THIS RESTAURANT IS CLOSED Azel

THIS RESTAURANT IS CLOSED Azel Restaurant Review:

Owners Emily Fu and Chenning Li, who also contributes in the kitchen, have constructed a dramatic space in which to showcase Japanese and Asian cuisine as influenced by French cooking and sushi. Two chefs, one specializing in sushi, handle the open kitchen. Sushi may be the best part of dining at Azél. The ikura presents the pearl-sized salmon roe in a cup with a spoon so one can savor every popping morsel. No adornments. Just pure, delectable flavor. Soft-shell crawfish, a Mississippi luxury, anchors one of the unusual offerings. Executive chef Christophe Secrest manages the rest of the menu. Among the main dishes, the lump crab cake is huge and composed chiefly of solid lump crab meat, with just a bit of mayonnaise to hold it all together. Pineapple-mango salad and steamed veggies set this off nicely. Simpler dishes may be best. The grilled Angus filet mignon tastes lovely, but accompanied by horseradish cream, creamed spinach, and sautéed bananas plus marchand de vin sauce seems, to say the least, an unmanageable panoply of flavors. Still, it's popular, so if it strikes your fancy, you'll have no quarrel with the quality of the ingredients. The wine choices compose a good starter list, with some good selections by the glass, and likely will grow in quality and number of offerings as time goes on.