Aja Asian Cuisine & Lounge - New Brunswick, NJBy KARLA COOK
Published: October 31, 2013
If you’re trying to find Aja, a pan-Asian spot on Route 1 North in New Brunswick, look for the multicolored lights swooping across a lumber framework that hides the building’s origins as a Fuddruckers. (The Aja sign is illegible at highway speed.)
The cavernous dining room has an effervescent atmosphere, with adroitly placed furniture and other distractions. A bank of screens on the wall above the bar provides an ever-changing view, mostly of beautiful Asian women on my visits. A collection of illuminated statues separates part of the dining space from the bar; in another section of the room, cushioned banquettes define a lounge area. Though not especially crowded, the restaurant was noisy on our visits. The long sushi counter, lit from below and surveyed by a shelf full of small statues, buzzes with nearly constant activity. The cheerful servers move fast and efficiently.
Aja — the full name is Aja Asian Cuisine and Lounge — is largely the creation of Chuan Tan, who was born in Malaysia, and Jason Lin, his brother-in-law. Together they also run Ganga Asian Bistro in Matawan, which they opened in 2009, Mr. Tan said in a phone conversation after my visits.
The menu is large and feels too diverse; soups, for instance, included miso, hot and sour, and won ton, which were all good, along with tom kha gai, the Thai chicken soup. But as with a three-ring circus, maybe the point is to go more than once. For my two visits, I stuck mainly to wok-style dishes and sushi and was mostly pleased. The quality of the ingredients is high. The presentation is clever and pretty. Flavors are mostly complementary.
Appetizers were good and generously portioned. Mango salad was a table favorite, with subtle heat distributed throughout the fruit, jicama, cucumber and vermicelli-crusted peanuts. The edamame were hot and slightly salty; the slippery seaweed salad, with its touch of sesame oil, was gone within a couple of minutes. Fried pork gyoza with a gingered soy sauce were also good. Chicken satay was tender and played nicely against chunks of crisp cucumber; Asian spiced calamari was its equal, battered and fried but not overly so, lightly dressed and served on a bed of mesclun.
Slow-cooked ribs, often dry and boring, were sticky and luscious at Aja. The duck roll, except for the dressing excessively drizzled over it, was a pleasant fusion-style version — a nicely balanced mix of succulent duck bits, avocado and mixed greens, all wrapped up in a roti. Octopus salad was a disappointment; the thin rounds ringing a mound of greens were somehow taste-free and lost.
The main dishes we sampled were uneven. The best of the lot was a large portion of broiled Chilean sea bass laid atop a festive mix of stir-fried vegetables — red peppers, onions, zucchini and sugar-snap peas — and topped with a thin slice of pretty fried lotus. Sesame white tuna, though nicely cooked, was not a steak but three thin pieces, served atop mashed potatoes and adorned with a good portion of bright green, sweet sugar-snap peas. Tamarind roasted duck was oversauced and served with a heap of black rice sweetened to dessert level. My robust portion of salt and pepper shrimp was well prepared, but I wished for some balance on the plate beyond lettuce and mango salsa.
As for sushi, the fish was sparkling fresh. The white-tuna sushi, the salmon-skin roll and the yellowtail roll were clean-tasting. Adventures into the specialty-roll section of the menu, however, turned a bit bumpy. Of the three we tried, the Foxy Lady, with salmon, yellowtail, spicy tuna, avocado and eel sauce, was most acceptable. The Tuna Amazing, with white tuna tempura, pepper tuna, spicy tuna, avocado and mango sauce, was just messy, with too much going on. And the Cirque du Soleil roll matched the professional circus in extravagance only. Its mix of tuna, pineapple, avocado, white tuna and mango sauce was anything but carefully choreographed. Further, the rolls were too big, leaving every diner at the table with a dilemma: Overfill the mouth, attempt to take a bite from the roll, or capitulate to knife and fork.
Desserts were predictable; go for the banana tempura or the green tea ice cream — unless you can’t manage to leave this pan-Asian place without the warm chocolate cake with vanilla ice cream (which was good). In the culinary mash-up that is Aja, there’s fun to be had.
THE SPACE Large restaurant with lively décor. About 250 patrons can be accommodated in the dining room, lounge and sushi bar. Wheelchair accessible.
THE CROWD Noisy and casual, with many children. Servers are efficient. D.J.’s on some Thursday and Saturday nights.
THE BAR Separated by a line of statues from the rest of the dining space, with a bank of wall-mounted screens behind it. List of 61 wines and sakes, with bottles from $23 to $83. Eighteen wines by the glass, $6 to $9, with $2 two-ounce tastings. Domestic beer, $4; imported, $5.
THE BILL Lunch, $9 to $16. At dinner, appetizers range from $2.50 to $10; main dishes (including soup and rice) are $12 to $25; sushi and sashimi entrees (with soup), $17 to $26; rolls, $4 to $18; and desserts, $4 to $7. MasterCard, Visa, American Express, Discover and Diners Club are accepted.
WHAT WE LIKED Seaweed salad, mango salad, fried gyoza, white-tuna sushi, salmon skin roll, yellowtail roll, edamame, chicken satay, calamari, slow-cooked ribs, duck roll, won-ton soup, miso soup, hot and sour soup, broiled Chilean sea bass, green tea ice cream, banana tempura, warm chocolate cake.
IF YOU GO Lunch daily, noon to 3 p.m. Dinner: Monday to Thursday, 3 to 10:30 p.m.; Friday and Saturday, 3 p.m. to midnight; and Sunday 3 to 10 p.m. Closing times are somewhat flexible if there are customers in the restaurant. Abundant parking. Reservations recommended on weekends.
RATINGS Good
A version of this review appears in print on November 3, 2013, on page NJ9 of the New York edition with the headline: An Abundance of Asian Flavors.
Original article: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/03/nyregion/a-review-of-aja-in-new-brunswick.html
by 
