Situated on the "food floor" of Ambience
Mall, Asia 7 is sandwiched between Punjab Grill, the place to go for wonderful
Dahi Kababs, and one of my favorite places to eat Fresc Co.
I first visited Asia 7 when it first opened its doors in Ambience Mall. At that time I went for their afternoon lunch buffet and to cut a long story short, I didn't visit the place again, even though I'm at Ambience Mall a few times every month, till last week. Their buffet at the time wasn't bad, it just wasn't anything special.
My views about their food unfortunately still hold true, even though we went for the À la carte menu this time around. Craving some good Asian food, and on having heard positive reviews from fellow foodies, I decided to skip the mains and simply try a few appetizers/starters.
A couple of Dumplings, some Maki, and the experimental
Guang Bing seemed enough for me and wife. The Exotic Vegetable and Chive
Dumplings were well cooked and the filling was fresh, green, and even though it
was hard to figure out the "exotic" vegetables that were included in
it, the three well and equally sized pieces tasted good.
Next up was Maki. A special thanks to Asia 7 for acknowledging my request of giving 4 pieces each of the Tuna and Salmon Maki rather than 8 pieces of any one of those as it is stated on the menu. In terms of taste it was satisfactory, just good enough to subdue my craving for Sushi but not for “Good” sushi. Moreover it lacked the finesse that I've seen in Sushi dishes served elsewhere. I'm double minded about the size as sometimes it seemed fine while at others maybe a slightly larger size would have worked much better.
The Philadelphia Cheese and Mushroom dumplings were nicely shaped and sticky and perfect from the outside. While the filling was okay, it resembled the mushroom in white sauce that gets made at my home, so once again nothing special.
As for the Guang bing, the host warned us that this dish was usually not appreciated by Indians, but being the adventurer I am, I had to try it. What we got was semi-sweet perfectly crispy and cooked buns filled with salad in a sort of a sauce/gravy. Take your Kimchi salad and whip it up in a different sauce if you may. While these tiny "burgers" looked good and tasted fine, the filling left a lot to be desired. I will add that I did like them, so I guess the next Indian who asks about Guang Bing, the host can tell them that they are appreciated by at least one Indian.
Besides the food, the service was courteous and timely so kudos on that, especially considering the restaurant was at almost full capacity.
The damage to the pocket turned out to be roughly Rs. 750,- per head not having taken any drinks (except water) and no mains. Still our tummies were filled up so I can't complain about the quantity either.
Would I visit Asia 7 again? Not in the near future. Twice it has provided me with food that was satisfactory but in the cutthroat world of restaurants where new and old places are trying to be innovative and competitive, Asia 7 sit rather comfortably in the middle and that no longer is sufficient.
