Not that I have anything against fine dining. If income and cholesterol levels would permit I’d happily eat at Le Belle Vie (which I mention because I had a wonderful meal there last weekend) a few times a week. If there’s attention to food, I’ll take the "etc." But my hackles get raised when I find myself in a place where more attention is paid to the look of the dining space than to what’s going on in the kitchen.

That, unfortunately, was my principal reaction to our destination this week, a new pan-Asian restaurant on Eat Street called Azia. The previous, and short-lived, establishment at this 26^th and Nicollet corner was a Chinese restaurant (whose name I forget). You could have guessed it was a Chinese restaurant from that particular red chairs and white tablecloths look. Nothing special about the décor, but authentic food. The only time I ate there most of the clientele was Chinese families. Apparently the place was too authentic to be a viable proposition, even in this diverse neighborhood.

Azia’s décor is certainly more interesting, but I found it jarring and out-of-place. The color coordinated, designer-look space, featuring dark wood and leather and marble flooring evoke a downscale Ciao Bella more than upscale Asian. (The flooring is in poor shape; according to a waiter on my [only] previous visit there they had found the floor under layers of linoleum and decided to retain it.) The interior includes several places for displays of vases, urns, and other objets d’art—the Far East connection is evident in these. An elegant, elevated bar area could be an attractive happy hour destination. It’s also worth checking out the back space behind the dining room that is comprised of the rest rooms with communal Euro-style lavatories and a separate room with a striking Chinese wall decoration/sculpture.

The menu consists of several categories: starters, soups, salads, "Chinatown classics," "Create Your Own Stir Fry," "From the Wok," "Azia’s Nouveau Dishes," "Azia’s Creations," side dishes, and desserts. The "nouveau" dishes include noodle preparations such as pad thai and Singapore noodles as well as three curries: a Vietnamese coconut curry, a cranberry curry, and a Thai red or green curry. Many of the "creations" are quite distinctive. Where else in the Twin Cities would you find steamed chicken with jackfruit sauce or salmon in mango/basil sauce or caramelized pecan shrimp and coconut on vermicelli? For the less adventurous, choices to consider could be five spice lamb stew, sea bass topped with scallion and ginger, wok-finished tenderloin, and grilled tuna—although the Burmese curry paste in the last may not be suitable for most Minnesotan palates.

Many dishes on the menu can be customized. You can order the basic substrate and independently select the protein (or eschew it entirely). In many cases the menu indicates recommended proteins, but in other cases it leaves you open to the possibility of creating not just unlikely dishes but even contradictions in terms—you could order a veggie pho (the traditional Vietnamese beef-based soup), whatever that means.

B and I started by splitting an appetizer. There are several intriguing choices here, including avocado "crisprolls," orange beef tenderloin satay, sushi salmon salad with chips, and pickled ginger root with prawns. B wanted to try the cranberry puffs, of all things, but I decided to be accommodating. These were wontons stuffed with cranberry cream cheese; the combination didn’t really work for me, although the wontons themselves were satisfyingly doughy without being heavy. A hot, sweet, pineapple-infused sauce came with this dish. I liked the presentation, especially the bed of sliced/shredded lettuce, scallions, and coriander on which the wontons were served. Some of the other appetizers, including the crispy tofu, are similarly presented.

With a dinner at Vincent on my mind for that evening, I decided against an entree. Instead I got a small bowl of one of the soups. Choices here included tom yom, wonton, sukiyaki, the aforementioned pho, and "spanker soup" with cranberries, asparagus, vermicelli noodles, and coconut milk. Most of the soups come in a choice of small or large bowls and, as mentioned above, you can get your choice of protein, in this case tofu, chicken, beef, shrimp, squid, or scallops.

My choice was the lemon heart and tamarind soup, identified as Laotian. The base ingredients included okra, spring onions, celery, and tomato. I got it with beef on the waitress’s recommendation. The soup was spicy and tangy, and the okra provided some viscosity to the otherwise light broth. I was disappointed in the beef, which was tender enough but tasteless.

The dessert list includes jackfruit cake, sweet rice with coconut, flan, and several ice cream/gelato/sorbet flavors. We skipped this, though, and I just had an espresso—pricey at $3. It came in an unusual vessel, a small bowl. Our waitress, whose competency we had already become suspicious of, had to first be reminded to bring sugar and, second, that I needed a spoon.

Azia’s drinks menu lists a number of beers, eight or nine each of red and white wines by the glass, several coffee varieties, and over a dozen iced and hot teas—although, to B’s displeasure, these consist entirely of herbal or flavored concoctions; you won’t find a traditional English breakfast, for example. I ordered the lemon ginger iced tea. I liked its subtle ginger hit initially, but when it was refilled it was considerably stronger and the ginger had become overwhelming.

Eat Street is not just any old Restaurant Row; it is distinctive because of the varied, authentic, and interesting ethnic restaurants that line this stretch of Nicollet. You’ll find many good hole-in-the-wall places, but Azia is entirely out of character with the neighborhood. It belongs in a suburb (Eden Prairie, say).

This stretch of Nicollet Avenue is home to a series of ethnic eateries that tend to be authentic but the ones that survive tend to be modest in their outlook. Take the outstanding Taco Morelos next doors: tiny dining area with a low cost no frills operation. Azia has grander ambitions. For a starter it occupies much larger real estate that is divided into three distinct areas: the front, which has an attractive bar surrounded by a smaller dining area; the side room is all dining with at least twenty (if not more) dining tables plus booths; and finally what I dubbed the gold room in the back with yet more tables.

The restaurant offers Pan-Asian cuisine with a Euro flair and ambiance. There are light burgundy colored walls on which are hung (low-key) batik-like tapestry prints. The ceiling is an ornate silver – fake but nice. The silver, though, gets you in the mood for what’s in the rear room: gold! There are gold-damask figurines arranged around the room and you almost feel like you’ve stumbled into a private Asian chapel. The black curtains enhance the somber mood. And to think that you’re just six inches away (with a good drill) from the unpretentious Taco Morelos!

On the menu I counted the cuisine of Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, Mongolia, Singapore, Burma, Laos, Japan, Philippines, Indonesia and of course China. Trying to understand the geographical significance is a bit hard. Obviously Southeast Asia is a given but then why include Mongolia and Japan at the expense of Cambodia? And it’s not just ASEAN countries either. Perhaps over ambition extends to the menu as well, and it’s soon to be expanded to include Cambodia and the two Koreas! There is beer and wine on the menu but I opted for pineapple juice (over indulgence the evening before). The appetizers include the (intriguing) pickled gingerroot with prawns; Malaysian skewers (chicken satay – and will someone explain how these are different from chicken satay from Singapore or Thailand?); fish and chips (this is saved from being European or British by consisting of sushi salmon salad with hand cut chips). A & I shared an order of cranberry puffs that I enjoyed. These came with a spicy dipping sauce and were nicely textured with a subtle cranberry infused taste. There are a number of soups on offer: Thailand tom yom (mushroom and lemon grass in coconut curry), Japanese Sukiyaki (and if you remember the song our readership is older than I imagined), Laos lemon heart and tamarind soup, Pho and soups that are dubbed Azia "Spanker" soup (veggie, tofu, chicken or beef). The rest of the menu is divided into salads (tuna with mixed greens, Hanoi winter salad), noodle dishes (Singapore noodles, Chinese lo mein), curries (Vietnamese coconut curry not to be confused with the Thailand coconut curry), wok dishes (Mongolian steak that possibly fueled the Mongol conquests), Azia’s creations (these are the specialty of the house: steamed chicken with jackfruit sauce, lemongrass monkfish, duck breast with green curry). These are just a few highlights from a very large menu.

For my entrée I choose the sweet potato stew. This is a vegetarian dish consisting of tofu, carrots, mock duck, coconut milk and jackfruit served in a large bowl. The only impression that it made was of being sweet and hot at the same time and which succeeded in dwarfing all other flavors. This dish would work better as an appetizer or soup in a much smaller quantity. I wasn’t able to consume more than a few spoonfuls before becoming sated with its boring taste.

The dining experience was mixed. I liked the appetizer but was less than thrilled with my main dish. In fairness Azia has a huge menu and there is bound to be items on it that are well prepared and more interesting to eat. We didn’t try anything from the dessert menu, though the only interesting item appears to be tamarind ice cream. The bill for our fare, including coffee for A, was $29.00.

The waitpersons are dressed in black (left over material from the black curtains in the back room?) trying for a cool and hip look. Our waitress, although friendly enough, was clueless about the menu; the large menu may be a mitigating factor.

Azia is an interesting restaurant and one wishes it well but its ambition doesn’t square with its locale. One is reminded of the struggling La Nouvelle Paris down the road—whose ambition is nowhere on the scale of Azia—or New Delhi Restaurant and Bar, which hangs on by the skin of its teeth buoyed up by its lunch buffet.

B