New Asia Restaurant - Prince George, British Columbia

From Prince Gastronome Is “adorable” a word you’ll respect? New Asia is adorable. To call it out of the way would be putting it mildly. Located in a miniscule strip mall surrounded on all sides by apartments and old houses, New Asia doesn’t have much competition. The ... nearest restaurant is almost a mile away (and another Chinese restaurant, shocker). I’d been to New Asia before, but it had recently gone through a considerable renovation. It has embraced the pseudo Chinese-fusion motif with perfection, not resembling any ethnicity as much as it resembling some pasteurized, disinfected and inoffensive pastiche of an unspecific Asian country. No chopsticks, a massive buffet, the standard. With hanging scrolls and wood-framed murals, suspended paper lamps under dentist-office fluorescents, this doesn’t look like a restaurant; it looks like my apartment. Don’t get me wrong, it looks great (I like my apartment). If I didn’t know better, I’d wager they just finished this renovation last week. The carpet looks hardly tread on. Everything about it looks sanitized; which I can understand considering this place reminds me of a themed hospital cafeteria. Resisting the urge for the combination plate, I opt for the ginger beef hot pot with spring roll appetizer. The rest of the menu is exactly what you would expect, with perhaps a slight skew towards western cuisine. I hate using the words “Western Cuisine”; Cuisine is somewhat of an insult. I don’t consider burgers, steaks, and fries gastronomic bliss. The spring roll is hotter than Portman in Swan, only surpassed later with the sizzling plate of ginger beef. The roll was exceptionally greasy. Ginger beef should be spicy, but this lacks any punch and is as limp as Heffner sans blue pill. If it had some kick or if the beef had some flavour, I’d recommend it. As it stands, they get credit for offering a substantial portion of it; there’s got to be at least ten cows worth of lips here. The waitress doted on me but that was to be expected, as I was their only patron with not a single soul entering through my meal. If we’re grading a curve, I’d say New Asia rates above the Sarlac pits preying on passing drivers in the Hart Highlands, and since there’s little competition here, you can’t do much worse. And as I’m unlikely to find a restaurant that breaks from this false image of Asian cuisine, New Asia succeeds in its simple goal. Easy to succeed when you aim so low. New Asia belongs under a Days Inn, where after you check out, you slip past the archway, grab the nearest countertop newspaper (they have them), snatch up a plate and go medieval on the buffet. I’m honestly surprised there’s no television...must be still on the way. Food: 2.5/5 Service: 3.5/5 Presentation: 3.5/5 Value: 3.5/5 Recommendation: 3.5/5 New Asia Restaurant 102-4299 1st Ave, Prince George, BC Addendum: As I got up, I noticed the light fixtures on the walls. There aren’t enough of them to light the place on their own and they sit under huge fluorescent tiles that do the job considerably. Odd, I wonder if they even work. Also, I know of the phony belief that if you have multiple fortunes in your cookie, that is a sign of further fortune, assurance that all of them would come to pass. So what does it say when you have two and both are identical? Read more