Lau's Asia Kuche - Linz

We went there for lunch… as this restaurant is just at the entrance exit to the parking garage of the Passage Linz, I walked by hundreds of times and it’s always quite busy… now recently, I was in the mood for Asian food, we tried it… We were there for lunch and you could either choose to participate in the buffet (soup, salad, rice and three hot dishes) or you order a la carte from a small lunch menu. Take away appears to be quite important in this restaurant too. We ordered as a starter Yaki Gyoza followed by a green curry with prawns and some shredded beef. The Yaki Gyoza were just a nice picture in the restaurant. We were served their Chinese cousins Jiaozi … you could see the difference in the way they were folded, and you also tasted the difference… these dumplings never saw any sake and oyster sauce during their making… instead they tasted rich in flavour enhancer and soy sauce. Whilst the original Yaki Gyoza are usually served with a sauce consisting of Japanese black and white vinegar, soy sauce, bit of sesame oil and chili oil their Chinese counterparts get a served with a sauce consisting of soy sauce, Chinese red wine vinegar and a bit of chili oil. All we got was soy sauce. The beef was served in a huge bowl, with rice at the bottom and topped by the shredded beef with onions. It was an OK dish, the beef was tender with an OK sauce. The prawn dish was greatly disappointing… it came also in a big bowl, rice at the bottom (Chinese rice, and not Jasmin rice), topped by a green almost soupy sauce, vegetables (mainly capsicum in all three colours) and a decent amount of prawns. The prawns itself were good. The so called curry, had a microscopic hint of coconut milk, plenty of flavour enhancer, and a consistency of a soup. This dish also was displayed on a picture in the restaurant, but the actual dish had no resemblance with it… It pained to pay the dish… Before I share the even more disturbing observation, just one thing. Even in the smallest restaurant I would expect a minimum of food safety protocols… besides many points to adhere, these food safety protocols also require you to keep utensils in a container with a sanitizing solution when not in use… In this restaurant there is no such container, or maybe I have not seen it from where I sat. But what I saw, and thank god it was not for our table, was the following: The kitchen is sort of a show kitchen… meaning that the chef is standing with his back to the guest room and cooks. Therefore, depending where you sit, you can see a lot… and I saw too much. The chef was preparing another dish; so he stands at the wok, is stirring with the big spoon and then it’s time to season and taste… as the container is missing where you would also keep these tasting utensils, and no other spoon was seen close by, he simply took the big stirring spoon to taste the food! Then he contemplated about the food, and added some more seasoning, stirred again with the same spoon he just had in his mouth and then prepared the dish for service…

We went there for lunch… as this restaurant is just at the entrance exit to the parking garage of the Passage Linz, I walked by hundreds of times and it’s always quite busy… now recently, I was in the mood for Asian food, we...tried it… We were there for lunch and you could either choose to participate in the buffet (soup, salad, rice and three hot dishes) or you order a la carte from a small lunch menu. Take away appears to be quite important in this restaurant too. We ordered as a starter Yaki Gyoza followed by a green curry with prawns and some shredded beef. The Yaki Gyoza were just a nice picture in the restaurant. We were served their Chinese cousins Jiaozi … you could see the difference in the way they were folded, and you also tasted the difference… these dumplings never saw any sake and oyster sauce during their making… instead they tasted rich in flavour enhancer and soy sauce. Whilst the original Yaki Gyoza are usually served with a sauce consisting of Japanese black and white vinegar, soy sauce, bit of sesame oil and chili oil their Chinese counterparts get a served with a sauce consisting of soy sauce, Chinese red wine vinegar and a bit of chili oil. All we got was soy sauce. The beef was served in a huge bowl, with rice at the bottom and topped by the shredded beef with onions. It was an OK dish, the beef was tender with an OK sauce. The prawn dish was greatly disappointing… it came also in a big bowl, rice at the bottom (Chinese rice, and not Jasmin rice), topped by a green almost soupy sauce, vegetables (mainly capsicum in all three colours) and a decent amount of prawns. The prawns itself were good. The so called curry, had a microscopic hint of coconut milk, plenty of flavour enhancer, and a consistency of a soup. This dish also was displayed on a picture in the restaurant, but the actual dish had no resemblance with it… It pained to pay the dish… Before I share the even more disturbing observation, just one thing. Even in the smallest restaurant I would expect a minimum of food safety protocols… besides many points to adhere, these food safety protocols also require you to keep utensils in a container with a sanitizing solution when not in use… In this restaurant there is no such container, or maybe I have not seen it from where I sat. But what I saw, and thank god it was not for our table, was the following: The kitchen is sort of a show kitchen… meaning that the chef is standing with his back to the guest room and cooks. Therefore, depending where you sit, you can see a lot… and I saw too much. The chef was preparing another dish; so he stands at the wok, is stirring with the big spoon and then it’s time to season and taste… as the container is missing where you would also keep these tasting utensils, and no other spoon was seen close by, he simply took the big stirring spoon to taste the food! Then he contemplated about the food, and added some more seasoning, stirred again with the same spoon he just had in his mouth and then prepared the dish for service…

We went there for lunch… as this restaurant is just at the entrance / exit to the parking garage of the Passage Linz, I walked by hundreds of times and it’s always quite busy… now recently, I was in the mood for Asian food, we tried it… We were there for lunch and you could either choose to participate in the buffet (soup, salad, rice and three hot dishes) or you order a la carte from a small lunch menu. Take away appears to be quite important in this restaurant too. We ordered as a starter Yaki Gyoza followed by a green curry with prawns and some shredded beef. The Yaki Gyoza were just a nice picture in the restaurant. We were served their Chinese cousins Jiaozi … you could see the difference in the way they were folded, and you also tasted the difference… these dumplings never saw any sake and oyster sauce during their making… instead they tasted rich in flavour enhancer and soy sauce. Whilst the original Yaki Gyoza are usually served with a sauce consisting of Japanese black and white vinegar, soy sauce, bit of sesame oil and chili oil their Chinese counterparts get a served with a sauce consisting of soy sauce, Chinese red wine vinegar and a bit of chili oil. All we got was soy sauce. The beef was served in a huge bowl, with rice at the bottom and topped by the shredded beef with onions. It was an OK dish, the beef was tender with an OK sauce.The prawn dish was greatly disappointing… it came also in a big bowl, rice at the bottom (Chinese rice, and not Jasmin rice), topped by a green almost soupy sauce, vegetables (mainly capsicum in all three colours) and a decent amount of prawns. The prawns itself were good. The so called curry, had a microscopic hint of coconut milk, plenty of flavour enhancer, and a consistency of a soup. This dish also was displayed on a picture in the restaurant, but the actual dish had no resemblance with it… It pained to pay the dish… Before I share the even more disturbing observation, just one thing. Even in the smallest restaurant I would expect a minimum of food safety protocols… besides many points to adhere, these food safety protocols also require you to keep utensils in a container with a sanitizing solution when not in use… In this restaurant there is no such container, or maybe I have not seen it from where I sat. But what I saw, and thank god it was not for our table, was the following: The kitchen is sort of a show kitchen… meaning that the chef is standing with his back to the guest room and cooks. Therefore, depending where you sit, you can see a lot… and I saw too much. The chef was preparing another dish; so he stands at the wok, is stirring with the big spoon and then it’s time to season and taste… as the container is missing where you would also keep these tasting utensils, and no other spoon was seen close by, he simply took the big stirring spoon to taste the food! Then he contemplated about the food, and added some more seasoning, stirred again with the same spoon he just had in his mouth and then prepared the dish for service…