My first impression is that the decor was gorgeous. It's got a rustic Asian theme with beautiful wood work and giant paper lanterns. The waitstaff was also dressed in "asian" wear, which for the women were these shirts that were completely held together by ties in the back.
It says on the menu that the food should be ordered family style, so you would think that the portions would be slightly larger. But as we started to order the waitress informed us that the appetizers were pretty small and that we should order 2 of everything. I don't know if that was a sales ploy or not, but it worked. We ordered double orders of the crab dumplings, lobster summer roll, chicken samosa, chicken skewers, and spring rolls. Entree wise we had ordered the seafood laksa, halibut, red snapper, char grilled chicken, strip steak, short ribs, and grilled eggplant. Clearly after a few ginger martinis, we were ordering like there was no tomorrow. I think we ordered so much food they brought us a complimentary shrimp and pineapple dish. I'm not sure what the rub/sauce was on it, but it was a very thick brown spicy sauce, but the shrimp was cooked really well and I actually enjoyed the grilled pineapple.
When our appetizers started coming it was very clear that we went overboard with the ordering. The problem with ordering a bunch of small plates with lots of people at the table is that you don't really get to appreciate or taste the food. I got one or two bites of each dish so it was hard to me to really decide if I liked or didn't like a dish (and the fact that I was on my 3rd drink). I do know that I did like everything I ate. Everything was seasoned well and it definitely had that "asian" twist. Most of the dishes came with very tasty sauces like spicy mayo for the rolls, cilantro yogurt for the samosa, and lime dipping sauce for the chicken skewers. The chicken was cooked to a nice juicy level, none of it was dry which is key. The crab dumplings were also done well but were a bit flat in texture. I thought that the aromatic spice sauce was a bit too smokey and thick and the snow peas were overly cooked and not crunchy. In all honesty, we could have and should have just ended dinner there. I was so full, but then the entrees came out. At this point, I could really barely remember the entrees. There were just too many flavors running around my belly from all the appetizers. I manage to try all of them except for the grill chicken. At that point I just really thought I was going to explode. I think the laksa was a bit thin, but all the fishes were cooked pretty well. The steak was pretty well done but they warned us that was how they would do it in advance.
Shockingly, some people were still up for dessert at the end. Two people ordered the sorbert and it came out in these chinese take-out boxes filled the the brim with sorbet. But they said that it was too hard and we had to practically hold it over the candle to defrost it.
The reason I am not giving it 4 forks is that the prices there are pretty outrageous. I mean they are pretty in line with typical trendy New York restaurants, but I just can never justify prices like these unless the meal truly blows my mind (a la Blue Hill at Stone Barns), which this place didn't. The appetizers ranged in the $12-15 and the entrees were all over $20. I don't think I would go here on my own, but I think it's a great place for client dinners or for out of town guests as it really is a beautiful restaurant. I will say the waitstaff was super attentive. One person at our table had a celery allergy and the waitstaff went in and asked the chef for the ingredients in all the dishes we ordered and made it very clear which dishes had celery or not. I have no idea how much the bill was, I'm just glad I wasn't the one paying!
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