Cafe Asia - first impressions

 Summary: A restaurant with a lot of promise that simply opened before it
 was really ready for prime time.

 We have been watching with much anticipation as Café Asia was designed
 and furnished. Last night we went there for dinner—it was the place's
 second night open. When we arrived, a waiter told us that things were
 very slow; food was taking about a half-hour to arrive at the table.
 Since we were excited to try this new place, and since we weren't
 famished, we agreed to sit.

 The menu features both Vietnamese and Thai dishes, some more fusion-y
 preparations and some choices that seemed Japanese-inspired. The menu is
 not actually that large. We saw another table happily slurping away on
 bowls of noodles that looked yummy, so we were interested in the Pho
 section of the menu.

 With little delay from the waiter, we ordered Vietnamese soft spring
 rolls with tofu (also available with shrimp). For entrees we chose the
 vegetarian pho and the crispy white fish with a panang curry sauce.

 The spring rolls didn't take very long, maybe 5 minutes to arrive. They
 were beautiful, soft white rice paper wrappers with long scallion stalks
 sticking out artfully from one end. While my girlfriend went to wash her
 hands, the waiter who greeted us came over and asked if we had ordered
 'that sauce.' I didn't know what sauce was supposed to come with the
 dish and I hesitated in my reply; the sauce we had received looked like
 a vinegar-y sauce. Regardless, he grabbed the sauce and hurried off to
 the kitchen. After a few minutes, he returned with a different sauce—and
 it was the brownish sauce with peanuts I am used to getting with soft
 spring rolls. The whole dish was great, minty and fresh tasting.

 While we waited for our entrées, we noticed that the next table had some
 of the staff from Thai Cuisine in Bloomfield. They recognized us (not
 many Americans speak Thai—it makes you memorable) and they said that the
 chef was a regular customer of theirs and he had invited them to come
 and try his place. They ordered the crispy spring rolls and those looked
 yummy. Unfortunately, they brought a very small child who was impatient.
 after waiting for quite a while for their entrées, they called it quits
 and took off, promising to return again.

 Our wait began to pile up past 30 minutes and the waiters kept coming to
 the table giving us an amusing play by play of the kitchen. 'One more
 big order and then your turn.' 'OK, after this dish, he starts on your
 food.' 'Only maybe 5 minutes more.' The food did eventually arrive—after
 about 65 minutes from when we sat down.

 First, the fish. Although barely boned, it was perfectly crispy on the
 outside, tender on the inside and went magnificently with the mild
 panang curry. Besides the prevalence of bones, my only issue is that the
 sauce was not strong enough to stand up to the fragrant jasmine rice
 that came with the dish. The rice, however, was tops on its own!

 The pho was a little less successful. The broth was light and had a
 wonderful tang of lemongrass. It was a great restorative broth for a
 cold day. But the broth was stocked with vegetables, noodles and tofu
 skins that required a more assertive flavor. In other words, while the
 broth would have been excellent in a small bowl on its own, in a big
 bowl with celery, carrots, cabbage, tofu and rice noodles, it was
 actually dull. We asked for some sauce to liven it up and the waiter
 brought three containers: chili sauce (which tasted like the omnipresent
 siracha sauce), fish sauce and soy sauce. We tried as best we could to
 season the soup to our liking.

 In return for our patience, the restaurant took 30 percent off of our
 bill (actually it somewhat irked me because the waiter said 30 percent,
 but it was actually something like 28% - if you're gonna do it, do it
 right).

 The waiter that initially greeted us turned out to be the chef's brother
 and as we were leaving he told us that they were Vietnamese, but that
 his brother had been cooking in Thai restaurants for eight years. That
 explains the menu's mix of Thai and Vietnamese food. He also said that
 the chef had so far only trained his assistants to make the appetizers;
 he was still making every entrée order himself. That explained the
 extremely long wait. Finally, he told us that they had not expected so
 much business the first few days and had been planning on using that
 time to train the assistants; I'm not really sure what gave them the
 idea that a new restaurant on Squirrel Hill's main drag would be slow,
 but it does again explain the long wait for food.

 So maybe in a week or two this place will get its service and kitchen
 acts together and consistently turn out interesting food. Of course, my
 opinions are based on a single visit; not the soundest basis for a
 review. Here's hoping!