Asia Palace in West Valley

You come to Asia Palace for the food—remember that. This place is always filled with loyal Vietnamese ethnic locals coming to enjoy traditional home-cooked dishes. My absolute favorites are the pho, snow pea leaves and chicken wings. I recommend trying out the specials that are listed on the marker board when you walk in.

Pho Soup with Meatballs, Rare Steak and Flank Steak.  The pho broth here is dark and rich, and the noodles are wonderfully chewy. Ultimate comfort food. I asked for the Rare steak to be served separate (rawa) so that it doesn't overcook in the piping hot broth.

Snow Pea Leaves.  Depending on the chef, everything seems to be wok-tossed with jalapenos so I remembered to ask for no jalapenos. The snow pea leaves were tossed with whole garlic cloves and came out perfect—crunchy stems, wilted leaves, bright and green.

Crispy Wings.  Perfectly crusted and tossed with a delicious sauce, onion and jalapenos. They do great wings here.

Bird's Nest with Beef.  The egg noodles are deep fried in the shape of a bird's nest and filled with a stir-fry o veggies and slices of beef. Not my favorite. Sauce was a little bland so we poured on the hot chili sauce.

Korean Short Ribs.  The short ribs were sliced thin and wok-seared, served Viet style with scallion oil, pickled daikon and broken rice. If you love super fatty and chewy (like I do) get this. If you like your meat lean and steak-like, don't get this.

Tapioca Mungbean Dessert.  Slurp up because these tapioca bowls are addicting! Vietnamese warm tapioca desserts are the best!

Asia Palace has been upgrading their interior with some wood panel wainscot, granite tabletops...much nicer.

The flat screens played Vietnamese concert videos all day long.

Asia Palace

(801) 972-2835

1774 W 3500 S

Salt Lake City, 84119

Open Mon-Thur 9am-9pm, Fri-Sat 9am-9:30pm
Off the I-15, exit 3300 South and head West. 3300 S turns into 3500 S when you hit Redwood Road.

Asia Palace Restaurant in West Valley

We met up at Asia Palace in West Valley for dinner on a night where I was craving lẩu, the Vietnamese hot pot. Do-it-yourself dishes are FUN and I had heard good things about Asia Palace's lẩu from Makayla.

A portable single burner butane gas stove came out with the hotpot. The pot had an efficient design where the center is a deep vessel for the stock and the perimeter ledge held the ingredients.    

The Asia Palace hotpot includes: calamari steaks, shrimp, shrimp patty (the orange pieces), two eggs, block of tofu, cabbage and leafy greens, mussels and rice noodles. Despite efforts to accommodate hubby (a pescatarian, grr) by requesting no meat, only seafood/veggies, our giant pot still arrived with meatballs and red meat. They graciously substituted with a generous portion of shrimp paste and calamari.

When the lid came off, the majority slipped into the center pit of Thai hot and sour broth. It was a visual mess, but smelled delicious! Eric was in charge of lowering the heat whenever it started to boil over and the rest of us were in charge of identifying and fishing out protein before they overcooked.

Stacy cracked one egg while I stirred it egg-drop style. We cooked the other egg hard boiled.

The spicy Thai hot 'n sour soup seasoned everything beautifully. We didn't even need any dipping sauces!

I also ordered "Salt 'n Pepper Shrimp" kind of shocked and disappointed to see a plate piled high in heavy thick batter. Tasty, but not the light seared shrimp I was expecting. Now I know to clarify whether the shrimp would be seared or batter fried at the time of ordering.

When you go to Asia Palace, you HAVE to try their hot chili oil! They keep a good size jar of it on the condiment tray (there's one at each table) next to the hoisin, vinegar, sriracha, fish sauce, etc. I come here specifically for this addicting homemade chili sauce. Not crazy fire hot, but spicy, sweet, gingery, garlicky. Seriously good stuff.

Asia Palace

(801) 972-2835

Located just south of Redwood Rd on 3500 South.

1774 W 3500 S

Salt Lake City, 84119

Open Mon-Thur 9am-9pm, Fri-Sat 9am-9:30pm

Phở at Asia Palace in Salt Lake City

Woke up to more fresh snow today (again!) in Park City. I always crave Phở, the famous Vietnamese beef noodle soup, particularly on cold days. So far, I've had my best bowl of Utah Phở in Salt Lake and I CAN'T stop thinking about it. I rushed my kids off to school composing a mental list of errands in geographical order stemming from the location of: Asia Palace noodle house at 3500 South and Redwood Rd. Dying for Phở! 

Asia Palace's Phở is SO DELICIOUS and satisfying I never order anything else (always plan to, but always forget). Lacking the date-atmosphere appeal completely, it is the perfect reclusive lunch venue where you can mind your own business surfing and texting next to a 55" LED on the back wall playing Vietnamese music videos. I just like to slum it in peace sometimes. 

     

Their condiment set-up per table is equipped to handle ANY palate: soy sauce, hot chili oil, vinegar, chili paste, Sriracha, hoisin sauce (the old-school ketchup squeezer), salt.

I order a Phở Tai Nam. I ask for the Tai be served on a separate plate, NOT added to the soup in the back by the chef (in which case it will arrive well-done). I also order hot tea and a Vietnamese coffee. 

My bowl of Phở arrives still barely boiling - with rice noodles (done to perfect chewiness, not soggy), bite size well-done brisket, coarsely chopped cilantro, scallions and red onion. Ahh, inhale the brothiness of cinnamon, star anise, cloves, lime. The standard plate of fresh garnishes arrive along with my plate of raw sliced beef.

Most Vietnamese restaurants catering to a more American clientele always skimp on culantro leaves, long saw-leaf aromatic herbs similar to cilantro but entirely different. Here at Asia Palace, we get a generous garnish plate overflowing with culantro, Thai basil, jalapenos, lime wedges and bean sprouts.

I throw almost everything in - pluck the basil leaves, tear the culantro, squeeze all the lime, grab a handful of sprouts and a couple jalapenos. Squeeze some hoisin sauce and sriracha into a side dipping dish.

Okay, now the raw meat dish. SQUEEZE - briefly marinate the meat with lime juice and shake some pepper to it. Let it sit and go back to the bowl of soup. Toss, toss, toss, deliberately trying to cool the broth so that when the meat is added, fondue-style, it doesn't overcook. I like my meat rare to medium-rare.

Add a glop of hoisin to each bite. Okay, can you taste it?! YUM, heaven. 

Best soup on earth! Too full with no room to finish the rich delicious broth:( Satisfied and happily full, I spend a productive day on SLC errands, making it back to pick kids up from school.

See what I mean by the majestic sweeping landscapes?! (back in Park City)

Asia Palace

1774 W 3500 S

Salt Lake City, 84119

801-972-2835

Open Mon-Thur 9am-9pm, Fri-Sat 9am-9:30pm