Taste of Asia — Restaurant in Roanoke

I have visited for dine-in many times when I lived in Roanoke several year ago. It has went downhill from previous experiences. When we arrived we were seated immediately with no wait, and I quickly learned why.

Soda was $3.50 for a small bottle with no refills. Not sure why they don't have a fountain machine for a place that has been well established. I opted for the tea that was like pure sugar and had to get some unsweet to balance it out.

We ordered the cream cheese crab rangoons. They were a decent size and we got five for $9.95. They don't serve with the traditional sweet and sour sauce but they likely the only decent part of the meal.

We ordered the California roll for appetizer. The avocado was brown. So either it was made in advance and turned or they knowingly put brown avocado in the sushi. It really had Kroger sushi vibes and not that of a freshly made sushi bar.

We dined in on a Saturday dinner. The menu has egg drop and hot and sour soup listed, but Christine our server said they only make the miso soup on the weekend.

For the main course we ordered General Tso's chicken and orange chicken. The chicken was frozen and clearly not battered there. It was the consistency of the frozen chicken that has more batter than chicken and for sure a Sysco foods special. The orange sauce was very bland and only had subtle hints of citrus. For sure out of a jar and not something made in house. Our server mentioned that it was fried earlier in the day and then heated before being served. The outside was only lukewarm, but the chicken inside was cold. There were three pieces of what seemed like boiled broccoli that were basically raw, but perhaps dipped in something hot before being plated.

We ordered fried rice. We got white rice for one and a dirty brown rice for the other and were told that was what they had left available. The brown rice was just that a dirty brown rice, and nothing like a traditional fried rice.

The dinner portions did not come with a soup or salad option, and we were told that was only available during lunch. $18.00 for some frozen chicken seemed steep to me, but we were committed at that point.

Our server came around and inquired as to how the meal was hoping for a positive response. I flat out told her to be quite honest it absolutely sucked. Christine explained that they had some help in the kitchen that recently came to America and may not quite know the recipes yet. We inquired on the chicken and she said that yes they bread it there in the kitchen with 'the stuff' and then deep fry it. The more questions we asked the less English she spoke and it dwindled down to a big smile and 'uh huh' for the replies.

Oddly enough she pointed to a woman wearing a tight pink dress stating that she was the owner and was in the back cooking that night. It was clear that she was more concerned about visiting with a table in the corner than focusing on the food. So much so that she went to the bar and grabbed a round of shots for everyone including herself. It became clear that her priority was socializing and not providing a dinner service for those outside of the party table. I'm pretty sure that violates her ABC license.

Pictures attached of the food and...

DETAILED REVIEW: Ate here a few nights ago with my boyfriend to check out the new renovation, new additions to the menu, and overall atmosphere. We had eaten here before when it was called Chaba Thai. Back then, the interior/exterior of the building was very bland and did not match the type of cuisine at all. Fast forward to now: When we pulled up to the building, there were so many cars in the parking lot that I thought we'd turned into the wrong one. When it was Chaba Thai, there were hardly ever, if any, cars there. The exterior of the building looks nice. The large sign out front with the name of the restaurant could have been better, as it wasn't very eye-catching. Walking outside, we noticed that the interior has been improved tremendously, with the addition of a lit sushi bar, new tables, chairs, everything. It was very inviting and the perfect setting for a casual date night. I noticed that they had jazz music playing, which was odd for an Asian restuarant. The menu consists of several types of cuisine depending on what you're in the mood for...Thai, Japanese (sushi), and Chinese. The sushi menu alone was the longest I'd ever seen...actuallly, the menu itself was annoyingly long, and it took me and my boyfriend about 10 minutes just to decide what to eat. We ordered the Thai Tea like last time (amazing, btw!) and he ordered 2 kinds of sushi while I ordered the Pranam Long Song just as I did the first time we came. My boyfriend told me that the sushi was good, but not better than Ichiban's. My meal was good, but like last time, the sauce was very watery. Our waitress was peppy, knowledgeable, and offered great service. I would definitely...

Food was honestly great. However, our server ruined it for us. We went there this afternoon (6.24) for my mom’s birthday and had the worst service that I’ve had in Roanoke. The server came up and barely whispered an introduction (maybe? I couldn’t hear) and got our drink order. He came back a few minutes later with our drinks and got our food order, not once smiling or being personable, but did his job. Around that time, another table came in and a female server took it. SHe got their drink orders and food orders and they got all of it before my mom had even gotten her soup... so I know he didn’t put our order in in a timely manner. The restaurant was not even half full at this time, and he had one other table. I saw him on his phone at least 3-4 times throughout our wait. After our food finally came out, he NEVER ONCE checked on us. He came by after we had all finished our food and asked if we wanted more to drink. We all said yes, then he took my mother glass and filled it up. Only. Came back with her glass and asked if we were ready for our check, we said yes and he disappeared into the back for about 10 minutes and finally came back with the check. I had my card ready to pay and tried to hand it right back to him, but he ignored me and walked away.... again to disappear in the back for an extended period of time. It took him an equal amount of time to run the card and bring it back to me.

I was a server at a nice steakhouse during college and even when the restaurant was busy, I never treated any of my tables like this.

The food was honestly great and if you don’t mind terrible service, it has a...