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| - It's a minor miracle that a Hong Kong western style restaurant, or cha chaan teng, as Asian Fusion Bistro calls itself in Chinese (99????would open here in Tempe, joining venerable favorites like Asian Cafe Express ??? and Max Asia ???, but that's a testimony to the strength of our growing local restaurant scene. We've eaten here three times in the last two days, been favorably impressed by the whimsical decor, the spacious seating, generous portions of food and drink, and the friendly attentive service.
The menu could use some editing, as we're still discovering where the restaurant shines. The milk tea is authentic as is the ??, yuanyang, a unique Hong Kong mix of coffee and tea served with milk and sugar. Unusual starters like the spicy salt and pepper chicken cartilage (?????) and the beef pancake roll (?????, a northern style dish, were delicious. Baked rice dishes like the Portuguese chicken rice (by way of Macau, the Las Vegas of East Asia) as well as the chow fun/chow mein dishes tend to please, although the Singapore rice noodles could have been a bit drier and used more curry. The noodle soups, like the satay beef noodle soup, while big on wonton noodles instead of the instant noodles usually served in this staple dish, could use a bolder hit of satay beef flavor, and the shrimp wonton could benefit with a bit less pork and more shrimp. There is a surprising Sichuan menu, perhaps a nod to the increasingly mainland Chinese student population unfamiliar with Hong Kong style cuisine, but one item on there, the house special beef steak, #108, will have to await future reviews, as with the dessert menu.
On the whole we would continue to come back just for the baked rice dishes and noodle dishes alone, but hope for the continuous improvement of the menu. 3.5 stars. Recommended.
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