Dinner Out: East Moon Asian Bistro

To celebrate my birthday a while back, my inlaws took us to one of their favorite restaurants in Longmont, East Moon II Asian Bistro.

My father-in-law was particularly enamored with the decor at East Moon. It's much more bistro than Asian, except, of course, for the sushi bar. The vibe is clean and modern with some quirky artwork. The decor comment from my father-in-law was more about what was missing than what was there - he's used to Chinese restaurant with a lot of red and black and gold, with dragons here and there.

Me, I like the occasional dragon, but I was there for the food.

I started with salmon sashimi, but forgot to take photos of it. Oh well. It was good.

Everyone got a salad that had a peanut-flavored dressing. Not a lot of peanut, just a light amount in a sweet-ish dressing that reminded me of red French dressing. My father-in-law asked me if I could recreate it. I said I could. He usually eats his salad dry, but he liked this one, so I'll figure it out for him.

Everyone got rice with dinner, and the rice was molded in a heart shape. That was a nice touch.

And there was a vegetable that had been thinly sliced and assembled in the shape of a flower, I tasted it, and it was pretty tasteless. I was told that it was wild cabbage. It was meant more as decoration than snack.

I ordered the sesame scallops. They were a little bit spicy but not hot by any means. Cooked perfectly. Not chewy, the way overcooked scallops can be. They were served on a bed of vegetables as were other sauced dishes.

Here's a better view. Hey, it was my food, I could take my time taking photos.

One of my dining companions ordered the Mongolian Beef which was a little spicier than the scallops, but not tongue-searingly hot. The beef was nice and tender,

Another companion chose the tempura chicken which came with tempura vegetables, rice, and a dipping sauce.

The last companion chose the teriyaki chicken but I didn't get photos of that.

My inlaws knew the owner, Ken,, and he stopped by to say "hello." When he found out we were celebrating my birthday, he said that he's send me an after dinner drink. In fact, he brought the drink himself, and it was flaming as he brought it. Now, that's my kind of candle. It was a layered drink, with four different layers, which was quite pretty. The photo doesn't do it justice, but it's the best you're going to get.

We'll be back, I'm sure. The food was cooked well, the sauces were flavorful, and the service was friendly.