Small But Mighty: In a Small Space, Asia Cuisine Has a Huge Variety | Restaurant Reviews

When a restaurant in downtown Ithaca retains the same ownership and footprint for almost two decades, it gets my attention.  Asia Cuisine does just that. Perhaps you remember an Italian restaurant, Giovanni’s, or a fish market, The Fisherman, which served customers on what we now refer to as “restaurant row” at the corner of Aurora and Seneca street before Asia Cuisine opened its doors to the public in July of 2004?

Surely its popularity isn’t based on its austere atmosphere. It’s enclosed by two brick walls with a few photographs and some paper and plastic charts. A half dozen hanging lamps provide the illumination.  The interior itself is quite close with tables for twos and fours placed uncomfortably near each other.

I have always been amazed at the size of Asia Cuisine’s menu offerings compared to the size of the restaurant.  There’s barely enough seating for three dozen diners and yet there are 110 items on one side of its menu and five dozen more on the other! And the variety that the small kitchen staff puts out is truly impressive. 

There’s a large variety of Japanese and Korean cuisine with a nod to Chinese. Therefore, despite the name of the establishment, you won’t find Vietnamese, Thai, or Indian fare.  Fortunately, in the greater Ithaca area, that shouldn’t be a problem. 

Many of the items on the menu go by their Asian names, however there are clear descriptions in English. And  the spicy items stand out and are easily identifiable as management has elected to highlight them in bright red. They’re not kidding:  I’ve found spicy items to be very spicy.  Feel free to ask your server to cut back on the heat. Staff here bends over backwards to assure you a pleasant dining experience. 

One of the many things I really like about this place is that they don’t feel they need to pipe in music to enable us to have a pleasant dining experience. 

 With over 160 entrees to work with,  where to start describing the food?

I’ll start with my last lunch there. I had the Sushi Assortment appetizer ($9.95) which consisted of four pieces of nigiri sushi (usually oval shaped rice with raw fish on top similar to sashimi) including tuna, red snapper, salmon, and shrimp. The fish looked fresh and was cold, as it must be.  A minor distraction: the rice the fish was on fell apart in my fingers and between my chopsticks.  It should have been stickier. I assume for Sushi, the chef uses short-grained rice however I thought the rice the chef uses should have had more amylopectin or less amylose. Or perhaps he/she could have mixed in some rice vinegar and sugar to increase the stickiness.  However, this was an excellent dish.

I also had Smoked Salmon Roll ($5.50). I received eight tightly wrapped pieces which included avocado and scallions with raw salmon. Another well prepared dish.

On another occasion I had a totally different dish that was robust and flavorful: Jjam Bong ($18.95). This is a spicy (it was very spicy however the server took it back to the kitchen and returned with a less spicy version) noodle soup with tender mussels out of their shells, shrimp, squid, and lots of vegetables and noodles.  Jjam Bong is the Korean version of bouillabaisse, the robust fisherman’s stew that originated in Marseilles, France, and cioppino, the fish stew made popular in San Francisco in the 1890s after originally being concocted in Genoa, Italy as ciuppin.   Here, the shellfish, fish, and veggies were packed together in a mound in the center of the soup and made into an attractive presentation. I liked it very much. Incidentally, the staff makes the noodles in house daily and they have a slightly better taste than in other restaurants. 

There are no desserts.

Beverages stay with the Asian theme.  There are seven beers ($6:00- 9.95) in bottles. If you like Asian beer you’ll be happy to find the old standbys: Ashai and Sapporo. I’ve also enjoyed a Thai beer, Singha. It’s got kind of a mild hoppy flavor.  You can also find a couple of house Sakes and a few Asian wines.

I’m happy to leave the bells and whistles and piped in music to other establishments because at Asia Cuisine the quality of the food is good, it’s well prepared, attractively presented, and reasonably priced. 

Tid Bits:

There is only one restroom for everyone so you may have to wait.  

There is no onsite parking.

 Asia Cuisine Is located at 126 N Aurora St, Ithaca. (607) 256-8818 Open Mon., Thurs. Fri. 12-8, Sat.,-Sun 12-8:15