Buffet, seafood highlight offerings at giant Asia City
Walking into Asia City, which opened in February, you realize you're in for a totally different kind of Chinese dining experience. Grand and majestic are words that quickly come to mind — with three enormous flowing waterfalls that greet you at the entrance, along with the golden dragon and other ornate gold sculptures.
Diners enjoy a recent meal at Asia City.
Lon Horwedel | AnnArbor.com
Owner Xingshou Wang is ambitious and optimistic, designing a place that seats between 400 and 500 diners. There are two huge rooms and a spacious area for the buffet that's offered daily. We enjoyed sitting at a large round table with the lazy Susan-like rotating tray in the middle that allowed us to easily share our dishes. Wang's goal is to provide authentic Chinese dining.
What Asia City does best is fish and seafood. There are more than two dozen dishes to choose from, and every type we sampled was incredibly fresh, from the braised grouper fish fillet to the soft shell crab appetizer and the shrimp. But the fish and several other dishes suffered from lack of seasoning. To be fair, we requested that the dishes be prepared mild on our first visit.
RESTAURANT REVIEW
Asia City
2905 Washtenaw Avenue, Ypsilanti
734-829-0999
Asia City in AnnArbor.com restaurant guide
- Hours: Sunday through Thursday, 11 a.m.-10 p.m.; Friday and Saturday, 11 a.m.-11 p.m.
- Plastic: Visa, Mastercard, Discover.
- Liquor: No.
- Prices: Moderate. Many dishes are in the $12 to $15 range.
- Value: Excellent. Portions are huge.
- Noise level: On the loud side when it’s crowded.
- Wheelchair access: Fine.
- Smoking section: No.
The soft-shell crab, highlighted as a spicy dish, had no kick, though it had an appetizing coating. Fried rice with scallops and egg whites was bland, and the scallops were so tiny you couldn’t get even a hint of their flavor. I could barely detect the garlic in the eggplant with garlic sauce — thought the pieces were tender and the eggplant was well cooked. The garlic chicken had the same flaw.
I was told the shrimp with lobster sauce was going to be like a soup, and it, indeed, resembled a watery stew, with tiny pieces of lobster that were hard to taste.
On our next visit, we didn't make any request on the spicing, and the results were marginally better, with the exception of the braised tofu, which was so overcooked it had a gummy texture and no real flavor. The restaurant prepared other dishes well, including those bathed in a rich, syrupy sauce, like the Mongolian beef, tender and flavorful, as well as the sesame and General's Chicken.
The buffet at Asia City offers something for all.
Lon Horwedel | AnnArbor.com
The best deal here — and the place where you're sure to find something you like — is the expansive buffet. There are more than 100 dishes to choose from — well more than I could sample — including sushi, along with an oyster bar, traditional Chinese dishes, a salad bar and several different desserts. Lunch is $7.99 and dinner is $12.99: a real bargain and a great way to sample a range of Chinese cuisine.
Every dish is labeled, so you know what you're getting. Each type of sushi was wonderful and fresh, like the rest of the fish here, as was the raw tuna and salmon. I also enjoyed the vegetable fried rice and the lo mein. Though I indulged in the Americanized cakes and cream puff for dessert, my preference was the just-baked and quite delicious Chinese almond cookies.
Not all the food at Asia City is tasty, but this is a fun place to visit if you're in the mood for Chinese food — and especially if you're dining with a large party.
Julie Halpert reviews restaurants for AnnArbor.com.
Comments
Jack Bryan
Wed, Apr 27, 2011 : 8:35 p.m.
Check out the terrible ratings given to this restaurant by Washtenaw County restaurant inspectors (11 Critical violations and 14 non-critical violations): <a href="http://www.annarbor.com/health/inside-washtenaw-county-public-health-monthly-restaurant-inspections/">http://www.annarbor.com/health/inside-washtenaw-county-public-health-monthly-restaurant-inspections/</a>
tcormie
Thu, Apr 15, 2010 : 12:06 p.m.
What struck me was that we were the only non-asians in the restaurant when we visited last week. We ordered from the Dim Sum menu as it was during the week (weekends they do the whole dim sum cart thing) and it was wonderful, pillowy soft buns, shu mai, a braised beef etc...I cannot comment on the rest of the place but based upon this dim sum experience we will be back. Service was attentive, glasses filled, plates cleared, condiments offered. Thumbs up all the way!!
Ariel
Thu, Apr 15, 2010 : 11:49 a.m.
I've been to Asia City once and went to their restaurant side. The most important thing at a restaurant is their food, and their food was great! They brag that their Chinese food is more authentic, and they're pretty close. I ordered the yu xiang rou si and baby bok choy and the portions were enormous. Between my SO and I, we had to take home the bok choy. The only bad thing I can say is the seats were a bit uncomfortable. I had to either sit up straight or be completely hunched over. Overall, my experience was rather positive.
YpsiLivin
Thu, Apr 15, 2010 : 9:26 a.m.
I've been to Asia City three times and my experiences were all positive. I haven't ordered off of their menu, but opted for the buffet instead. I've sampled several different dishes and have no complaints about either the food or service. I think it's a good deal and a pleasant atmosphere. I'll be interested to see the dining room when it's finished.
Nicole
Thu, Apr 15, 2010 : 9:07 a.m.
I went to Asia City for dinner and had the buffet. I thought it was excellent. The choice and size of the buffet made it well worth $12.99.
seldon
Thu, Apr 15, 2010 : 9:05 a.m.
I bet it was hard to taste the lobster, because Shrimp with Lobster Sauce doesn't have any lobster in it! It's a "lobster sauce" in the sense that it's a sauce traditionally used on lobster. Google the dish, and the first link will tell you that. I agree with Wolverine3660's comments on the buffet. It's really not good. The dim sum is good, though I'd probably go to Great Lake instead. Haven't tried the menu.
Wolverine3660
Thu, Apr 15, 2010 : 7:36 a.m.
I have been to Asia City twice, and both experiences were negative. The food was uniformly bad, cold, tasteless. The first time, we went to the non-buffet section. Throuhg the entire time we were there, our glasses were never filled with water, despite asking a few times. The bowl of rice that came with the meal was cold,and obviously had been sitting around for a while, witha lot of kernels that had dried up and were hard. We ordered braised tofu with veggies, and Ma-Po tofu. The braised tofu dish was salted excessively, and the ma-Po Tofu had neither ma, nor po. I went back the second time, thinking that they would have ironed out the kinks in thei rsystem, would have gotten their waiters and cooks trained etc, but, it was as bad as the first time. Dinersty's Chinese Buffet, which is a pretty non-descript place with barely edible food, is preferable to Asia City, that is how bad Asia City is.