“Nationally, the restaurant industry is seeing Asian dining concepts on the rise,” said Jarrod A. Clabaugh, communications director for the Ohio Restaurant Association. “As consumers’ palates grow, and people yearn for more exotic flavors, Asian cuisine is often a natural fit, because it offers a wide variety of dishes.”
Here’s a sampling of the recent activity in the Dayton area:
Sa Bai Asian restaurant opened two weeks ago at East Fifth and South Jefferson streets across from the Neon Theater in downtown Dayton.
In Huber Heights, Osaka Japanese Steakhouse & Sushi Bar — which has no connection with a Beavercreek restaurant of the same name — is poised to open, perhaps this week, at 8120 Old Troy Pike after a lengthy renovation.
Hibachi Grill & Supreme Buffet is scheduled to open later this year in Kettering at 1760 E. Stroop Road.
The owner of Tik's Thai Express across from Wright State University is preparing to open Tik's Thai Grille at 4459 W. Franklin St. (Ohio 725) in Bellbrook, and another Asian restaurant, Panda Garden, is poised to open a few doors away in the same Bellbrook Plaza shopping center.
The co-founders of FUSIAN, a casual sushi bar in Cincinnati, announced earlier this month they would open a second location on Brown Street near the University of Dayton this fall.
Many of these restaurants aren’t just replacing other failed Asian restaurants.
In some cases, they’re moving into long-empty space vacated by national chain eateries: The Huber Heights Osaka is replacing a former Ruby Tuesday that closed in 2009; the Beavercreek Osaka, which opened last year, was a Fuddrucker’s that also closed in 2009; and the Hibachi Grill & Supreme Buffet will replace a Ryan’s Steakhouse that closed in 2007.
The region’s Asian dining scene is also becoming more diverse — it’s not all about Chinese food and sushi anymore. There are now at least a half-dozen restaurants devoted to Thai food in the Dayton area — up from one a couple of decades ago — and there are more Vietnamese choices than ever before, with last year’s addition of Pho Mi restaurant near the Dayton Mall.
A change in ownership of Pearl Bay Asian Cuisine in Fairborn brought the addition of several Malaysian and Indonesian dishes to the menu, adding to the variety of the Miami Valley’s Asian dining options.
In their “What’s Hot in 2011” survey of more than 1,500 chefs across the U.S., researchers from the National Restaurant Association identified Southeast Asian cuisine such as Malaysian, Thai and Vietnamese among the top trends in Ethnic Cuisines and Flavors.
The previous year, in 2010, the restaurant association identified Japanese cuisine as one of the “hot menu trends.”
Shanon Morgan, president of the Miami Valley Restaurant Association, said the diversity found in various Asian cuisines makes them attractive to diners. “It’s obvious that it’s the popular thing right now, very trendy,” Morgan said.
With Dayton-area restaurants specializing in Chinese, Japanese, Thai, or Vietnamese dishes — and some of the newly opened restaurants offering two or more of the cuisines on their menu — “You can find something different on the menu every time you go,” the restaurant association president said. And the popularity of sushi, she noted, appears to be at an all-time high.
Morgan and the Ohio Restaurant Association’s Clabaugh said health-conscious diners may also be driving the surge in interest in Asian dining. Many Asian dishes include a variety of fresh vegetables and sushi prepared in the traditional Japanese custom has some heart-healthy characteristics, Clabaugh said.
Asian restaurants’ comparatively low prices are also playing a role. Clabaugh said Asian restaurants often deliver robust portions for relatively low cost, appealing to frugal consumers.
But how will the upstarts affect Dayton’s existing Asian restaurants, such as the four Dayton-area China Cottage restaurants, Thai 9, Mr. Lee’s Fine Dining, Tsao’s Cuisine, Bahn Mai Thai, Siam Pad Thai, Linh’s, Kabuki, Little Saigon, Akashi, Sima, Sushi Cafe and many others?
The Miami Valley Restaurant Association’s Morgan said she does not anticipate the increased number of Asian eateries will harm existing Asian restaurants. Diners who are just discovering Asian cuisine or who try a new restaurant will move on to other restaurants to try new dishes and search for new favorites, she said.
“I think it’s good, healthy competition,” Morgan said. “I think this is going to be good for all of them.”
Earlier this month, shortly after Sa Bai opened within a baseball outfielder’s throw of its front door, Thai 9 restaurant in Dayton’s Oregon District was jammed for lunch, with all of the tables on an outdoor patio and all available indoor seating filled. Guests arriving at 12:30 p.m. waited 10 minutes for a table.
Thai 9 Owner Rob Strong said he does not believe his restaurant’s business will be adversely affected by the increased competition, in part because more people seem to be discovering Asian food.
“We’re up from last year, and we’ve seen sales increases every year since we opened” in 2003, Strong said. “We still get a lot of new people coming in who have never tried Thai food before. They enjoy it, and they end up coming back.
“If we keep the quality of our food and our service high, it shouldn’t affect us at all — at least I hope,” he said.
Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2258 or mfisher@DaytonDaily News.com.
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