One Best and One Worst Asian Restaurants After 1 Year

article and restaurant opinions by Grant Braswell

I can never seem to eat enough asian food.  Be it Thai, Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, Indian or other, the spices and flavor combinations of the west almost always please my palate.  Sure, a lot of times the food is not as authentic to the region as it could be, but most people who eat ‘ethnic’ foods are getting the americanized version anyway.

So I have tried everything from holes in the wall to fancy spots, uptown to downtown.  Here are some highs and lows:

High – Lilli and Loo on the Upper East Side  This place is fusion because it covers most of the asian cuisines I mentioned above while doing (at least) chinese well.  Some Thai plates looked delicious, and Yelpers talk up their gluten free menu, something rare at asian eateries.

Low – Verlain in the Lower East Side.  Blech.  An Asian fusion Tapas idea, a failure in my book.  Food was obscenely not authentic, as noted in my Yelp review:

AND THE WINNER FOR WORST FUSION DISH OF ALL TIME – THE SHRIMP LOMEIN.

Why? How could one screw up lomein? MAYBE BECAUSE THEY USED SPAGHETTI NOODLES!! the flavor wasn’t even terrible,  though watery. I was just so offended by the noodle choice I barely wanted to pick out the overcooked shrimp.

For other asian reviews on yelp, check out: Bon Chon Chicken (2 stars), Spice (3 stars).  Coming soon: Charlie Mom (Greenwich Village)