THIS RESTAURANT IS CLOSED Empress

THIS RESTAURANT IS CLOSED Empress Restaurant Review:

The Thomas Schoos redesign of the two-story space is stellar. An upstairs dining area utilizes back-lit bamboo stalks, walls coated with jade stones, and offers stunning city views. The downstairs lounge showcases stone and driftwood. Gastronomically, executive chef Derek Zimara imported his Asian fusion concept from Yi Cuisine. Supervising chefs Leo Lopez and Eric Twano help to produce Zimara’s intriguing but still-unrealized vision. To start, the quartered and seared Japanese scallops with yuzu cream sauce are flavorful but meager. Black cod fritters are impeccably textured---crispy outside, creamy inside---but bland. A surprise winner is the simple green tea soba noodles with mustard and soy. Of the main courses, lemon grass-skewered salmon with plum sauce over red-tinged fried rice is clean-tasting, but the plum sauce is barely in evidence. Big-ticket items like lemon grass-crusted rib-eye and lobster pad thai utilize premium ingredients. To drink, there is wine, beer, hot and cold saké, plus teas like blood orange black and honey lemon green. For dessert, order the warm churros with chocolate pudding dipping sauce.