We finally tried the Oriental Pan Asian Restaurant in Marlboro yesterday. One thing that kept us away was the belief that a restaurant that served Chinese, Japanese, Thai, and Korean food probably won’t do any of them exceptionally well. I have not changed my mind.
Mark got the Pork Chow Fun lunch special ($8.95) which included a shrimp egg roll and a bowl of hot and sour soup. (Other choices for the egg roll and the soup were available. I thought the soup was not very sour, but it did have a nice assortment of mushrooms in it. I thought the chow fun was tasty, but somewhat oily.
I had Kimchi Jigae. This was listed under “soups” and indeed was far more a soup than the stew that it is everywhere else. Instead of a dish with a minimal amount of liquid, this was basically a soup with a spicy broth forming half of the volume of thee dish, and the solid ingredients (tofu, pork belly, kimchi/cabbage, onions) forming the other half. Admittedly the bowl was also larger, but it lacked the richness that one gets from the stew consistency. Needless to say, there were no banchan. At $12, this is also higher priced than other places.
If we return, I think I will try the Ma Po Tofu, since clearly Korean is not their prime focus.
