Miss Asia (on Diversey)

Let me be the first to welcome Miss Asia to the desperately-in-need-of-dining-options Clark/Diversey/Broadway neighborhood. The wife and I ordered delivery Sunday night and absolutely loved everything we had.

As you can see from the link below, the menu is fairly extensive. Not by ErikM-translated-menu standards, but certainly relative to most other restaurants in the area. In addition to the normal range of Thai options, they also have sub-menus dedicated to multiple other Asian cuisines (thus the name) including: Chinese, Cambodian, Indian, Indonesian, Japanese, Korean, Laotian, Mongolian, Nepalese, Filipino, Singaporean, Malaysian and Vietnamese

We wanted to play it safe and see how they stacked up on the Thai basics. The basil chicken, banana blossom salad and pad Thai we ordered were all done perfectly. They each had a light quality to them which I consider to be something rather unique to quality Thai food. Sustentative yet having a capacity for freshness and purity that makes it taste delicate and airy. Each were some of the better iterations of the dish that we'd had in a long time. The only item that fell short was the Tom Kha, but I think that's because I've grown fond of the version that adds some type of red spice that gives it a tang, rather than just the sweetness of the coconut milk. While our order admittedly borders on the vanilla end of the Thai spectrum, it gave us the faith in the place necessary to branch out and explore and we certainly will do exactly that.

We've definitely got a new standard for Thai in the area. Hopefully others will give it a shot as I don't get the sense that they're incredibly busy, especially since our delivery guy told us that we their first ever delivery!


Miss Asia
434 W Diversey Pkwy
773-248-3999
http://www.missasiacuisine.com/

Interesting. I live in the hood, so I'll have to give it a try.

The menu sort of reminds me of Hi Ricky, which struck me as Pan-Asian with a heavy dose of Thai.

From this week's Dish:

Miss Asia (434 W Diversey Pkwy.; 773-248-3999), a 70-seat BYO in the remodeled Thai Me Up space, has opened, and it may cover more square miles than any Asian restaurant in Chicago. “The main thing is the Thai cuisine,” says Charoen Amornpheerakul, the co-owner. “But we have Cambodian dishes. Indian dishes, Chinese. Mongolian, Japanese, Korean, Indonesian, Malaysian, Nepalese. Also Singapore.” Most of Amornpheerakul’s kitchen staff are Thai, but he brought in chefs that specialized in many of the above countries’ foods to train his staff. “We separate each country,” he says. “We don’t mix together.”

It sounds very interesting. If they are able to rise above the general mediocrity of the neighborhood and execute their dishes at a high level, it could be a winner.

I believe this is the husband of the owner of Sticky Rice.

Jazzfood wrote:I believe this is the husband of the owner of Sticky Rice.

Right you are Mr. Jazzfood. Kritsana Moungkeow, owner of Sticky Rice, told us her husband is co owner of Miss Asia at lunch back in January.

I'm looking forward to giving Miss Asia a go.

Interesting.

It sounds very interesting.

I agree. I'm intrigued by how the menu is organized by country to allow "instant access" to the cuisines of so many different lands. I haven't seen this done. Of the thirteen countries listed, I have never had the food of Cambodia, Laos or Nepal, so the idea of being easily able to create a new-fangled version of "one from column A, one from column B, one from column C" ("I'll have a Cambodian soup, followed by a Filipino appetizer, followed by a Laotian entree, followed by a Chinese dessert") appeals to me. Looking forward to trying it.

I ate there last night. I had the tilapia with tamarind sauce, from the Thai part of the menu. It was nicely presented and very flavorful. I also had thai custard for dessert, and a taste of my friend's mango mochi (ice cream in a dough-like shell), both of which were very good.

The place is definitely a big step up from the Tie Me Up Noodles which used to occupy that location. Since I live 3 blocks away, I'm sure I'll be there regularly. (For $2, they also deliver.)

I ate here last night with my husband and two friends, and we were all pretty satisfied with our meal. We started off with an order of the pan fried chive dumplings from the Thai menu and an order of the lumpia from the Filipino menu. The chive dumplings were every bit as good as the ones I love at Sticky Rice, and the lumpia were tasty little eggrolls with what seemed to be a pork sausage mixture in them. They were served with a sweet sauce. The Filipino member of our party thought they were reasonably good, though smaller than the lumpia he's familiar with.

Entrees--I had the lemongrass chicken (with sticky rice instead of the regular it comes with), husband had the pad num prik pou, both from the Thai menu. The lemongrass chicken is identical to the entree of the same name at Sticky Rice--bright and fresh tasting, and very garlicky. The pad num prik pou was great as well, fresh with a slightly smoky spice to it. Dining companion No. 1 had the lamb hot pot from the Mongolian menu. It was a huge bowl of very lamby broth, vermicelli rice noodles, and assorted vegetables. She really liked it, and from the small taste I had, I was a fan as well. Dining companion No. 2 (the aforementioned Filipino) had the sweet and sour tilapia off the Filipino menu. I thought it was pretty tasty--nicely fried piece of fish with a sweetish tomato sauce that had a moderately spicy bite to it at the end. He liked it, but thought that the sauce was a little heavier than what he's used to.

4 entrees and 2 appetizers came to $50, plus the costs of the BYOB beer and wine (no corkage fee). Service was extremely slow, but very friendly. I think it's more an issue of still being so new, and I'm sure it will work itself out in due time. All in all, we were favorably impressed and all of us plan to return. I'm also pretty excited about finally being able to get delivery of some of my Sticky Rice favorites, since Sticky Rice doesn't deliver that far east.

We got carry outs from Miss Asia the night after they opened, ordering quite a bit of food in order to try a number of things as well as so that we'd have lunch the next day.

We ordered the Tom Yum soup, Panang Curry beef, and Pad See Ewe beef from the Thai menu to try our staples. We also ordered the Lumpia from the Filipino section of the menu as well as the Redang Beef from the Indonesian section.

The soup was good, among the better tom yum broths. The Panang had nice flavor, but was oilier/soupier than others I've had. Pad See Ewe was fine, but nothing special. I was excited to see lumpia on the menu -- when I lived in the Netherlands as a kid, I had a friend whose Mom was Philipino and she made these incredible ones that were slightly sweet (raisins, I think?). Miss Asia's weren't quite as good and didn't have the subtle sweetness, but tasty nonetheless. The Redang beef was interesting, but the beef was a little tough. I can't wait to go back and try some of the other menu items from the lesser known countries. Not often that one sees food from Laos, Cambodia or Nepal on any menu!

Since I didn't yet have a carryout menu to phone in the order, I walked over, ordered and waited. They were a little slow in pulling together the order, given that there were only 2 or 3 tables filled at the time. But I understand they're still getting the hang of things 24-36 hours after opening.

I was a little annoyed, however, that they never mentioned that the credit card machine wasn't working during the entire half hour I waited. I could have used that time to run to an ATM rather than doing so only after my food was ready...

I walked over to Miss Asia and had lunch yesterday. I really enjoyed what I had.

First, they've done a wonderful job with the space. It's much nicer than Tie Me Up was.

I started with the lumpia which was very good. The little rolls were nicely fried, crispy without being greasy. I'm certainly no expert, but the filling was tasty.

For my main course I had the bulgoki. This was really neat. They did the panchan as four little sides on the same plate as the bulgoki. Along with the meat and rice I got some kimchi (nicely fermented but I would have liked more kick), carrots, bean sprouts, and some tofu. The bulgoki was nice and tender and sweet.

So, a major major upgrade from Tie Me Up and a solid option in the neighborhood.