Asian Bistro Next Door - Woodbury

The newly opened Asian Bistro Next Door in Woodbury is a fine dining Asian Fusion restaurant that took the place of Graffiti Restaurant. (Graffiti, owned by the same person, was reopened next door with a fancier new look and menu.)

Asian Bistro Next Door makes a great first impression. Lauren and I chose to sit outside, as it was a particularly beautiful summer night, but we both commented on the design of the restaurant as we made our way to the back patio. It's very sleek and chic looking and the staff is dressed to match - in contemporary Asian uniforms that match the restaurants theme colors of black and red.

Our waiter was patient and pleasant and exchanged the first drink I ordered - after I didn't like it. (That wasn't the restaurants fault - only my inexperience with various types of cold Sake.)

Anyway, Lauren and I both opted for the 4 course "tasting" menu - available Monday thru Thursday for $29.99
The restaurant definitely "excited our senses" as the website claims, but doesn't get a perfect review from us.
While each course was tasty - the food took forever to come out.
We genuinely felt we were waiting about a half hour between courses.
This is definitely not the place to go if you are starving - or if you need to be out in a hurry.

Lauren ordered the Pineapple XO Shrimp which she said was very good and I went with the Salmon Lemon Chili.
I love spicy food and I told Lauren the perfectly seasoned Salmon gave me a delightful tingle in my mouth.
The portions were bigger than we thought - considering the tasting menu served "tapas" style dishes - and we both commented after the meal about how we weren't overly stuffed.

All in all - it's a great restaurant if you're looking for an unusual artisan Asian dish.
But we did find one other problem - the cutlery.
The stylish silverware and silver chopsticks are so skinny that they are actually hard to hold.
In an attempt to be modern - they seemed to have overlooked practicality.

But if you can get past that - and have all the time in the world - then it might wind up being the perfect place for you.

For us - we give it a 3 on the mint scale out of 5 mints.