Tuesday, October 9, 2012

PAO Town

This place is apparently the love child of Canton and Sushi Maki. Seems like the 2 had a drunken tryst of sorts and birthed this little spot serving Asian street food. Being a lover of all things street, food, and Asian, I was sold.

 

Our first attempt at this place as a total fail. We arrived on a Friday night circa 8:30pm. The place was packed but no line. All tables were full. We asked how long for a table and the girl said "you order your food and then wait." Oh isn't that nice, let me stand around with my pork belly bun in hand waiting for someone to wrap up their meal. We decided to wait for someone to get up before ordering when the manager (?) came up to us to ask how many and then asked a large Asian family (20 or so people... I'm ass for assuming it was his family but from their interaction I don't think I am wrong) to scoot and make room for us in a corner of their table. No thanks. I don't like to eat with strangers, much less on their lap. We left hungry and disappointed.

Next try was that same weekend on Sunday. We were the only people in the place. The place is very cute. It has that industrial warehouse feel.




The menu is small but offers a nice variety of all sorts of yummy Asian street food. After much deliberation (healthy husband and hungry pregnant fat girl inside do not mix well!) We ordered Pork Belly Buns, a Korean Dog, and a Teri Chicken.

The pork belly bun was dry and not bellyish enough. Pork belly is tricky - it's either too fatty or too dry, this was on the dry end which is probably worse than the fatty kind. The seasoning was good and the texture of the bun itself was nice. My favorite pork belly buns have always been from Sakaya Kitchen, so I hold any and all pork belly buns that cross my fat face to a very high standard.


 
 


 
My kimchee dog was OK. The wiener was thick and juicy (hee!) but the toppings were kinda just thrown together sloppily. It mentioned having avocado but it was skimpy on that. The fries on the side were greasy and generic. Taste very much like whatever they were fried in which was not pleasant. A better side for this dish would be some tater tots in sr
 

 
My husband's chicken teriyaki dish was "something we could've gotten at Dadeland just walking around the food court." It really was. The rice wasn't anything special, the chicken was average, and the glaze was very "want a sample?" from the food court at any mall.


The manager (different dude) came up to us and gave us a free cookie b/c he remembered us from Fri. This cookie redeemed (well, almost) the meal. The baggie comes with 3 thin, buttery cookies with chocolate chips. The cookie itself is a greasy mess but oh so good! Thankfully my husband hated that too but I hoovered all 3 like it was my job. Overall, PAO Town has potential and I will be giving them another shot in the near future since new places need time to work out their kinks. And because I want more cookies.
 
 
 
2624 Ponce de Leon Blvd
Coral Gables, FL 33134
(305) 760-4726

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