The Asian Fusion Lunch At Anqi Bistro

Anqi Bnqi Bistro is a high-end restaurant located in the up-scale South Coast Plaza shopping center. The restaurant itself is next to Bloomingdale’s, so after spending all your money there, you can exhaust the reminder of your credit line with an Anqi power lunch.

The room at Anqi is very large but thanks to proper spacing and dividers, it still preserves a somewhat private feel. The noise level is also surprisingly quiet. Generally, rooms this big becomes an echo chamber when filled. Thanks to the restaurant’s good design, you can carry out a conversation at Anqi without feeling like you’re in a noisy bar.

The food at Anqi is New Age Asian Fusion. That’s a fancy term for taking a traditional Asian dish, like Pho, and making it smaller while doubling the price. Normally, this type of business model doesn’t fly unless you can also create an “Oh Wow!” experience with the taste. And that is something that Anqi does very well.

We enjoyed six dishes plus dessert during our two hour lunch at Anqi. Every dish was pretty awesome. I especially enjoyed the Maine lobster salad and Ahi tuna tataki. Sally loved the fried banana with ice cream dessert. Lunch came to $150 with tax and tip, which isn’t the most expensive lunch I ever had, but it definitely wasn’t the cheapest.

AnQi on Urbanspoon