Jing Aspen — Restaurant in Aspen

Update: 6/19/2018 Asie has closed. The property has been replaced by a restaurant called Jing. The menu is smaller, more expensive, but has some reminders of Asie.

Update: 8/12/2017 Had a great meal at Asie again this year. Sat at the bar and Kiki was the bartender. Great conversation while I enjoyed my Colorado roll and nice bowl of miso soup.

Old review...

My meal at Asie was amazing.

My appetizer was the tenderloin skewers, which featured six substantial pieces of marinated triangles of top notch beef, each on its own skewer. They were accompanied with a sweet/spicy Thai sauce and a satay peanut sauce. The beef was medium rare, perfectly cooked. The satay sauce was just right.

The miso soup was way better than the restaurants that are getting their miso soup from a package. For a while I was wondering if the homemade miso soup I was doing at home was wrong, but Asie showed me what an authentic miso soup should taste like, sweeter, kinder, just like mine!

My main course was the Colorado Roll. The complexity of flavors, temperatures, and textures were amazing. Nothing was overstated, all were complimentary. The Colorado Roll is a good reason for me to visit Aspen again next summer.

Staff was friendly, professional, helpful, and attentive. In snooty Aspen, they were a refreshing contrast, down to earth, and genuinely interested that they were providing me a wonderful dining experience. The path to the men's room passes by the loud kitchen, so I had the honor to shout my compliments to the...

Unfortunately the service was not great here and they try to take advantage of people. We sat down around noon on a weekday and were handed a dinner menu from our waiter. I asked for the lunch menu and the waiter was apprehensive to admit that they even had one, and then left and took a very long time to bring the lunch menu over for us to look at. It was not busy at this time and there was only one other couple seated in the restaurant. Just want to warn anyone planning to come here for lunch that there is in fact a lunch menu and you'll probably need to ask for one if you want to view it. It feels like they're trying to take advantage of tourists to only give out the dinner menu and they thought we hadn't been there before and that put me off. Not only that but also the attitude the waiter had when asked about the menu. I also saw another review with a similar experience so that's upsetting. The food was alright and the menu is unique with sushi, dim sum and more. We also had the oysters which were good. Overall my choice in rating is mostly determined by the service and the attitude of our waiter. The food isn't really anything to rave about it's just good/fresh sushi which I would expect from...

Our experience at Jing Aspen was a mixed bag. Unfortunately, our evening began on a sour note with a less-than-friendly greeting from the receptionist. There was no smile, which set an awkward tone right from the start. Despite the restaurant being only a third full, we waited about 15 minutes before we had to flag down a server ourselves. It made us wonder if this was due to having kids with us or simply a lack of attentiveness.

However, the food largely redeemed our visit. The fish was fantastic—fresh and straightforward, especially the nigiri, which didn’t need any extra flavors to impress. The soup dumpling was a highlight, as was the crispy rice with spicy tuna. For those who, like me, are not fans of Nobu, I can confidently say Jing Aspen's offerings are superior in comparison.

On the downside, the pork dumplings didn’t quite meet the mark. They were disappointing and lacked the flavor we were hoping for.

Overall, while there were some service issues, the quality of the food, particularly the seafood, stood out and made the experience worthwhile. There’s definite room for improvement, especially in the service department, but Jing Aspen shows promise with its...