Hana Asian Fusion: Delicate, Subtle Flavors

Hana Asian Fusion, in the strip mall (where else?) on the northeast corner of Emerson & Southport, is a simple, elegant space with ultra modern furniture and fixtures and a light atmosphere.  They have a varied menu of sushi, sashimi, and cuisines from all over Asia.  I hate to say that I generally prefer my Asian food to be cheap, inauthentic, and bold-flavored.  Hana is none of these (although the price is just about right, at $$).  I have to admit I was favorably impressed, though.  Everything I had there was tasty, although in a delicate, slightly subtle way (hence the above title).  Service was excellent, and quite fast given that it is not a fast-food Asian restaurant.  We're definitely going back to see if their winning streak continues!  Hai!

Teppanyaki Grill and Buffet: Ordinary Asian, But Done Well.

I went to Teppanyaki Grill & Buffet in the Cherry Tree Shopping Center (a really BIG strip mall) for lunch with about 12 colleagues.  There seem to be two basic forms of Asian buffets- one which feels like it was built in Shanghai in the 1940's and hasn't been updated since, and the other a streamlined-looking modern cafeteria with Asian-style furniture and a few other Far-East decor items.  Teppanyaki is one of the latter, with thick carpet, colorful blue and pink indirect lighting, and drop-spotlights giving it quite a pleasant atmosphere. It's one of those where a waiter or waitress takes your drink order and then you go get your own food, and man was there ever a lot of food: all sorts of Asian dishes as well as a whole steam table of American-style food for the xenophobes who get dragged there by their more adventurous spouses/family/friends.  It even has pepperoni pizzas. I hope I don't sound racist by telling you that our waitress was a teenaged little Asian girl with her hair worn so that a long strand fell on either side of her face, resembling the heroine of every anime film I've ever seen (which ain't many).  Memory was not her superpower, though, because she had to ask me twice what drink I'd ordered and then still brought me sweet tea instead of unsweet.  She was so polite, though, that I didn't have the heart to try to correct her again, and used it as an excuse to enjoy the guilty pleasure that is Sweet Tea....

I was a little disappointed in the more common Asian dishes.  The General Tso's Chicken was sweet and had very little heat to it, and the peppery chicken and shrimp likewise were not very peppery. A notable exception was the hibachi chicken, which was not spicy but had a delicious smoky flavor.  They do, however, have an impressive array of seafood that to me was better than most other Asian buffets.  There was baked fish, fried fish, salmon, cold mussels on the half-shell pre-dabbled with a sweet pepper sauce, steamed mussels on the half-shell, and baby clams on the half-shell, to name but a few.  I'm told they have a Mongolian-style grill to order bar in the back, too, but I didn't see that and had already loaded my plate(s), but I'll have to try that sometime.

UPDATE, 07/14/2014 (Sort of)- Went to the Teppanyaki at 38th/Moller Road, and the food was completely different from the one in Cherry Tree Plaza.  It wasn't bad, really, but everything tasted strange to me, even the staples like General Tso's Chicken-- it was vaguely sweet with almost NO heat, quite unlike the General Tso's  I'm used to, and, sadly, not to my liking.  I'll stick with the Cherry Tree one....  

Great China Buffet: Not Different, but Really Good.

Great China Buffet,  in the strip mall (sigh) on the northeast corner of Madison & Hanna, is not to be confused with Fun China Buffet, or Great Wall Buffet, or China Buffet.  If there is anything individual about Great China Buffet, it was that is is the neatest, cleanest Chinese buffet I've ever been in, with the nicest proprietor I've ever met-- I wander around buffets like an Alzheimer's patient in Grand Central Station until I finally cover every bar, so I can choose only what I want from their humongous cornucopias of goodness, and he twice asked me very nicely if he could help me find something, and since no cops or ambulances arrived to take me back to the home I can only assume he was really trying to be helpful. Almost all of the dishes offered were the standard Chinese fare (with one exception- they had roasted chicken thighs that had been cooked bone-in and then sliced, bone-in. They were very good if you're not squeamish about exposed bone marrow-- the meat charred a little on the outside and tender inside.), but all the dishes I sampled were well-prepared and tasty.  This place and Tokyo Buffet (see previous post) are now my go-to Asian buffets.