Heart of Asia

Great, fresh food! Awesome service. Decor could use freshening-up.

Delicious, lively dishes that come to the table super quickly! What's holding it back from being a five star joint:
-noisy dining room, this is also a karaoke place so if the door to the karaoke room is open then you're going to get an earful
-menu descriptions are perhaps a little too concise, at least the English writing.
-decor is not at a five star level

Overall would SUPER HIGHLY recommend for takeout, tough!

The experience was kind of "meh". First the service was not in tune with our perusing of the interesting and extensive menu. What I mean is that we had barely sat down when our server came by with water (we weren't offered tea) and asked if we were ready to order. We weren't. When we had decided we called her over. We were looking for vegetarian food and had to explain "no meat, no shrimp, no fish, no oyster sauce". From their vegetable section I ordered Spicy Vegetables and Rice Noodles and my friend ordered Fried Broccoli and a side of rice. This was Tuesday after a long weekend. When the dishes arrived my spicy rice noodles and vegetables consisted of the weekend's left over, soggy noodles and the vegetables were a few shredded carrots, some pieces of green onion and a few bean sprouts. The "spicy" part was sadly lacking as there was really none of that satisfying spicy heat that I've been looking for since I've moved to Victoria 12 years ago. My friend's broccoli was just that, a plate full of stir-fried broccoli. Fortunately, it was very nice cooked with a nice balance of crispiness and melt in your mouth feel. It was also nicely seasoned with garlic and ginger. The service was pretty indifferent and we had to sit and wait for our bill while the whole time listening to loud Chinese pop music which, like most pop music was not soothing dinner music. Having said all that I still feel the place had promise and might go back on a weekend night when the "A" team might be on the job and the food a bit fresher.