Asian Restaurants

Wilmington, NC’s perennial winner of best sushi restaurant is located at The Forum, an upscale shopping and dining destination that is close to Wrightsville Beach and easily reached from downtown too. The Bento Box is located in a space with a design as inviting as the food. The Bento Box has a full bar as well as a full kitchen, and numerous dishes from throughout Asia are on the menu too. Any type of sushi you might crave, all prepared with great skill and care from the highest-quality ingredients, is available.

Save room for a Chocolate Potsticker after your meal: it is Belgium chocolate wrapped inside a homemade wonton that is cooked just until the chocolate melts, then served in a puddle of delicious caramel. You can order just one, but why would you? The restaurant is open Monday through Wednesday from 11:30 until 9:00 p.m. and Thursday and Friday from 11:30 until 10:00 p.m. The restaurant is open on Saturday evening from 5:00 to 10:00 p.m., but is closed on Sunday to allow Chef Lee, the owner, and his staff to spend quality time with the family.

Tokyo 101 is a new Japanese restaurant that opened in 2010 in Mayfaire Towncenter, just steps away from Cinema 16. The restaurant is noted for its beautiful decor, its very extensive sushi menu and for the traditional Japanese food it offers. The restaurant also has special prices at lunchtime during the week and offers drink specials as well.

On the menu are several dishes featuring either yakasoba or udon noodles and a large selection hibachi entrees too. All are available for lunch or dinner. Hibachi items include soup and fried rice at lunch and a salad is added at dinner. Tonkatsu or torikatso, deep fried pork or chicken cutlet in panko with vegetables, also is served with soup, salad, and steamed or fried rice.

A large number of tempura dinners, including calamari and vegetable, are on the menu. Tokyo 101 offers a sizzler platter, comprised of chicken, shrimp or New York strip steak served with onion, zucchini, broccoli, carrot and mushrooms and again served with soup, salad and steamed or fried rice. There also is a moderately priced children’s menu for those under 12, and the restaurant offers gluten free choices too. Portions are very generous and most people wind up taking quite a lot home. Tokyo 101 is available for catering and are happy to provide delivery service too.

Szechuan 132 continues to win the Best Chinese Food in Wilmington award year after year for good reason. Located in the University Landing Mall on South College Road, items on the menu are skillfully prepared using fresh, flavorful ingredients. Food also is quite moderately priced, especially for its quality.

All of the soups are delicious and the hot & sour soup is great – it always tastes as if it was made a nanosecond before it arrives piping hot at your table. The menu changes frequently, and some of the entrees that are memorable are coconut shrimp, chicken with cashews and orange beef. In a restaurant with Szechuan in its name of course there are plenty of spicy dishes on the menu, but there also are several entrees that are prepared in the Cantonese or Mandarin style for those who don’t enjoy spicy food.

Szechuan 132 offers brown rice in addition to steamed white rice and fried rice. They also have a good selection of tea, including flavorful chai teas. The friendly and efficient staff provides professional service and the owner is on site most all the time. Szechuan 132 has a full bar with ABC permits and offers a good selection of beer, wine and sake too. They also offer efficient take out service.

If you love Thai food that is skillfully prepared with the fresh ingredients, herbs and spices that are traditional, you’re in luck. The two locations in Wilmington for Authentic Big Thai Restaurants are sure to be just what you’re looking for.

Locals refer to the restaurants just as Big Thai (perhaps for its big, bold flavors) and the downtown location in the 1000 block of North Fourth Street was the first. The restaurant is just around the corner from PPD headquarters and is a favorite lunch spot for their employees, whether they dine in or take out the food. A second location at Landfall Center on Eastwood Road opened in 2010.

It’s hard to pick a favorite dish at Big Thai since so many of them are superb. Basil rolls, combining lettuce, basil, carrots, rice noodles and tofu wrapped in a rice wrapper and served with plum sauce, and chicken satay, lean chicken breast that is char-grilled on a skewer and served with peanut sauce and fresh cucumber salad are just two of the outstanding appetizers. As one would expect, soups are superb and can be ordered both as a cup and as a pot for a full meal.

Any of the Thai curry dishes, which can be made with tofu, chicken, pork, shrimp or beef, are delicious. Another dish that can be made with whatever protein clients prefer is basil leaves, a healthy blend of fresh basil, peppers and onions stir-fried in a spicy chili sauce. A number of special entrees are available only in the evening, with crispy duck, Bangkok bay, a combination seafood dish in homemade yellow curry paste, and soft shell crab tempura particularly outstanding.

You definitely will want to order the coconut cake here; most people think it is the best they’ve ever had. Those who eat frequently at Big Thai have learned to reserve a slice when you first walk in since the restaurant has a hard time baking enough cakes to keep up with the demand. Big Thai serves beer, wine and sake to complement the food.

Sixteen sakes, an extensive wine list and a large number of special drinks such as a Pomegranate ginger mojito are found at YoSake, located on the second floor of the historic Roundabush building on Front Street in Historic Downtown Wilmington. The restaurant has a full pan-Asain menu as well as all types of sushi available nightly from 5:00 p.m. Some of the favorite entrees are a Thai-style bone in pork chop served with wasabi potato cake and marinated asparagus, carmelized jumbo shrimp served with vegetable tempura and a warm soba salad and spicy braised coconut chicken served with fresh fennel, fresh chilis, tomatoes, spinach and rice. Don’t pass up dessert either: fresh mango cheesecake or scrumptious coconut banana ice cream are available.