Azyun Restaurant
Azyun specializes in meticulous Asian fusion dishes. Everything here is served tapas-style, so sharing is the name of the game.
Perhaps it's an unwritten rule that any Asian fusion restaurant that takes its roots in Chinese cuisine must have baos.
Azyun eagerly complies with both sweet and savoury renditions.
For the sweet, we try Fried Mantou with Condensed Milk Nutella ($4). The sticky sweetness of the sauce is a perfect match for the light and crisp mantou bread.
For the savoury option, the 8-hour Pork Belly ($9) is a fluffy steamed bao packed with moist slow-roasted pork belly, pickled apples, fennel, sour cabbage and some apple condensed milk.
The Pork Jowl Skewer ($16) is 24-hour sous vide pork cheek with a habanero and lemongrass glaze which gives it a slight peppery punch. It comes with a side of wintermelon sauce.
Azyun's taken on Southern comfort food is best realized with the Fried Chicken ($14). It's brined for 48 hours in a soy-chili marinade, tossed with fermented hot sauce and battered to a crisp.
The Lamb Ribs ($16) are slow-roasted for ten hours in an char-siu barbeque sauce and finished with mixed radish, Asian pears and a cashew-maltose dressing.
If I had to recommend just one thing it might be the fried rice. Azyun's Truffle Fried Rice ($14) is dripping with loads of truffle flavour in every bite, with the poached egg taking it to the next level.
Tea cocktails are also a thing here. Try the Eason Chen ($12) made with a black tea base, milk, toasted rice, Malibu rum, vodka and coconut flakes.
For something more conventional, there's the From Beijing with Love ($12): a mixture of elderflower liqueur, Soho, grapefruit and red wine float.
Hector Vasquez