Asian
King is located in Mississauga, the municipality bordering Toronto on
the west, at 2425 Truscott Drive in the Park Royal Plaza. It's
relatively close to Clarkson GO station. Mishy and I were actually on
our way to another place when we happened to see a parking lot sign for
this one, so decided to change our plans. We were pleasantly
surprised that Asian King is a meld of Korean grill house, buffet and
sushi bar. It must be rather new as it didn't appear on my map; the
lady running it indicated that either it had only open a couple
months ago, or only expanded a couple of months ago. The grill tables
seemed new. Sadly although a couple of take out customers came in, we
were the only sit-down customers during our entire weekend lunch stay
which was a long one. Unfortunately disposable chopsticks are used
but it was noted that I bring my own. Pop is $1 AYCD and I needn't
tell you how great a deal that is especially during summer; I heard a
can being opened when I asked for a pop, so they are actually serving
AYCD canned pop for $1, which is rather amazing. The soy sauce was
not too salty.
From
the buffet, Mishy loved the lemon chicken and said it was out of this
world but indicated the wakame salad was odd tasting. Mishy didn't
like the grilled beef but I thought it wasn't bad at all. She added
that the kimchi salad was too spicy, but I didn't think it was any
more so than usual. The chicken was quite good and the sauce made it
better. The sauce was also good and is to be found in the yellow
squeeze bottles that mustard is usually made available in.
Sushi
is old-school pre-made and put out for self-service rather than being
made-to-order and brought by wait staff, but it was still fresh.
Avocado rolls were very good. Crab (surimi) sushi was good. Sweet
tofu sushi was very good. California roll (albeit with no tabiko) was
also very good.
Asian
King uses electric grills rather than gas. There are a couple of
advantages to this. First of all, there is little to no risk of
grease fires from fat falling into the flame. Secondly the grill
surface can be solid which prevents food from burning if it's
directly exposed to the flame. The one disadvantage is that food that
isn't flat takes a little longer to cook because there is less hot
air rising from the grill than there would be from a flame. Pineapple
was awesome when grilled, caramelized and sweet. Pork belly bacon was
excellent especially with the sauce. Grilled short ribs (were they
they Kalbi?) were good as well. Grilled fish was fantastic with great
spicing, probably the best of the grill offerings.
From
the buffet, General Tao/Tso chicken was very good, tasty, a little
sweet but no complaints. Roast beef was good and peppercorn gravy
made it so, but unfortunately it was dry, which we found with many of
the offerings on the buffet because there are not enough customer so
things are sitting out for too long. Chicken chow mein was good.
Fried shrimp were good and had a nice plum sauce. Hot and sour soup
was not the best and was a bit tomatoey, so it didn't completely
taste like hot and sour, unfortunately this is becoming a trend with
my recent run of restaurants, however it was still alright.
Unfortunately the miso soup is not miso soup... whatever it is isn't
bad but don't expect miso, though it actually looks like it. Happily
the soups were saved by chicken corn soup which was good and actually
as advertised. Chicken wings were good but again due to low customer
turnover were somewhat dried out. Cheese wontons also would have been
excellent but spent far too long under the heat lamps, as they don't
use steam trays. They were the large triangular cheese wontons with
good cheese filling. Hash browns were good to very good. and were not
dried out. Spring rolls also unfortunately spent too much time under
the lamps, they were to the point of almost going bad. Honey garlic
spare ribs were good, not too dry. White fish was excellent in a nice
sauce, delicately seasoned.
For
dessert, blueberry, lemon, mango, orange and cherry shot-glass
Jell-o's were amazingly good. Mango, strawberry, and vanilla ice
creams were pre-scooped in the freezer into bowls; even though they
were covered with plastic wrap unfortunately they had started to
freezer burn on the surface. The strawberry ice cream has large
pieces of strawberry and was quite good. Apple blossom was delicious
and it would have been nicer if it was heated. Custard squares were
good.
I
liked most of the offerings at Asian King and it's unfortunate that
some of the buffet items were dry only due to a lack of customers.
The miso and hot and sour soup are due for a recipe change, however.
Otherwise, and especially with the BBQ items, Asian King is an
excellent value at only $17.99 for weekend lunch with the $1 AYCD
soft drinks. Mishy and I certainly enjoyed our lunch there and we
hope that Asian King prospers.
Rating: 8/10
