Azie on Main Review

Within Philadelphia’s city limits there is a wide variety of excellent dining choices.  However, in a search for new delights, I decided to head out to the suburbs, because I am convinced that the city is not the only place to find a good meal.

Azie on Main is a new addition to the Villanova area, a Philadelphia suburb, and is located in a new office park. It is right off the Villanova University campus and is easy to get on regional rail. Azie on Main is the second location of the restaurant Azie in Media. Japanese chef Takao Iinuma, who has competed on Iron Chef Japan! heads both restaurants.

As you enter Azie on Main, you enter a warm and inviting restaurant.  The rich fabric draped around the restaurant, the warm wood and low jazz music pulls you into the restaurant, away from the austere office park the restaurant is located in. 

The food claims to be Japanese with global influences, and they live up to that claim, having both obvious Japanese dishes and others with a more global influence. They do have a sushi bar, which seemed to be the main focus of many of the patrons.  However, I decided that since there are so many places to get really good sushi in the city, I would try the rest of the menu and see if this restaurant has anything to tempt us out of the city with. 

I started with a Blue Fin Tuna Ceviche.  It was a very charming dish presented in a mock martini glass with a lemon slice on the side. The tuna was in a yellow pepper sauce with orange slices, red onion, halved grape tomatoes and green peppers. The sauce was very spicy with the green peppers in it, but it was nicely balanced by the meaty taste of the tuna, and the sweetness of the oranges, onions and tomatoes. The dish also had a very pleasing mixture of textures, with the crunch of the onion and the softness of the orange, and the slight toughness of the tuna. The dish was garnished with sprigs of green salad, really just to offset the very yellowness of the whole dish by adding a much needed burst of green.

For the main course I ordered the Pan Roasted Divers Scallops with sautéed mushroom and spinach in rice. This dish could have used a burst of color, because even with the spinach, the overall impression of the dish was BROWN. The scallops were in an americaine sauce and sprinkled with what tasted like small onion rings. The rice was well seasoned and the mushrooms and spinach melded well together.  However, the scallops,  the sauce and the crispy bits were all quite salty. The entire dish was far too salty to be palatable, and the americaine sauce was no more than a salty, garlicky cream sauce. The dish looked unappetizing and was unappetizing. 

Despite this poor showing in the main course, the ceviche was truly amazing, and I think this restaurant warrants a second visit. So, bottom line, if you are looking for a nice restaurant, which has an excellent wine and sake collection I should add, to take a date, or just treat yourself, try getting out of the city for a change and heading out to the suburbs to Azie on Main.

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