Azia Restaurant and Bar

I’m writing a review for a place that has been closed for many years. Maybe I just want to pad my review numbers, maybe I want to add it to a few of my Unilocal lists. Regardless, it reopened as Azia Market Bar & Restaurant, then closed again, then something else, now a pizza place.
But Azia will always hold an important place in my mind because that was a huge moment in the gentrification of the neighborhood (for better or worse), and the change to higher end restaurants believing they could open on Eat Street, a street that for many years was synonymous with drug dealing and prostitution.
Their website was taken over by Marine Brokerage Service, it has some text in Italian and features a few crappy pictures of boats. It’s a funny world.

I celebrated my 4^th year anniversary at the original Azia last year.
The food is excellent but I would have to agree with others, it’s overpriced but you definitely pay for the ambiance.
I had the leg of lamb, lightly drizzled with a red sauce, is the most delicious item I ate there. It literally melted in my mouth. Food presentation was beautiful, celebrated with fresh orchids.
My experience here was fantastic. Our server was so much fun. He joked, danced, and laughed with us.
Overall, my friends and I were satisfied.

This review is probably not really necessary since Azia closed for business on Sunday, but I figured I’d write it anyway. I had been to Azia about 4 years ago for their happy hour special, but only remember getting their cranberry cream cheese wontons. On this trip we went for dinner and sat outside on the sidewalk patio.
All of the food was good, but overpriced for what you get. I had the Udon noodles with chicken which had pretty good flavor and spice, but the chicken seemed a bit dry and the noodles were a bit over cooked. We also tried the Azia roll which was great, and came with a delicious basil jalepeño dipping sauce on the plate. I also really enjoyed their spring rolls with shrimp, chicken, basil and cilantro (but once again, the chicken was a bit dry and tough). The peanut dipping sauce that came with the spring rolls was excellent.
Now that Azia is closed for good, I will be interested to see what comes of Thom Pham’s newest venture in downtown Minneapolis.

Consider this my official goodbye to Azia…
I am pretty disappointed that Azia is closing after successfully classing up this Eat Street intersection over the years [NOTE: they aren’t gone yet, so get there quick before it closes!].
I was quite the Azia happy hour-​rat for a while. When I lived just around the corner, I would come at least once a month for a beer and some of those spicy-​sweet cranberry cream cheese puffs. Tom Pham, if you know what is good for you, you will serve those puffs at your new Chinese restaurant (Wanderer’s Wondrous Azian Kitchen… which is way too long for a restaurant name, BTW).
I have only eaten a full dinner at Azia twice, and both times were for sushi at the old Anemoni (very good, I thought… the tiled back-​splash of the oyster bar kind of reminded me of a women’s locker room though). Recently, it was remodeled to A25, but that seems like a waste now that it’s all closing up.
I also spent a few nights overdoing it on mojitos, saketinis and lychee-​tinis in the Caterpillar Lounge, mostly in 2008. Val B. and I tend to reminisce frequently about one night in particular… no details of that night should ever be put on the Internet.
I went to Azia recently for happy hour with the boyfriend and it was very quiet (so maybe it’s not surprising that it’s closing), but the food was still on point. We ordered the usual happy hour fare: cranberry cream cheese puffs, a spicy tuna roll and potstickers. Service was on point too.
Azia is typically too expensive for me outside of happy hour, and too isolated when it comes to nightlife… so I haven’t made regular appearances there since I moved slightly further away.
I think this intersection is losing a great business, but I’m kind of excited to see what comes next for Eat Street… and next for Tom Pham.

I went to Azia again last night for the first time in a long while. Major bummer. First off, AZIA is simple expensive. I have never complained about price in a review before, but by golly everything there just seems to cost more than it should for similar fare at better restaurants.
I even ordered the cranberry cheese puffs everyeone raves about, and they were overcooked with hardly any filling whatsoever. The broth in my wonton soup on the other hand was delicious.

I have so many fond memories at Azia. I love all of Thom Pham’s restaurants, but I have to say that Azia is my favorite. The late night happy hours are a great deal, and the drinks are awesome too.
My favorite dishes to order are:
The cod (I think it is on the app menu) — the texture is soft and the sweet flavor of the marinade is addicting.
Azia has more fusion dishes of course.
Cranberry curry puffs — perfect combination of spicy and sweet.
Cranberry curry — The presentation and flavors are again — the perfect combination of spicy and sweet.
I have tried several other dishes, and I can’t complain about any of them.
Favorite dessert: mango and sticky rice — make sure the mango is in season because it doesn’t taste quite as good otherwise.
You can’t go wrong ordering any of the seafood dishes — I think those are Thom’s specialty. If the price point of Azia is a deterrent to trying out dishes, I suggest going to Thanh Do because there are some redundancies with the offerings of both restaurants (e.g. the curry puff and cranberry curry — they do taste different at both places though).
Huge fan!

So I finally made it to Azia for happy hour, on a friday non-​the-​less. Was nicely surprised and found close street parking.
As a lover of cream cheese anything… found the wontons tasty. I know all it is a cream cheese and cranberries… but the little spices they put in give it a nice kick.
We also did the oyster wings and the significant other had sushi… of course. That with a beer each and all under 30 dollars… oh we will be back!

I AM SO REPULSED AND ANGRY ABOUT THIS EXPERIENCE.
Let’s just start off by saying the only reason I went back to this restaurant, after my last horrible experience, was because the owner was nice enough to give me a $ 25 gift certificate due to the last try… We went during the happy hour and ordered the cranberry puffs, pork potstickers and the Philadelphia roll. The food was fine, although I found myself wondering why people spend so much on these items here (when it is not happy hour) because I can get the same thing for much less at almost any chinese take-​out.
Eek me thinks not perfectly describes our situation tonight… As we were waiting for our entrée to come out, my boyfriend spots a MOUSE scurrying across the floor of the dining area, right into the booth behind us. We quickly get our server’s attention and explain that we immediately want to leave and not have anything else because of this rodent. I am sorry but I have been to some of the scuzziest dive bars for burgers and never seen a rodent running around. This is ridiculous.
Now a manager was nice enough to come over and apologize, then… we got our BILL! Are you kidding me? Granted, I paid with a gift certificate so it would not have cost us anything anyways, but the audacity of charging people to hang out with animals during dinner is only allowed at the zoo. Oh and then when my boyfriend tried to explain to the server where the mouse went, to save other patrons from the same disaster, our server said, «Well a mouse is just a mouse to me.» WOW!
I will NEVER and I repeat NEVER go back to this establishment. and I suggest that unless you want «Mice» potstickers, that you don’t either.
Oh and PS… if the owner reads this again… No gift certificate of any amount will ever draw me back into this health code nightmare of a restaurant. So don’t waste the paper.

My original review of Azia received 2 stars.
I am giving them 4 stars now because of the awesome clarification and super customer service from Nick G — the Marketing Director.
After my review was posted, convo started on Twitter regarding my experience. Nick asked for my email to clarify any confusion I had.
I work in customer service, and I feel that Nick really gets it. He apologized for the confusion, empathized with my feelings, and he did what he could to make it right. Most places will not go through all of the trouble to fix a somewhat negative review, and the places that do go through the trouble get a second chance in my book.
4 stars — «Yay! I’m a fan.» — because any place willing to work for their customer is worth getting another shot. They (or Nick G, at least) really seem to care about their customers and the feedback. I hope they are able to take it and learn from it. Hopefully I’ll have a better next experience.

Azia has nice bathrooms.
Their happy hour can’t really be beat… it’s great if you have a small group and need some drinks and food. Apps are half off, I forget what drinks are but there’s some deal on those too.
The sushi could be rolled better. It has always been kind of loose… I feel like the innards are going to fall out, and sometimes they do.
They have these cranberry puffs that everyone loves. Can’t speak to them myself, but they sure smell tasty.
They have delicious curry wings. Yum.
I don’t think I’d visit again during non-​happy hour time. The food is ridiculously overpriced and overportioned. It also makes my stomach hurt.
Basically, visit during happy hour. Have some cheap drinks and apps, and make sure to stop by the bathrooms. They rule.

Among our table’s appetizers, I liked the tuna carpaccio and the «cranberry puff» wontons; the calamari was pretty decent, but given the prevalance of calamari at every restaurant, it’s hard for this dish to stand out
Most of my group ordered sushi, but I chose the red snapper, which gave me one of the most interesting presentations I’ve seen in a restaurant. The server brought the fish to the table, wrapped in a banana leaf. He proceeded to pour Bacardi 151 over the leaf, then set the whole thing on fire. After letting it burn for a while, he slowly extinguished the flame by pressing it out. Then he unwrapped it, cut off the head and tail, de-​boned the main central bone (s), and finally served me a choice selection of the flesh on my plate.
…Wow. Of course, there’s no way the taste could live up to that impressive a display – but it was good. I wish there were more of the spicy curd that it came with it as a spread, because that was delicious.
The meal closed in an outstanding way with dessert. The chocolate strawberries were good, but the fried banana rolls sprinkled with cinnamon sugar and served with ice cream drizzled in chocolate sauce – sublime!
Three weeks into a multi-​city business trip, this may have been my favorite meal on the road so far.

I have always avoided Azia because I heard it was a place where you could find a whole lot of douche bags. But the boy made us reservations tonight, and I am very happy I tried it.
First of all, our server was awesome. She was chatty (but not too chatty), honest and informative. She had very good recommendations. We went with the Fresh Herb Rolls to start, which were the biggest spring rolls I have ever seen. Mediocre.
But the Omagaze we shared was really fantastic. We got tuna, salmon and mackerel sashimi… Tuna, Fluke, Sea Bass & Shrimp nigiri. and a roll that isn’t on the menu, the #9 roll. It was all fantastic. Well, except the mackerel, which just wasn’t to our taste.
Happy I tried it, but probably not my first choice for sushi still. It just seems weird to me that there are no Maki rolls on the menu besides their specialty rolls.

I couldn’t decide what to rate this place. The first time I came, I didn’t like it at all. I guess we ordered Sushi that time and I felt it was overpriced and not very good. 2 stars
The second time I came for a buddy’s birthday celebration and it was during happy hour. This was much more reasonable in terms of price and the food was good. I had a mixed drink with souju and that was unique and pretty tasty. 4 stars.

I like Azia it’s fancy decorated with a chi feel… Manly near the bathroom in a open handwashing station in a Spa setting with a water fountain dripping down onto ice to give a nice relaxing rain sound
The Cranberry Wontons were the highlight of the meal. The creamcheese mixed with cranberrys in a deepfried wonton skin was delious with the sweet and sour sauce.
The Sushi was good I only ordered the California roll but was impressed with their selections from philly rolls to Dragon rolls and some unique in house specialty ones as well.
I also had the steam pork rolls that we not the best Ive had and the pepper chicken was fair but overall good experience.

The cranberry wontons have given me a reason to live.
The spring rolls are weird and I didn’t like them.
I’m not a sushi eater, but my friend really enjoyed it.
I hung out in the Catapillar Lounge and it was jam packed with people.
There was music playing and lots of people were having a good time.
I had some fruity little drink that was agreeable.
I liked the look and feel of this restaurant, it had a great vibe.
The bartenders were busy as heck, but were still pretty nice.
My friend and I went here for appetizers and drinks, but I would love to come back and have a meal.…and of course, more cranberry wontons!
I hear they have great happy hour specials.
Definitly worth checking out!
It’s a nicer place to go out to, something you might want to get a little dress up for. Prices are a little on the spendier side, but it’s worth it.

This IS the way to do it:
— Knock down 2 for 1 margaritas at Pancho Villa across the street
— Stumble into Azia at 10pm for their happy hour (DO NOT jaywalk & DO NOT get run over)
— Order a combination $ 5 appetizers and $ 3 beers or $ 20 bottles of wine (beer is recommended after margaritas)
— You are now f***** up enough to wanna bust a drunk move or two
— Stagger into the Caterpillar, which is the conjoined lounge
— Stop at the restrooms en route and make sure you don’t have any greens wedged in between your pearly whites
— Enjoy some silent kung fu on the plasma display at the lounge
— Shake that booty
— Call it a night!
Follow these instruction; if you do not have fun, call your shrink and book the first available appointment.

When Azia’s lovely Event Director, Elizabeth, invited me for lunch at Azia I was excited… I’m always a fan of Asian Fusion food.
Loved the inviting yet kinda trendy atmosphere. It was pretty empty for lunchtime and I“m not sure why cause the lunch menu looked delicious and pretty affordable.
Since I had stuffed myself silly at La Belle Vie (yum!) the night before i decided to stick to a light lunch… and the seared ahi tuna over mixed greens was calling my name. Elizabeth mentioned it was a very nice salad, but recommended Azia’s «Spanker» Soup if i was looking for something special. A soup of cranberries, asparagus and azian mushrooms? Hmmm… not something I’d typically order, but who am I to argue with their very own Event Director? And so I ordered the spanker soup…
Elizabeth is right… the soup was so flavorful and just a small bowl of it filled me up plenty. And Elizabeth and Sarah P had their own bowls of deliciousness as well, but in the form of phở (which I found out I’ve been pronouncing wrong… oops!). The bowl of phở was absolutely huge and have to admit I was impressed by the way they both ate it without making a mess… I can be a bit of a disaster when it comes to eating phở.
Another table in the restaurant had sushi, which looked pretty good as well, but hey… sushi always looks good to me!
There are so many different things to choose from on the menu so I could see myself being a regular if i lived in the area. Actually… I’d be a regular just for that soup!

Good happy hour food and wine specials; they have cranberry wontons, spring rolls, and sushi to choose from. They also have an extensive beer and specialty drink list. The décor is posh and the place is very well decorated. I enjoy just coming here to hang out at night. The Caterpillar Lounge which is the main bar area next to the restaurant is nice too but does not have a lot of seating.
My friend wasn’t too impressed with the valet service since they did not open the door for me.
I would like to try the dinner food sometime!

I tried to call this place «uh-​zee-​uh» when I first moved to town, probably because I assumed they spelled it with a Z for a reason. Guess not. The waitress didn’t make me feel too stupid though, for which I am grateful.
I can’t afford to eat dinner here, or rather, choose not to. But I love their happy hour, because the dumplings are delicious! I also love the wontons — spicy cranberry cream cheese is an inspired idea, Azians!
At other times of the day the drinks are very expensive, but happy hour is a rip-​roaring deal. $ 6 martinis. And that’s that.
I like Anemoni too, although it’s a little frou frou on the rolls — I know specialty rolls are a game of constant reinvention, but they might take it over the top here. Cute and fun sushi chefs, however. Good banter. They maybe should lose the boat, but maybe I’m just jealous because it’s never available when I go.
In closing, I can’t decide whether I’m impressed or suspicious that they have a private label wine (that’s what you get for happy hour). Where does this wine come from? Why bother with a private label? Are they hiding something? Is it actually Charles Shaw? Does Tom Pham have a hook up with the wine mafia? Pretty cool though. And it’s decent tasting.

A co-​worker suggested a working lunch here & we couldn’t have been more impressed!
Coming from San Francisco — the land of fusion — we had high expectations from Azia’s tempting offerings & I have to say our expectations were completely surpassed
Started w/​the Cranberry-​Crème-​Cheese Won-Tons…very unique flavor & nothing really overpowered the other. Great blending of spices, cranberries & cheese (fusion-​baby!)
I opted for the Tofu-​Cranberry-​Curry & it was outstanding! The spiciness of the curry was nicely offset by the sweetness of the caramelized cranberries… creating a wonderful flavor-​burst party in my mouth.
Others raved over the Chicken Basil Supreme w/​its accompanying Spring Roll & Peanut Sauce & there was this Steak & Potato dish that was the ultra-​surprise hit of the group (being a veggie however, I had to take their word for it)
When it comes out, it looks like steak & homemade potato chips but apparently, the potatoes were crispy but mooshy at the same time & there was this sweetly caramelized something-​or-​other all over the potato that was like cat-nip…they couldn’t get enough
Service was incredible — our waiter knowledgeably spoke about everything on the menu & made fantastic recommendations. He was also quite knowledgeable about the area & directed us out-​of-​towners to some great after-​work locations — Holla!
Next time, we’re going to be sure to go back for a dinner excursion & indulge in their way-​too-​tempting Sake Flights… already smacking my mouth!