Whenever I visit an Asian restaurant, because I know it won’t be anything like my mom’s traditional Chinese cooking, I try to keep an open mind.
So, when we headed over the river and through the woods to Aiken to try out AnShu Asian Café before an excursion to the Ruth Patrick Science Education Center for my daughter, I had zero expectations.
Dine & Dish: Pineapple Ink Tavern
We hadn’t made a reservation, but my husband had called to ask about how busy it might be at 5:30 p.m. and if there was outdoor seating. The restaurant itself is surprisingly large and spacious, with several rooms, including a party room available to rent. To our happy surprise, the staff had gone ahead and set up a table for us on the cool, covered patio out back. One point for AnShu.
Above us, a ceiling fan slowly whirled, pleasant music played and we settled ourselves down at our bright, mosaic-topped table to review the menu.
AnShu features a large list of offerings, inspired from Chinese, Japanese and Korean cuisine, including appetizers such as dumplings, egg rolls and seaweed salad; and soups such as hot and sour and miso.
Then, there are the entrees. The restaurant’s favorite featured entrees includes: salt and pepper flounder, shrimp hot pot, or triple taste bird’s nest, with beef, chicken and shrimp in a garlic sauce; classic fried rice with the welcome twist of plenty of broccoli, carrots, cabbage, and peas; noodle soups and noodle dishes; curries; a variety of other entrees including mooshu, sweet and sour chicken and Mongolian; and not-your-typical kids’ meals, such as steamed pork dumplings with broccoli or sesame chicken with broccoli. Also, I really liked how most dishes could be customized with your choice of meat or tofu, and the menu emphasizes that every dish is made to order and encourages customers to share other dietary needs, such as vegetarian, vegan or gluten free.
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On the menu’s back side is also a full list of sake and beer, wines, specialty cocktails and spirits.
When we go out as a family, we tend to order two adult meals and share with our daughter. She loves salmon—I do, too—so I immediately gravitated toward the ginger salmon as a favorite featured entrée. My husband chose another meal they both enjoy—noodles—with the classic lo mein, adding shrimp.
Since we were still the only diners on the patio, my daughter grabbed my hand. “Time for a dance,” she announced, and we had just enough time for one dance to the music before our food arrived.
The salmon looked glorious, delicately pink and glazed in soy sauce, atop a bed of crisp zucchini, broccoli and snow peas, with a bed of rice soaking up the rich sauce. The first bite was absolutely melt-in-your-mouth perfect, with the bright flavors of ginger and the scallions. There was an edge of salt, which went well with the soft rice.
The lo mein, meanwhile, featured fat, fresh, yellow noodles and was so light—not greasy at all. The flavor was so complex and savory, and the shrimp, too, were fat and perfectly cooked, with their seafood flavor enhanced by soy, onion and scallion.
My daughter ate a couple bites of salmon as well as noodle after noodle. The entrees weren’t large, so next time, we decided, we’d order her a kids’ meal.
I may tend to have zero expectations, but one thing I do know is this: AnShu, we’ll be back soon.
Make Your Reservation:
AnShu Asian Café, The Village at Woodside, 122 Coach Light Way, Aiken. www.anshuasiancafe.com.
Danielle Wong Moores is a local freelance writer who’ll never turn down a shrimp cocktail, sushi or cheese dip. Her greatest food influences are her mom and writers MFK Fisher and Amanda Hesser. Her Dine and Dish column will run the second and fourth Friday of each month.
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