Been to one in Rockville, MD. BAAAD!! It's a yuppie hangout emphasizing overpriced wines and drinks. Food is mediocre on a good day. We ordered green tea and the server told us they didn't have any---only the pricey "gourmet" teas with hokey names. Service was inattentive, food was poorly cooked and more fusion than oriental.

[Michael Ruhlman]

an arizona based chain. very successful. but i urge clevelanders to eat at restaurants independently owned. they've even organized themselves into a group, spearheaded by chef segrio. it's better for the diner, better for the chef and better for the local economy.

my favorite asian is lemongrass, still. i had a good meal at mekong. but i too am eager to know what the best asian is or are...

[edsel]

I have to agree with Ruhlman that it's best to eat at locally-owned places. The organization he mentioned is Cleveland Originals. There are a few asian restaurants listed there, including a couple that are close to Cleveland Heights. Matsu (in Shaker Heights) looks interesting.

Another Japanese place I've been meaning to try is Aoeshi in North Olmsted . It's at the corner of Lorain and Columbia in the strip mall behind where Danny Boy Market used to be. The description in Laura Taxel's book sounds intriguing. Of course, North Olmsted is a bit of a hike for Kristin....

[MelissaH]

Another Japanese place I've been meaning to try is Aoeshi in North Olmsted . It's at the corner of Lorain and Columbia in the strip mall behind where Danny Boy Market used to be

←

Whoa: Danny Boy is gone? When I worked in North Olmsted, that used to be one of my favorite lunch spots: get something yummy from the deli, and a nice piece of fruit to go with, and head down the hill to one of the picnic tables along the Emerald Necklace.

My other favorite lunch spot from those days, the one relevant to this conversation: Phnom Penh, the Cambodian restaurant on Lorain just west of 130th. Once again, it's a bit of a hike from Cleveland Heights, but as long as you're in the mood for noodles of some kind and as long as you're not looking for tablecloths and candles, it's nearly unbeatable.

Have I just moved too long ago?

MelissaH

[torakris]

Thanks for the advice on the Chinese place. I didn't realize it was a chain... I should have figured out from the chintzy stone horses out front...

Last summer I was on my quest for good Japanese (this was when I discovered Pacific East) and I had a really nice (and wonderfully priced) lunch at Matsu. The dinner menu looked quite pricey so we never went back in the evening. Aoeshi was on my list to try but I never did make it, it too looked on the pricey side.

My grandmother and Aunt actually live in North Olmsted so it is the one part of the west side I actually am familar with.

We took my friend and the kids to the malley ice cream shop over there (the one with the carousel inside) and the first thing I noticed as we were turning the corner was that Danny Boy was gone, I loved that place...

Phnom Penh has been on my must get to list for about 3 years now! I really need to get there this year.

Tonight my sister has insisted we go to Beihana's...

[NancyH]

Kris - you must get to Phnom Penh - I think it is close to the best Asian food in Cleveland. Word on the street is that C&Y Restaurant closed - and they are not answering their phone as I type this - that's a shame; they had wonderful Xiao Long Bao.

Siam Cafe is very good; I also like New Wong's Noodle shop on Payne.

In North Olmsted - there is a little gem of a place tucked into the South part of the Great Northern Shopping complex called Foo Sing, at 5186 Great Northern Plaza, South, just off of the Country Club Boulevard entrance. Ignore the Chinese Buffet place a few feet down the strip mall! Bob and I ate at Foo Sing last week - black pepper sauce to die for! The dipping sauce that came with the dumplings was so good I wanted to drink it from the cup (and I would have, too, if the entree hadn't shown up at just that moment). All we had was a late supper of dumplings and beef with black pepper sauce, but the family dinner of tilapia, green vegetable and sauteed beef the staff was eating looked wonderful - I can't wait to get back there!

Also a little out of your way - Golden Swan in Eastgate has a terrific Chinese menu and Owner/Chef Spencer Sien will cook just about anything you might want to order.

[torakris]

Nancy,

Thanks for the suggestions!

Actually I was reading your review of that Chinese place just hours ago on the forums at Cleveland.com, I was thinking it might be the same NancyH...

I have never had a beef with black pepper sauce, I think I need to get to the west side more often.

I actually talked my sister out of Benihana's and we went to Mekong River. The restaurant was quite empty but they seemed to be doing a brisk service with take out.

We started with the deep fried fish patties appetizer, sorry forget the name and they were a bit on the oily side but otherwise wonderful. The flavor was fantastic.

We ordered two entrees from the Cambodian House speciality list and have forgotten both names but the first one was quite mild flavored with thinly sliced chicken on a bed of lettuce and tomatoes with a hot (warm not spicy) poured on top. It wasn't bad but nothing to rave about. The other dish had a one star on their heat level of up to three stars but had us both in tears! I actually can handle spicy foods quite well but this was no one star dish. I ordered it with beef (you have a choice of meats/fish/tofu) and it was stirfried with bell peppers and celery and had a wonderful sauce that probably contained all of the wonderful aromatics used in SE Asian cooking. The sauce was a dark brown so I am assuming it had some kind of tamarind base but I am not sure. The taste was great was the heat was a little too overwhelming. It was served with rice that did help some.

We were a little surprised when we recieved the bill because both of the entrees we ordered had been listed as 10.99 on the menu but the bill listed them as 11.99 and 12.99. Maybe there had been a sign somewhere announcing menu price changes that we missed but we decided not to do anything about it. We actually left a larger than normal tip because it seemed like a family run place and they didn't seem to be doing much eat-in business...

[NancyH]

Yes, Kris, that NancyH would also be me! As I mentioned on the other Forum post, Black Pepper Sauce is a Hong Kong specialty that came into vogue in the 1980s; Jo-Mel and I spent a lot of time trying to find a recipe in New Jersey, but none could be had (though Jo-Mel came up with a pretty good one on her own).

The heat in the dish (when it is made right) comes only from freshly ground black pepper (Hunan Lyndhurst does an ok job with this dish, but if you ask for it spicy, they will add red pepper flakes). It is at the same time both simple and complex - one of our favorites!

What was so wonderful about Foo Sing is that it is a small family business (like Mekong Delta) that gets along by catering to the masses, while still having some special dishes on their menu.

We've only been to Mekong Delta once, and it was ok but not outstanding; perhaps based on your review we'll try it again.

Also, I forgot to mention that Hunan East on Richmond Road (across from the Richmond Mall) has a Chinese menu, but it is only in characters and they will not translate it for you, though they will show you a big photo book of some of the dishes if you ask.

[Palladion]

Now that I'm back in the Cleveland area, I'm interested in this as well.

I had dinner at the Siam Cafe last week. I didn't think much of their Tom Yum, honestly. It was lacking in flavor, all the carefully balanced spiciness, saltiness, sourness was nowhere to be found. I like my Tom Yum to be redolent with lemongrass, keffir lime leaf, and galangal -- their's wasn't very fragrant.

The gai pad krapow (chicken with spicy basil) was all right, but suffered from a lack of the specific basil flavor that I'm looking for. I'm not entirely sure why. Everyone else liked it, but I thought it was lacking. It was spicy, but it was not the peppery-spiciness that holy basil is famous for. Though now that I think about it, the menu doesn't actually say "krapow" or "holy basil".

The Chinese dishes fared better (or perhaps I'm just less exacting with those). Also, those two Thai dishes that we chose depend very heavily upon specific ingredients which may be difficult to locate here.

JASNO (Japan-America Society of Northeast Ohio) has (or perhaps had, I've been gone two years and out of touch) monthly dinner discussions at Shinano, in Richmond Heights. I can't really discuss the quality of the food that they serve, as I knew very little about Japanese cuisine before going to Japan, but the JASNO people think (or thought, anyway) that it's the most authentic that's available in the Cleveland area.

I do remember that I really liked their katsudon, though I can't remember much about it.

If you go there and can read Japanese, make sure you get the Japanese-language menu. There are some items on that menu that are not written on the English menu.

-------

Alex Parker

[torakris]

Alex, welcome home!

It is sort of strange to be talking to you on this forum now...

I have been to Shinano's a couple of times and found it to be typical of US Japanese places and not as good as some of the places I have eaten at in Columbus. After reading a review last summer that is was the preferred restaurant among Japanese locals I decided to try it again.

I went for lunch with my brother and the lunch menu consisted of about 10 items that were teriyaki flavored. I asked instead for a Japanese menu and we ordered from there. While it wasn't bad the portions were tiny and very expensive. We ordered aboput $40 worth of food (before tax and tip) and were still starving, we actually had to pick up something to eat on the way home. Was the taste was fine it wasn't worth the prices they were charging. Pacific East is a far better value for your money.

[RagallachMC]

I hate throwing up a post that just agrees with the last one, but.....

I have to agree with torakris. Pacific East is waaayyy better than Shinano's

There's a Japanese restaurant in Strongsville that I haven't checked out yet. I can't remember the name right now, but some of my family went there and they said it was great.

Also, as far as chains go, PF Chang's is a decent one. I've been to the Beachwood one a couple of times and a decent meal there each time. I had the scallops last time and they were really good. I agree that we should support home-grown restaurants, but sometimes our non-food educated bretheren will insist on the chains.

[NancyH]

Kris - Not to stray too far off topic from Asian places - but if you love and appreciate good food, you must get to Carrie Cerrino's while you are here. Bob and I had dinner there last night, and the summer offerings are just amazing! Blue Egg Ravioli was followed by a pasta carbonara combining CCs home made pasta, a carbonara sauce made with the Blue Eggs (with a single soft yolk set in the middle, to be broken up and mixed with the other ingredients) and guanciale acquired from Mario Batali's dad in NY - While the line between heaven on a plate and heart attack on a plate is extremely thin here - this is a dish that simply must be sampled! The way the guanciale coats the tongue and lingers on the palate, with a touch of fresh black pepper, is just amazing. I had the Tomato Panzarella made with three varieties of heirloom tomato - we are tomato starved this summer thanks to Bob's knees, so this was an extremely welcome treat (and the perfect "lighter" entree to follow a BER) - topped with a generous portion of strips of the the new organic chicken CCs is using. Just delightful. I should probably post this info elsewhere, so please forgive the re-run!

[torakris]

Well I did end up making a trip to Benihana's (Chagrin Blvd) with a couple of my sisters and some of our kids. The food was reasonably priced for lunch but everything tasted the same.... Of course I wasn't expecting much.

As we were leaving the restaurant my oldest daughter turned to me and said, " Mom, I thought you said we were going to a Japanese restaurant...?"

I did make another wonderful discovery yesterday, my brother suggested we stop by this tiny whole in the wall Thai place he found last year. It is called Bangkok and is on Warrensville in between Mayfield and Cedar (probably University Heights). You can dine in at one of the four tables or take out, you order from a small window that separates the kitchen from the eating area and then get your own water and seat yourself. The food comes in a styrofoam dish with a plastic fork but when you taste it you won't care.

Most of the dishes cost $5.95 and are served with rice, though you can upgrade to a large (which would feed 2) for only $8.25.

I ordered a string bean curry with tofu (you can choose your protein) and my brother had the Thai gra pao (ground chicken with Thai basil) and they were both excellent. I am still thinking about the green beans... They were cooked perfectly and the flavor was great, they were honestly some of the best green beans I have ever eaten. My brother also commented that he was always impressed by the freshness of the vegetables they serve.

We also enjoyed a wonderful Thai iced tea for $1.25 and they have a Thai coffee for the same price.

If you are in the neighborhood definitely check them out.

EDIT: Just checked their take out menu and the address is 1982 Warrensville and the city is South Euclid, the full name is Bangkok Thai Cuisine.

Edited August 15, 2005 by torakris (log)

[torakris]

I can't believe I forgot to post about this....

The day after the Lolita's dinner, I made a trip with the kids to Superior and E30th to check out the Golden Bakery that Nancy recommended. If I had planned the trip right I could have had lunch at the Vietnamese place she also recommended just up the hall and hten taken the baked buns home for a snack.

The kids and I were so excited to find these unbelievably delicious buns with roast pork that we bought quite a bunch and ate them at one of the tables in the hallway.

It wasn't until after we ate that we passed by the Vietnamese place.... always have next year!

[Redbeard1969]

Well, I'm no expert on Asian cuisine, but I have gone around a bit and tried a few places that I thought were quite good. In Cleveland Heights, check out Sun Luck Garden on South Taylor. If you've ever read Laura Taxel's book on Cleveland's ethnic eateries, you'll see that she positively gushes over Sun Luck. After having eaten there several times, so will I. It's one of the best Chinese restaurants I've ever eaten in. You'll see much on their menu that looks familiar ... until you taste it, and then you realize that the chefs have approached their food from a slightly different angle. And the results are delicious. It's a small place in a bland, nondescript strip mall, but the food is amazing. If you like Chinese, give it a try.

Another good place to go is Cleveland's small Chinatown district, which is roughly around East 30th and Superior/East 30th and Payne. There's a ton of good Asian restaurants there, serving pretty authentic food to all the Asians who live in that neighborhood. One little place that I really enjoy is Pho Hoa, a Vietnamese place inside Golden Plaza, a multi-use building at the corner of East 31st and Superior. I've not dabbled widely in Vietnamese, but I like the "some assembly required" concept. When you order their pho (which is outstanding, not only in taste, but in value, because they give you a massive bowl for $6 bucks), they also bring out a plate with bean sprouts, cilantro, lemon slices, other garnishes, and even hot sauce. So then you customize your soup any way you want. It's damn good. They also do sandwiches now, though I have to confess that I've not tried them yet. I usually can't get past the soup!

But save room, because across the hall is the Golden Bakery, a tiny Hong Kong-style bakery (mentioned in a previous post by Tokakris), where you can get absolutely decadent desserts and cookies, and a wealth of stuffed buns (stuffed with curried beef, curried chicken, pork, etc.) that are cheap and delicious. It's one of my favorite places to stop for lunch. Every time we're in that area of town we stop by. We have to. It's that good!

The beauty of the Chinatown area is that there's a whole ton of restaurants and markets in a very small geographic area, so it's really easy to explore and try. And give it a try! For some reason, plenty of people have no trouble hopping on a plane and taking a trip to a completely foreign country, and then explore all over the place ... but yet they'll NEVER explore their own home city! Don't be a wuss ... get out of the suburbs, come into the city, and see what's here!

And as a final aside ... I tried the Bankok Thai take-out place on Warrensville Center in South Euclid this past weekend ... the food was wonderful, the prices were right, and we had scarcely a wait. Everything we had was delicious, so I'm definitely adding that menu to our file of great restaurants in the Heights area.

[ronnie_suburban]

Welcome, Redbeard, to the eGS

=R=

[torakris]

I had my first meal out in Cleveland at Pacific East, only 2 days out of Japan and I already go for sushi...

Actually we had been planning to go Luchita's at Shaker Square but couldn't find it...don't ask..

Just as I remembered, it was great!

[edsel]

Kris, you can add another Thai restaurant to your list of Asian restaurants to try. Ty Fun is in Tremont, right across the street from Fahrenheit. I met up with some friends on Tuesday night to check it out.

After cocktails at VTR we headed for Ty Fun. The restaurant is small, decor is charming, and the mood is sort of "relaxed upscale". The banquettes against the wall have big piles of silk pillows, the tables are set with woven place mats and Thai bronze flatware, and there are Thai paintings on the walls.

We started with some appetizers shared around the table. The Mee Grob (crispy rice noodles, shrimp, sweet-and-sour sauce) was excellent. Someone said it reminded them of a caramel popcorn ball , but it wasn't too sweet - just kind of sticky and yummy. We also had Tod Mun Pla, little fish cakes with chili, cucumber, and peanuts. Interesting, but didn't knock me out.

Everyone had soup - either Tom Yum or Tom Kha Gai. Nice balance of coconut, lemon grass, and lime in the Tom Kha Gai.

Ped Grob

Boneless roast duck on a bed of crispy noodles

Chili, garlic, tamarind sauce

A noodle dish (I missed which one it was)

Steamed shrimp with vegetables

Pla Chu Chee

Whole Red Snapper

Red Currie and Coconut Milk

Kai Ma Mung

Chicken breast, Cashew, Pineapple, Chili

Hot Plate

Jumbo Shrimp, Squid, Scallop, Mussel

Crystal Noodle, Mixed Vegetable and "spicy sauce"

This was served on a sizzle-platter (kind of like fajitas).

We split a piece of mango cheesecake, which was light and subtly flavored (not overly sweet), and topped with toasted coconut. Then we rambled up the street to Lolita for coffee, cheese boards, and "small plate" desserts.

[Fat Guy]

I'll add my voice in support of Sun Luck Garden. It's an unassuming but first-rate Chinese restaurant with a brilliant chef, Annie Chiu, who has both Chinese and Western culinary training. I recently spent a day in the kitchen there while doing research on Asian restaurants in the Midwest, and was astounded at the quality of the food. The one thing I'd warn folks about is that it's not the most user-friendly restaurant in the world, at least not from the perspective of the customer who wants to sample interesting food. The menu they hand out has some good options on it but also a lot of generic Chinese-American stuff. Though Sun Luck's renditions of these Chinese-American classics are quite good, the real interest lies in the specials and the theme dinners. You have to take an active role in researching and discussing the options in order to get the best stuff, and it's well worth the effort. The place is quite small, and it's one of these family joints with an entrenched base of regular customers and a lot of unwritten rules (for example the hours of operation are one thing, but all the regulars eat between 6 and 8pm).

[edsel]

Laura Taxel gave Sun Luck Garden a very favorable review in her Cleveland Ethnic Eats guide.

Much of what she knows, Chiu learned by studying with master chefs in China, apprenticeships arranged by her mother's brother, who is a renowned chef and teacher there.

Taxel's review put Sun Luck Garden on my "short list" of places to try, but the Heights isn't close to where I live or work. Sounds like I need to go out of my way to check it out...

BTW, what's the research for? Are you writing a study of Heartland Asian restaurants? Have you hit Saint Paul yet?

[Fat Guy]

BTW, what's the research for? Are you writing a study of Heartland Asian restaurants? Have you hit Saint Paul yet?

←

(Not exactly. Give me a few more weeks and I'll post about the project.)

[Fat Guy]

If I may continue my train of thought, there's an assumption made by owners of Asian restaurants that the average customer is unadventurous. This is assumed even by Asian restaurants from one part of Asia that open in other parts of Asia. It's a stronger assumption in non-Asian countries. And in the United States, the assumption is strongest outside the large coastal cities. (Don't even get me started on the assumptions in Europe.)

Anyway . . . I'm just stating that as a piece of information. My personal experience with folks in most places in the United States is that some are conservative eaters and some aren't -- and that eGullet Society members are open-minded eaters and therefore atypical. But I think the adventurous eater in a place like Cleveland (not that there's anyplace like Cleveland), especially the non-Asian adventurous eater, needs to let it be known that he's interested in eating the good stuff.

I've been to dozens of Asian restaurants in the middle parts of the US and Canada, and almost all of them operate on two tracks: there's one cuisine being served to the average non-Asian walk-in customer, and another cuisine being served to the insiders. In most cases, it's not all that hard to work your way into the latter group. It just requires a willingness to engage the staff and ask a ton of questions. You should also, in most cases, be prepared to spend more than the $7.95 per entree that's being charged for egg foo yung, pad thai and bibimbap.

In other words, getting a recommendation of a good Asian restaurant is only step one. Step two is managing your experience at that restaurant so that you get the best.