Cafe Asia, Arlington, Va.

The other day on one of those high 90-degree days, Leo and I were wandering around the Rosslyn neighborhood of Arlington going up and down surprisingly steep hills. To rest and cool off, we decided to have a late lunch on the main drag at Cafe Asia.

Cafe Asia is very popular with the after-work crowd, since they have an inexpensive happy hour and the arrangement and decor is low and Asian-contemporary, lending itself to good socializing. This particular afternoon, though, it was quiet and only a few tables were occupied. We got a nice two-top table by the window wall.

While I had my ubiquitous iced tea, Leo had a jar of ice cold sake. Then we ordered.

It was so hot that day, I wanted something light and simple, so I ordered the bun, a Vietnamese style noodle and lettuce salad with grilled chicken on top.

Leo started with a big plateful of fried squid a/k/a calimari cut into strips instead of the usual Italian-style rings that came with a hot, spicy, sweet and sour type sauce. I tried some of it, and it was light, tender, and very well done--I'd recommend it to anyone trying this restaurant.



For his main course, he had several types of fish and eel sushi. I neglected to take any pictures of the main courses, but I did get some of the appetizer and dessert.

Speaking of dessert, we split a mango sticky rice, which turned out to be some of the best mango sticky rice we've had at any of the Asian restaurants in the metropolitan area.