Taste of Asia — Restaurant in Burleson

I write this after tasting the straw that broke the camel's back. I most always give restaurants at least a few tries before I form my opinions. This WAS the case with Taste of Asia.

The good: The soups are pretty awesome. The Won Ton soup had large chucks and was much more than chicken broth with chives in it. The speed of delivery is absolutely supersonic. They always beat their projected times. And just to be fair, I'll put the prices in this column. The prices are average, but I will put it here.

The bad: Taste of Asia has two different flavors to their entrees: bland and bad. Sesame chicken is a standard favorite, quite possibly the easiest dish to prepare and even when you mess it up... Make it sweeter and bam! No longer is it bad. Taste of Asia's way: nope. Ok, maybe that dish was just done wrong that night (it wasn't I tried it again). I think I will try the General Tso's it should be bursting with flavor and it was denoted as "spicy" on the menu. General No. BLAND. And it was about as spicy as ketchup. "Honey glazed chicken with spicy sweet sly ginger sauce". There was chicken in the dish, but the rest is a lie except for "sly". A couple more dishes were tried after that, some stuff I had never had. So, I thought that it was just my unfamiliarity with the meals. One that got my attention in a positive light was the Cream Pecan Prawn. Then came the worst of all. The Mongolian Beef was so bad, I now believe that the Great Wall was built to keep that dish out. Too salty, the onions were WELL past properly sautéed, and I truly feel like I got the gunk from the bottom of the pan that got burned and sat there all day. Absolutely NOTHING about the sauce was sweet or garlicky. It was a terrible failure and not only was it the reason for me to finally write this review (and bump a whole two stars off the rating), but I had to stop eating it. I choked down the UNINSPIRED and SAD Age Dashi Tofu, and I couldn't take more than three bites of the Mongolian. Oh, and you could probably find better sushi and rolls at a strip club buffet.

The ugly: The Seaweed Salad was DRENCHED in soy sauce and the portion was insulting. I've never heard of an Asian Cuisine restaurant messing up Fried Rice, but I now know it is possible. And, every time I ordered sushi, it was always thrown in with the hot dishes. Nothing like warm sushi!

Basically, I think it's really about the recipe or the chefs (cooks). I don't know for sure. I do know that something is WAY off. Honestly, I don't understand how this place ran off the other Asian restaurant. I will go as far as saying that its location is THE ONLY thing this place has going for it. I can add one thing to the positive column: They can...

So, after years of avoiding this place, I decided to give it another go. I added one star, because the sushi is pretty ok, and this time the driver didn’t put it in the same bag as the hot stuff. I need to try HEB sushi though, then I could save a few bucks.

Now that the good stuff is done: First, it seems that my former review was deleted. I don’t believe I said anything bad that wasn’t a opinion based on my experience at that time. Second, the prepared food is still inedible. The soba was way too salty and was just not a good flavor, the sesame chicken was bland and somehow the chicken was mushy and stringy at the same time, egg rolls were totally soggy, and unbelievably still the rice is basically a paste. How can you not get rice right?! Seriously! Third, the driver this time (while being better than the last ones) was kind of rude. My change was $6, and I wanted to tip $4. He asked me if I needed change (you should assume change first), and when I said yes he not only made a rude noise but handed me a five and a one. He then started to sort of turn around like I offended him. I asked him if I could get some ones. He huffed and went to his change and got out the correct bills. After all this attitude, I had to ask him if he was alright and if I was doing anything out of the ordinary. He replied what basically amounted to “yeah yeah whatever” and started to walk away without a tip. I had to firmly give him a tip (I have both served and drove, so no tip is only reserved for basically Satan himself), and even then it kinda felt like I had wasted his whole day. Mind you, this whole transaction was less than 5 minutes and I’m being generous.

In summary, I might order sushi from here. “Might,” being a very loose word. Other than that, I don’t know how anyone could stomach the garbage that comes out of this place. Truly a punishment for people who...

I'm still trying to process the shocking experience I had at Taste of Asia in Burleson. I ordered a noodle dish, but what I got was a plate of noodles contaminated with styrofoam shavings. Yes, you read that right - styrofoam shavings! It was blatantly obvious, and I'm shocked and dumbfounded that the kitchen staff could have overlooked such a glaring mistake.

To make matters worse, the chicken in my dish tasted freezer burned, which suggests a lack of attention to food quality and handling. I'm extremely disappointed and appalled by the lack of care and attention to detail in the kitchen. As a customer, I expect a certain level of quality and safety in the food I'm served, and Taste of Asia fell woefully short of those expectations.

I'm not sure how a restaurant can be so careless and reckless with their food preparation, but it's clear that Taste of Asia needs to take a hard look at their kitchen procedures and quality control measures. Until then, I would not recommend this restaurant to anyone. The risk of food contamination and poor quality is just too great. Needless to say, I will not be returning to Taste of Asia...