I had been seeing a buzz around the interior of this new restaurant in Dhanmondi called Little Asia. Upon entering you'll notice a warm lighting throughout the place with some seats next to the windows receiving natural lighting. We took some time to look around and finally picked a place to sit.

To start off, the menu was immense. Since they are named Little Asia, they wanted to bring in food from different parts of Asia. I went for the two dishes that everyone had been posting pictures of: Chicken Maki Roll and Nasi Goreng.

The concept of Japanese Maki roll is used for their Chicken appetizer. A layer of shredded chicken breast wraps capsicum, mushroom and cheese and is later fried with a layer of breadcrumbs. The presentation of the dish really pops out until you realize that the bed of sauce is actually store-bought ketchup and not marinara. However, somehow this dish tasted good! The coating was crispy and the cheesy interior is something no one can resist. The reason why I think I enjoyed the dish is because it tasted quite familiar to the evening snacks I have at home which have bread crumbs as their coating.

The Nasigoreng didn't really look appetizing but the flavors of the rice really won me over. The smoky and aromatic taste of the rice made the rice a meal itself. I could binge on it without any sides however, 2 chicken satay, a poached egg, salad, and chips are also provided with this meal. The rice itself was so good that the sides really didn't make much of a difference to me. They also were out of the typical Indonesian chips that they tend to serve on regular days and thus, we were provided with packaged chips. The sambal had quite a kick to it but yet failed to be close to the authentic one in terms of color and consistency.

Other than that, I really liked their Halal Bar which had an array of nonalcoholic drinks. We ordered the Blueberry Yoghurt and Nutty Vanilla Freddo which was a new addition. I wasn't particularly pleased with any of the thickness. The Blueberry Yoghurt had a great potential to be a must-have drink but the consistency of the drink was a let down for me. As for the Freddo, it was nothing impressive and barely had any Nutty taste unlike the name suggests.

For me, Little Asia has some good dishes but some very odd ones. If they maintain the taste of the rice of their Nasigoreng, I will recommend it to whoever asks me for a place for an Indonesian meal.

Leave a Comment

Recent Posts