Asian Café — Restaurant in Winslow

We encountered some negatives and positives (At least 2 of the stars come from the fact that we felt welcomed, appreciated and valued, the other 2 came from the quality of the food and the reasonable price). Here goes....

Attitudes were just wonderful. we felt welcomed, and appreciated. The atmosphere was kind of neat... somewhere between a truck stop and a 1980's Chinese restaurant.

Once sat, no one really came to table until I sought someone out. The ordering was very confusing. There were table tents all over the place telling us to "scan code" and order from table. This apparently was discontinued (So hide those table tents!)

Alcohol availability is unnecessarily poor. For beer, IPA is a "must" but there were none. They were out of every red wine except the LEAST popular (Merlot). There was a full bar on display but waitress said, "We don't really serve mixed drinks right now."

All in all, it was like a new restaurant that opened a week ago that was trying to iron out the bugs. There was very little evidence that the people running the show had any meaningful experience in food service, yet they've been here for 30+ years and have even opened a new restaurant in Augusta.

But the food, honestly, was decent and a GREAT value. I paid $14.95 for a HUGE Pad Thai with 6 nice sized 16/20 shrimp. Pad Thai was mediocre, but really no complaints. They have a very run of the mill selection of Sushi, but it was quite edible.

They do advertise themselves as "fast casual" which I guess is a new hybrid bourne from the ashes of COVID that minimizes the need for labor.

I want to end by saying it's still our favorite Asian place in the area. The people are just so nice. They really act as if they want you there which honestly, the older I get, the more I appreciate just being appreciated and not have someone act like they're annoyed with us. And again, the value is really good. You get $1.25 or more in value for every dollar you spend. Service is friendly, but could stand some serious improvement. LITERALLY 30 minutes passed from the the time the first person was served until the last. Two people were done and plates cleared by the time the last person was served. This seems to be "normal" with Asian restaurants, and I'm...

I moved to Benton, ME area from near Houston, TX in September 2021. After trying a few Asian restaurants in Bangor, Searsport, and Waterville, I had given up on finding good Asian food in Maine. If I wanted excellent Chinese food, Thai food, et. al.; I was going to have to learn to make it myself.

It was a long day at work, and I was looking for something easy for dinner last night (Christmas week). After consulting google; like the troglodyte I am, I found myself at Asian Café in Winslow, ME. Winslow is a very small town, and not somewhere one would expect to find outstanding food; especially of an ethnic variety.

Asian Café is an outlier in Central Maine. The food was actually good. Really good, in fact. It would qualify as good in a city of 7 million people; like Houston. I have no idea how it ended up in Winslow, ME; but I'm seriously thankful they're here.

The staff is nice, and I inferred that the owner treats them well since they were closing early last night for their Christmas party. One of the employees gave me someone else's order; and I didn't figure it out until I got home. I called them, told them what happened, and drove back to pick up the correct bag. These things happen. It wasn't on purpose, and it was partially my fault for not double checking before I walked out the door. The person who's order I got had ordered some things I never would have - some sort of lemongrass chicken, orange chicken, and some sort of soup.

They told me to keep the other order, so I figured I would try the lemongrass chicken dish before I threw it out. Unbelievable, but it was excellent. Spicy on the back end, lemon on the back end, but a very good base flavor. I'd guess this is as good as a dish like this; anything lemongrass - which I normally hate; can be made. Well done, guys. The rest of the food was very good as well: chicken pad thai, orange chicken (not overwhelmingly orange-y), sesame chicken. Fried potstickers are excellent. ...

I’m in Maine this weekend and we decided to order our lunch from here last night. We ordered two sushi rolls, crab rangoon, 2 bubble teas, and some dumplings. While the crab rangoon and dumplings were good, the sushi I had was absolutely awful. It tasted like it came straight out of a freezer and was put into a microwave. Maybe it was, either way, I definitely DO NOT recommend getting sushi. I could only eat once piece before feeling sick and having to throw it out. There was something so wrong with the texture. They were out of tapioca for the bubble tea which we both had in our drinks. I completely changed my drink and it was delicious, and my friend replaced hers with the crystal flavor pearls that were dry in the middle and hard. I don’t know if I will come back because everything was super hit or miss. Either really good or really bad. Which is a little unfortunate because I wanted to eat here again before I left because of the distance...