Ocean Villa Asian Cuisine

Pung Mie has been around for a long time in Atlanta with really mediocre Chinese grub compared to all the others on Buford Hwy... How has it been around for that long? The fuck do I know... But it's been kaput for awhile and a new Chino joint has taken over the space with the dumbest name, too. Ocean Villa Asian Cuisine. Sad to say, it's mediocre just like the dump before it. The menu is mostly Chino-American dishes. The first words outta the server's mouth basically paved the way for a double yellow kinda meal... In other words: middling.

The place was empty on a Saturday night. The amount of staff trumped the place with the old white couple in the corner noshing on egg drop soup and flied wice. There was not one single Oriental customer in the whole joint. I wanted to shoot myself but I was too lazy to go somewhere else.

Hi, do you speak Cantonese?

"Yes... Ni Hao."

What da fuck. Ah, isn't that Mandarin, sweet cheeks? Just shut your mouth or I'll gag it with an eggroll. She just kept on yapping away like some Yenta. Oy vey.

The menu read like a Chin Chin's menu, except it doesn't do sushi (Thank God.). It is so friggin vanilla white bread cracker of a menu that even the Mexicans will eat here (which a familia did come in later). Scrolling through the menu was putting me to sleep... Except for a few items that looked decent enough. This place is all over the board, there's not one defining Chinese cuisine here, no wonder they call it "Asian Cuisine".

Ugh, enough of the babbling... What about the food?

(Soup Dumplings - No soup, just plain dumpy.)

(Pea Shoots - They pushed this shit so hard, it musta been sitting around for awhile. And it was, old and thick stemmed. They should be young and tender like a school girl.)

(Beef Stew Hot Pot - Beef was tender but full of tendon and silver skin. Tendon needed to be cooked a lot longer because it was rubbery and chewy as fuck. It looked ok but I had better beef stew from a can of Dinty Moore.)

("Cha Chang Mein" - Surprisingly, this was actually pretty good. Noodles were toothy and the black bean sauce was spot on and meaty.)

(Crispy Fwied Chicken - Ah, shit, y'all know I had to do this every time I see it on a menu. It looked purdy when it arrived. Thin and crispy skin, plus. First bite was good but after awhile the meat tasted drier and drier. Not horrible but I won't be ordering this again if I'm ever here again.)

The interior space is similar to Pung Mie, it's nice but a restaurant with mediocre food with so much better competition around will only mean their demise sooner or later. It's too bad because this place coulda been somebody like a phoenix rising from the previous tenant's ashes. Oh, and the staff were actually pwetty nice people. I feel for ya. This place would do well in order by number white suburbia.

Flush.

1.5 Stars.

5145 Buford Highway NE
Doraville, GA 30340