Sai Fine Asian Bistro

A couple weeks ago, I got invited out to try Chef Eddy T's new restaurant in Colleyville, Sai Fine Asian Bistro. Chef Eddy has had several restaurants open and close in the past few years... this is his latest venture. From the pictures of the food I've seen online, I had high hopes for this place. It really looks and sounds delicious. And it's an hour and 15 minute drive for us from Rockwall, so I'm really hoping for a great dinner.

Sai Fine Asian Bistro
5005 Colleyville Blvd. Suite 240
Colleyville, TX 76034
(682) 325-4050
http://sai-restaurant.com
Price: $$$-$$$$

I made it a date night with my husband. We went on a Sunday night (during Memorial Day weekend). The restaurant is tucked in the back of an unassuming center. Not really even a strip mall... it was definitely hard to see from the road. Walking in, there's a lot of Asian style decor. The restaurant has a main dining room and a separate section with the bar, which was not open at the time. We waited at the front for quite a while. Looked like they didn't have a host/hostess that night, so I just stood at the archway to the dining room in hopes that one of the waiters will see me. Finally the waitress saw me and came to greet us. She knew immediately I was there by invitation and sat us at a table right under the light. Thanks! That'll really help with the photos as the rest of the dining room was really dim. There seemed to be only 1 waitress and 1 waiter working, and there were only a few tables dining. It IS a holiday weekend so it wasn't too unusual for the sparse dining room. The waitress was super nice... gave us the menus and went to go check with the Chef on how our dinner was going to proceed. The Chef basically said we can order whatever we wanted on the menu.

The menu items all looked so good. Our server was the waiter, Grant. He was also super nice and accommodating. After asking some questions, we got some appetizers to start. I still couldn't decide from the entrees. haha.

Braised Pork Belly (Chef Eddy's signature braised pork belly with pickled daikon and pickled mustard greens) $8.88~ 

This was one of the recommended dishes. It smelled great. And I loved the flavors. It actually brought back childhood memories of eating roast pork in Taiwan. That's pretty legit imo. I also really enjoyed the combination of the pickled mustard greens and daikon to help contrast the fattiness of the pork. I really wanted a bowl of rice with this. hehe. Chinese roast pork is like one of my all time favorite things. The only complaint is that the sections of the pork that's not next to the fatty part was a bit dry. But I just made sure I had a little bit of fat with every bite of lean meat and it was fine.

Fried Brussels Sprouts (golden crisp Brussels sprouts served with chili plum sauce and crispy shallot) $7.88~ 

Just like pork belly, if I ever see Brussels sprouts on the menu, I have to order it. The sprouts were charred nicely! I thought it was too sweet though... that plum sauce overwhelmed all other flavors. My husband, on the other hand, thought it was great. He tends to eat a lot sweeter than I do.

We decided to add in a salad. I wanted more veggies. Miso Caesar Salad (romaine hearts with crostini and Parmigiano-Reggiano; served with Chef Eddy's famous miso caesar dressing) $8.88~ 

The miso addition to the dressing sounded so interesting. We both enjoyed it. The miso added an umami flavor to a standard caesar. I felt it was dressed just the right amount. I hate it when restaurants drown the salad in dressing.

For the entrees... I really couldn't decide... I wanted everything. So I ordered 2 from each section, "From the Street" and "Only at Sai". Our table was too small.... XD

Peking Duck Fried Rice (fried jasmine rice with pulled duck, onions, cherry tomatoes, eggs, soy sauce, scallions) $17.88~ This was also a recommended dish. The presentation was very nice in the Chinese style clay pot. The duck was tender and moist. It was a yummy dish.

Curry Laksa Noodles (Malaysian curry with egg noodles, baby bok choy, crispy shallot, red onions, bean sprouts, smoked chili, coconut milk) $14.88~ 

Served with chicken or tofu. I literally wanted everything with curry in it. I love any curries made with coconut milk. This was definitely one of my favorites of the night. The presentation was cool with the tower of crispy noodles on top. The curry was amazing. So much flavor, with a slight heat to it. It was rich, full of spicy, and comforting. I would order this again in a heart beat!

Massaman Short Rib (48 hour braised certified angus beef short ribs in Massaman curry with coconut milk, onions, cherry tomatoes, roasted peanuts, bell peppers, and sweet potatoes) $29.88~ 

I had my eye on this dish ever since their grand opening. It just sounds amazing. TOTALLY LOVED IT. The short rib was not fork tender but was still super tender when you put it in your mouth. Which I'm ok with... I don't want mushy meat! The curry was a different flavor than the noodles so that was a nice variety. This one was not spicy at all. At first bite, it wasn't as bold as the Laksa noodles, but as I ate more, I think I liked this sauce better... it was milder but was so well rounded. It comes with white rice which pairs great. We pretty much finished all the meat, but still asked for the rest of the sauce to go. I made fried rice with it later and it was bomb! Highly recommend!

Salmon Miso Truffle (grilled salmon with butternut squash, brussels sprouts, wild mushroom, in a miso truffle cream sauce) $27.88~ 

Initially we wanted the Five Spice Duck but it was unavailable that night. So we opted for the salmon since it was also a recommended item. Loved the presentation. That crispy skin on top was a great garnish. The fish was cooked well and I liked all the elements in it. However, it tasted a little too salty for me for some reason. I think the miso cream sauce overpowered all the vegetables. But my husband didn't think it was too salty. He gobbled up the entire dish!

We were too full to order dessert. I was a little sad, but I really could not have eaten another bite. Plus we have a longgg way home so we didn't want to be in a serious food coma. We ended up taking quite a bit of the entrees to go. They all reheated nicely so we had some good meals later too.

The Chef came out to meet us after the dinner. I told him I loved all the different Asian flavors. He definitely knows the Asian flavor profile well. It's very rare where something I eat brings me childhood memories. It was a great dinner. I can totally vouch for the food. The service was great too. Grant and the waitress were really busy since it was only the 2 of them but I think they handled everything well and always had a smile on their faces. I hope this place sticks around....but maybe they should move a little closer to us. haha. 75 min drive is a bit too far for any meal... I'm not really sure why Chef Eddy's previous ventures didn't pan out, because he makes some great food. Thanks so much for having us!!


*The meal was comped but all opinions are my own.*

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Birthday - Part I @ Fuse!

**Update 12.28.10**
Fuse is now closed.
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My birthday weekend was a blast!! I got to see so many of my awesome friends and try new restaurants with lots of yummy food! We started off on Friday night at Fuse for dinner. www.fusedallas.com I’ve been wanting to check out Fuse for a really long time so it was a great opportunity to go for my birthday. I’ve heard about their pool side lounge area so that sounded like something cool to check out after dinner and maybe get some drinks.
With no further ado, on to the food! There’s LOTS of it!! :D

For starters, we ordered the Spicy Fuse Popcorn (clarified butter, arbol chiles, parmesan). $4~ We’ve read reviews online that rave about this so we had to try it. It was definitely interesting. Big bursts of flavor with the parmesan, sometimes was a little overwhelming and salty. I liked it…but at the end of the day…it’s still just popcorn… It was definitely not as ‘AWESOME’ as some of the reviews have said, but if you love popcorn…this might be your thing.

A friend of mine also ordered the appetizer Braised Brisket Potstickers (Anaheim chiles and citrus dipping sauce). $8~ First of all, for $8 to get 5 potstickers, I expect it to deliver. I enjoyed the crispiness on the outside, sometimes certain places don’t make them crispy enough. However, the filling inside was really dry. :/ You would think that ‘braised’ brisket would mean that is so tender that it melts in your mouth… I have a feeling that by having the outershell so crispy, they’ve over cooked the filling. I would skip this and try another appetizer there.

Time for the entrees!!! There were so many choices that I wanted to try. Luckily, there were plenty of friends there to order different things so I could try them all! MUAHAHA~ :P

I ordered the Nori Roasted Chicken (plantain-bacon hash, curry creamed summer spinach). $15~

I saw plantains and spinach and I was sold! But…my excitement was short lived. The chicken was quite tender and had good flavor, but the plantains were slightly undercooked and dry. Despite the plantains, I still enjoyed the dish. The chicken was cooked nicely and the sauce and spinach complemented it very well.

Next is the Wasabi Crispy Chicken (wasabi pea crust, buttery mashers, jalapeno gravy). $14~

This was my other choice as my entrée. I liked this dish a lot. It was an interesting twist on the southern classic of chicken fried chicken and potatoes. It had nice burst of pepper in every bite. I love pepper! Can’t get enough of it! And you can never go wrong with fried chicken and mashed potatoes. The jalapeno peppers on top of the chicken added some serious heat! YUMM! I ended up swapping my dish to eat more of this one. Hehe.

My absolute favorite dish of the night was the Tenderloin of Beef (potato puree, Japanese eggplant, and chipotle butter). $27~

The beef was perfectly cooked…sooooo tender and juicy. The potato was silky smooth and paired wonderfully with the beef. This wasn’t my dish so I didn’t get to try all the elements, but I’m not a fan of eggplant so it was ok that I skipped over that.

I got to have one bite of the Miso Lobster (parmesan risotto, texas sweet corn, white miso broth). $32~ I’m not a fan of lobster…I know, I know…I’m weird like that… I love lobster sashimi, but cooked lobster doesn’t do much for me. The lobster was cooked nicely and had a good texture to it, but I thought it was a little bland. I didn’t get to try it with the risotto, so maybe that would’ve added some extra flavor.

This is the Laksa Salmon (shrimp broth, cilantro, laksa leaves, vermicelli noodles). $16~ The salmon was nicely cooked and the dish had lots of great colors. My friend finished it all, so I’m assuming it was pretty good, but he said that it wasn’t enough food and was still hungry afterwards.

My friend got the Hibachi Chicken Pad Thai (snow peas, cashews, cilantro). $12~

She was very very disappointed with the dish. She said the noodles were really dry and just overall not good. She said to rate this dish half a cookie just because she was hungry and forced it down…otherwise she said it deserves zero cookies.

I didn’t get to try any of the sushi, but to me they were not up to standards. The quality and look of the rolls were already not up to par. I have pretty high standards when it comes to sushi. I think the way sushi is assembled is almost as important as the freshness and taste. As you can see, most of these rolls look messy and lopsided. And I didn’t have to try it to know it wasn’t that great. My friend rated it 2.5-3 cookies which is below average.

Ahi Tuna Roll, Fuse Roll (snow crab, salmon, asparagus and carrot wrapped in cucumber) $11~, Downtown Roll (tempura yellowtail with cream cheese and roasted jalapenos) $13~, Spider Roll (crispy soft shell crab with cucumber, avocado and ponzu) $12~.

Overall, I think the food at Fuse is hit or miss. There are definitely some great dishes and some that are not good at all. So hopefully I’ve been able to give some insight into what to get if you ever decide to check out Fuse.

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Oh yea, if you’ve noticed…I did not order dessert this time. That’s because we brought our own cake… Red velvet cake from Kroger for $12.99…totally awesome! Super moist and delicious and enough to feed 12-16 people!! :D




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