Located at 21659 FL-7 in West Boca, 818 Asian Fusion is a new addition to the family of 818 restaurants, which includes 818 Shanghai and 818 Hot Pot. The concept combines sushi, Korean, and dim sum offerings, with dim sum made at 818 Shanghai. Ownership is fully Chinese, but the menu leans heavily into an Americanized approach.

Rachel and I visited for lunch, keeping our focus on the dim sum since we planned to visit 818 Shanghai the next day for their main dishes. While the dim sum menu features around 20 items, only about a dozen are currently available. We ordered Siu Mai, Noh Ma Gai (chicken sticky rice), and Fried Mandoo from the Korean appetizer section. • Siu Mai: A completely pork version that was large but tasted bland. It wasn’t bad, but it definitely needed chili oil or hot mustard to elevate it. • Sticky Chicken Rice: Comforting and cooked well, but, like the Siu Mai, it lacked seasoning. • Mandoo: These were a miss. As gyoza, they were decent—homemade with pork, glass noodles, and cabbage—but calling them mandoo is a stretch. They lacked any Korean elements like kimchi, garlic, or chile, which are essential to authentic mandoo.

We also sampled some kimchi and banchan. Unfortunately, the kimchi wasn’t fermented enough, leaving it underdeveloped, though it did have some heat from gochu flakes. The white radish kimchi was flavorless, and the fish cake and seaweed salad tasted store-bought.

Our server, a friendly second- or third-generation Chinese American, mentioned that the restaurant tones down its flavors to cater to a primarily American audience. We even had to request chili oil for the dumplings.

I briefly looked over the sushi menu, but it seemed to offer the standard fare, with items like “white tuna” (escolar) featured prominently—an immediate turnoff for me.

The restaurant itself is modern and attractive, located in a busy plaza. While it will likely do well with the local crowd, the higher prices compared to Broward and the toned-down flavors make it less appealing for those seeking bold, authentic tastes. I’m hoping 818 Shanghai takes a more serious approach to its Cantonese and dim sum offerings.