Far East Feast: New Japanese restaurant in Orem is great
The Twilight Roll at Asahi Japanese Restaurant & Sushi Bar in Orem Monday, July 23, 2012. MARK JOHNSTON/Daily Herald
The Twilight Roll at Asahi Japanese Restaurant & Sushi Bar in Orem Monday, July 23, 2012. MARK JOHNSTON/Daily Herald
Asahi Japanese Restaurant & Sushi Bar in Orem Monday, July 23, 2012. MARK JOHNSTON/Daily Herald
Asahi Japanese Restaurant & Sushi Bar opened in Orem on Jan. 2. We’re not sure why it took us more than six months to make our initial visit — but what we are sure of is that it shouldn’t take that long to make a return trip.
We had a good feeling about Asahi, located at 1470 N. State St. in Orem, right from the outset. The dining room is situated one blind corner away from the entrance and set an immediate tone with its contemporary vibe featuring mostly bare walls — painted in dark red, green and yellow colors — and comfy dining arrangements. New age Japanese music played over the speakers throughout our visit, lending itself nicely to the atmosphere.
The dining room was a mixture of booths and tables, the majority fitting four comfortably. There were a couple of six-seat tables, a cozy two-seater, and a 10-seat sushi bar. We visited late on a Thursday evening and traffic inside was slow, but we could imagine the place doing brisk business during the lunch and dinner rushes.
Our party of four was seated in a booth and we began perusing the menu, seeing many things we wanted to try before paring our options down to a more realistic rate of sampling vs. potential completion of the contents. Our server was both patient and helpful in answering our menu queries, which were not a few.
We started things off with an appetizer of gyoza, a form of pork dumplings. We received five on the plate, so we each took one, dipping it in the accompanying sauce before indulging. It was tender and delicious. So much so that the only person who ended up with a second portion was our 5-year-old, who eagerly snatched up the one remaining dumpling. We could tell by the smile on his face that he liked it as much as the rest of us.
Admittedly, we are not big fans of sushi, but as the famous saying goes, when in Asahi, one must dine as the Asahians — or something like that. We consulted with our server for some of the best options according to our taste and she suggested the Shrimp Tempura sushi roll, which she said was one of the favorites of restaurant patrons.
It turned out to be an excellent suggestion. This roll contained rice, avocado and shrimp in a thin outer wrap of seaweed. We definitely enjoyed this, and found it especially good with a slight dip in the sauce that accompanied our Tonkatsu. Of course, it’s not hard to imagine anything tasting better with the addition of Tonkatsu sauce.
Speaking of the Tonkatsu, this was our absolute favorite serving of our various samplings. The Tonkatsu, or breaded strips of pork loin, were served on a bed of sauteed vegetables and accompanied with a mound of rice. The vegetables contained zucchini, onions, carrots, red peppers and mushrooms.
It was a bit of a trick getting a piece of pork, some vegetables, a bit of rice and dipping sauce all in one forkful, but when the feat was accomplished it was always a delicious fusion of taste. The portion was especially large — as were the other entrees — and even without the gyoza and sushi, we think it was more than one person could typically finish. In other words, come hungry!
Another extremely pleasant surprise was the house salad. If given the option between the miso soup, which was average, and the house salad, we suggest the latter. At many restaurants, house salad seems to be code for a lot of lettuce largely bereft of the accompaniment of other ingredients. At Asahi, however, the house salad is clearly not an afterthought. It contained an Asian Spring Mix of greens and was piled with sliced tomatoes, sliced cucumbers, shredded carrots and mandarin oranges, and topped with a tasty honey sesame dressing. It was most excellent.
We also sampled the Chicken Yakisoba, which included chicken mixed with shredded cabbage, carrots, onions, sprouts and Japanese noodles. It seemed to feature a strong taste of ginger — a bit strong to our liking — but fans of that would probably enjoy this dish more.
For dessert we tried Xangos, which features a banana cheesecake-like filling deep-fried in a sugar-cinnamon pastry shell. It came with a scoop of vanilla ice cream with everything drizzled in chocolate and caramel. It goes without saying that we highly recommend it for those who have saved any sort of room after dinner — which is certainly no guarantee.
Asahi Japanese Restaurant & Sushi Bar
Where: 1470 N. State St., Orem
Hours: 11 a.m. to 10 p.m Monday through Saturday, 3 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Sunday
Prices: $3-$14.99
Info: (801) 221-4759