Asian Star in Yuma 4 Years Later

 Ed (from Yuma) revisits a restaurant in Yuma today. Kirk and Cathy are happily doing something else. 

I feel like it's time for me to start posting about the Chinese/Asian restaurants in town again because things have been changing. In fact, the only local Chinese restaurant that over the years really hasn't changed (well except for higher prices) is a favorite of mine, Yummy Yummy, a Mexicali style Cantonese hole in the wall that is still doing well.

On the other hand, back in 2011 when I first posted about it, Asian Star was a stylish new restaurant with a sophisticated space, SGV type service, and generally good Chinese, Thai, and Japanese food. Since then, however, I heard that they lost their chef and I had two poor meals, so I had not wanted to go back until their latest menu arrived in the mail and piqued my interest. Okay, time to check it out again.

The exterior is unchanged:

The ambience and decor are still pleasant:

I decided to start with lunch specials that all come with your choice of soups. The egg drop is properly eggy:

The hot and sour soup was balanced and flavorful:

The miso soup had little miso flavor, but a lot of little tofu cubes, a few pieces of seaweed, and a nice light broth:

When the Phad Thai lunch special landed in front of me, I was kind of amazed by the weirdly pink tone of the noodles:

Okay, I guess. Mostly sweet and hot. Not a great version of the dish, lacking the complexity and interplay among the various elements of excellent Phad Thai. On the other hand, I was pleased by the sizable amount of tender chicken, shrimps, and fried egg that were hiding under the noodles:

The shrimp and vegetable lunch special looked pretty normal:

There was a nice selection of vegetables, but the mushrooms and carrots seemed undercooked while the shrimp were overcooked and dried out. Not terrible, but overall meh.

Here is a shrimp tempura bento box:

Those two cubes in the middle of the box had a pleasant seafoody flavor and a faux scallop texture. The best part of the lunch.

In the upper right corner was shrimp and vegetable "tempura":

Except for being deep-fried, this has little relationship to real tempura. The vegetables were heavily breaded and a bit greasy. I liked the juiciness of the mushroom and the freshness of the zucchini slice. On the other hand, the thin slices of eggplant and carrot were lost in fried batter. The shrimp had a bit of Panko crunch, but were desiccated and flavorless.

Look at the salad:

The ice cold iceberg lettuce tasted like crunchy cold water. The dressing was mostly pure gloppy goo without much redeeming flavor. For some reason, every time I look at this picture I think about the last time our dog was sick.

Even the rice was disappointing:
Odorless, flavorless, and chalky.

The worst component of the meal, the California roll, actually looked promising:

Pick up a piece, add a touch of wasabi, dip one corner into soy sauce, pop into the mouth, chew, and begin to swallow – and then OMG, the overwhelming taste and odor of foul ammonia throughout the mouth and nose. Yuck!

Yuckyyuckyyuckyaarghghghgh.

Without question, the worst California roll I have ever tasted.

In the worst bento box I have ever been served.

Your results might differ – for your sake, I hope so. But I have no plans to return.

I do not enjoy badmouthing local eateries. However, . . .  

Comments

[caninecologne]

How terrible! :(

There used to be a restaurant in Hillcrest called Pink Noodle (now out of business) that had an actual pink noodle dish. The noodles were dyed pink from beet juice.

[nhbilly]

Pad Thai looks terrible.

[Cathy]

Ok, so the pad Thai is pink, then the county fair 'breading' (along with the obviously purchased breaded shrimp)...then your deliciously descriptive California roll debacle. I'm shuddering; literally.

[Joan Koblas]

I never liked the food at Asian Star at all. Everything was always way too sweet, greasy, and pretty tasteless. It was Americanized Chinese the way Taco Bell is Americanized Mexican food. At least Taco Bell is edible.

[foodhoe]

well, at least the soups were okay... worst looking/sounding bento box I've seen in a while though. I tend to avoid going to restaurants serving Oriental cuisine

[Ed (from Yuma)]

I agree, foodhoe, but Yuma doesn't offer alot of choices. Also, there are several Malaysian Chinese in the area, so some pan Asian cuisine here is OK. Only YummyYummy just does only Chinese and but even the very good Red Rose Thai serves pierogies (don't ask).

You're certainly right, Joan, but early on the place was capable of serving some pretty good stuff. Part of the reason for this post was to warn people.

And yes, Billy, Cathy, and cc, it was pretty godawful overall.

[janfrederick]

Wow, I usually leave your posts extremely jealous. You made me think of the last time MY dog was sick. Wheat grass juice anyone?