Going Pan-Asia at Cafe Asia 2

The story below is from our May/June 2015 issue. For the full story download our FREE iOS app or view our digital edition for FREE today!

Department of Tough Job/Somebody’s Gotta: dining your way across all of the national flavors at the valley’s most eclectic Asian restaurant.

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John Park

Most evenings when I go out to dinner, I crave something specific – fried chicken from Lucky, a Pop’s grilled cheese, a gyro from Zorba’s (which is in Bobbi-Jo’s on Lynchburg Turnpike in Salem, in case you were unaware). These cravings all have one thing in common: a restaurant that excels in promoting its specific, geographically-centric or genre-tight cuisine. 

One restaurant that turns this type of craving and exceptionalism on its head is Café Asia in Bonsack and its daughter-restaurant, Café Asia 2 on Electric Road in South Roanoke.

Specializing in neither Chinese nor Thai, Korean nor Japanese cuisine, Café Asia, opened in 2008 by Feng Chen, proves that offering a little of almost every kind of American-recognized Asian cuisine results in a winning formula. The success of the Bonsack restaurant led to a second location on Electric Road in Roanoke, Café Asia 2, which opened in September 2013 in The Shops at West Village. It’s consistently packed with a queue at the door waiting for a table or a spot at the small sushi bar.

On a recent rainy Friday evening visit, I decided go wild and order a dish representative of almost every country’s cuisine that I could find on the menu. Although there were a few repeats if drinks are factored in – cold house Sake for me (Japanese) and a can of Sapporo (also Japanese) – my date and I attempted to eat our way across Asia, starting in Japan and ending in Thailand.

To start, we ordered a simple, classic Spicy Tuna Roll from the sushi bar. Though not nearly as extravagant as the special rolls Café Asia is known for, what we were served was delicious, if not flashy like the specialty maki, and obviously fresh and prepared with care – exactly what I want from a piece of sushi.

Our second appetizer transported us west, across the Sea of Japan to South Korea for its Spicy Kimchi Seafood Pancake. A savory, fried snack popular in South Korea, kimchijeon is a plate-sized pancake of flour, egg, kimchi, various seafood (in this case, shrimp, crab stick, squid, and scallops), and scallions, griddled in a cast iron pan and served with a soy-based savory dipping sauce. While I’m hesitant to declare the pancake spicy, it was the highlight of our meal, with each blackened, crispy edge packing a charcoal-umami crunch alongside a sweet kick from the seafood medley. 

Jetting from South Korea further west to China, we shared Koung Bao style chicken, a dish originating in the Szechuan Province, but with many regional takes including a muted-down, less chili-laden Americanized one. Café Asia 2’s is fairly standardized to the American palate, though a few dried red peppers dotted the mound of marinated and wok-fried chicken, celery and peanuts. With tender chicken, golden-fried peanuts and a bright sauce, this version is clearly one of the better ones in Roanoke.

Finally, our multi-ethnic Asian dinner landed us south in Thailand with a large plate of Drunken Noodles with shrimp. Though we were flagging at this point (portions are generous at Café Asia 2), the Drunken Noodles were, like the Koung Boa, a solid, well-executed version of a dish many Americans see as traditionally Thai. Though a tad bit on the sweet end of the spectrum, the dish is nonetheless a classic American-Thai dish and one that satisfied my all-too-often cravings for takeout Thai cuisine.

Although our journey across Asia was a little atypical of my dining habits, it was fun to sample a wide array of dishes and cultures at Café Asia 2. The result? A strange mish-mash of disparate dishes that, in the end, exemplified for Café Asia 2 stands for – a pan-Asian experience unparalleled in the Roanoke Valley. There’s something here for everyone and, in this case, it’s a wonderful thing.

Cafe Asia 2 | 3549 Electric Rd, Roanoke, | 540-774-1688; cafeasiava.com

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