This restaurant is in the same square as Central Market and the recently closed-down EZ’s in Plano. We ventured here after another Friday sports night as we were pretty hungry and wanted something that wasn’t fast food. So, we checked out this place.
One thing I will say before I get into the specifics. This restaurant will probably eventually close down just because of the location. There are so many vacant buildings right next to that place that it makes me wonder why they chose that area to open up a restaurant. 
That being said, I sincerely hope this place doesn’t close down because the food is actually pretty solid for an Americanized Chinese restaurant. The prices are manageable.. about $7 to $8 for a dinner entree. The place itself is relatively trendy and modern. A couple of wide screens are place strategically at opposite ends, most of their transactions are run by computers, and it has a relatively spacious surrounding.
The food itself, as I mentioned before, is Americanized Chinese food. I ordered the cashew chicken (which incidentally is my default entree whenever I try a new chinese place) and Jason ordered the thai curry chicken dish. 
The chicken was actually pretty good.. very tender which I have found not to be the case in most other Americanized Chinese restaurants. The portion was satisfactory as well with a good mix of veggies and the mandatory eggroll on the side. The eggroll, I will say, was a bit too “chewy” I guess is a good word to put it. I judge an eggroll by one general criteria when it comes to outside texture… it needs to be easy to bite into and you shouldn’t need to use a lot of effort to pull it loose with your teeth. That tells me it’s a little undercooked for a fried eggroll.
It took a while to get our order though (~20-25 minutes) but I imagine they were probably nearing closing time as we went at around 9:15 pm. We didn’t mind the wait terribly much but I felt it was worth mentioning for our faithful readers who do mind. However, this might’ve been an isolated incidence so I just want to put that out there as well.
I guess the only reservation I have with this place is the outrageous tax they charged. Last time I checked, tax was 8.25%. This was more like 12%. I saw no signs or notes anywhere that hinted at take-out fee or to-go box fee. And I guess if I were to be really critical, the staff seemed a bit slow and unbalanced. 
During our wait time, I just kind of half-stared at the TV and half-stared at the work area.. and I saw through the course of my wait.. another to-go order finished and waiting on the counter ready to be boxed and packaged. Well there was one lady who was apparently taking a gentleman’s order (I have a pet peeve about this guy which I’ll get into later) and two other ladies who worked there.. cleaning up a table together. I dunno, I just think priorities can be adjusted just a bit. The restaurant was relatively empty since it was pretty late so why would you delegate the majority of your outside wait staff to be cleaning a table rather than boxing up the to-go order that’s sitting there unattended. Anyway, there might’ve been other factors at play that I wasn’t aware of but that’s just my unbiased observation.
So on to that gentleman that was being attended to by the woman at the register. He was probably a white male in his late 50s.. who looked kind of like he trotted over from a retirement home or made a pitstop from an evening walk. Anyway.. I find it so annoying when I see people order and do countless substitutions and changes to the entree itself.. make small-talk that’s obviously for his/her own benefit, talk with euphemisms and slang that the workers apparently don’t comprehend, and talk loudly among other things. Now I can understand very small variations of those annoyances that I’ve listed above but overuse and abuse of those annoyances is intolerable. I felt like smacking the guy in the face but his one redeeming factor was that he seemed genuinely courteous about it even though it was annoying. Anyway, I won’t go into detail of what he specifically did because I think everyone who’s dined out has encountered such individuals. It wasn’t any specific instance anyway.
Asia Grill Restaurant
208 Coit Road Suite 700
Plano, TX 75075
214-473-6647
Tags: Asia Grill, Plano