Japanese Cuisine & Sushi Bar
1163 S. Semoran Blvd., 407/208-0809
Orlando
Only in America! The two most popular Asian cuisines in a former Pizza Hut. Start your meal with one of those artfully produced -- before your very eyes -- rolls of rice surrounding seafood softened with avocado and enlivened with scallion rings freckled with flying fish eggs, then move on to moo goo gai pan, orange beef or one of the meins. It's a twinning trend that's found elsewhere in the state. Lunch and dinner, entrees $8 to $15, served daily.
Cuisine 2000
601 S. New York Ave. 407/628-5912
Winter Park
This outpost of the local Thai community, concentrated along East Colonial with its most elegant expression at Siam Orchid (7575 Republic Drive; 407/351-0821), is owned and operated by James Boon, who obviously made enough money in his Bangkok House on Sanibel to open this surprise last January. He went the whole nine yards and bought the oversize, high-ceiling building that previously housed the headquarters of the much-mourned Sunset Grill. My favorite foods here include the appetizers of Cheese Rolls 2000 bristling with bits of crab and shrimp buried in cream cheese wrapped in thin rice paper before deep-frying. If you want to avoid the fry fats, order the rice paper-wrapped soft spring rolls. The pad thai is particularly good, made with imported rice noodles, stir-fried with bean curd and sprouts, chicken and green onion with a stack of fresh bean sprouts on the side and a Thai red sauce to give it some life. Lunch and dinner, entrees $9 to $16.50, Monday through Saturday.
Fuji Sushi
1449 Lee Road 407/645-1299
Winter Park
No relation to the restaurant of the same name at 7089 S. Orange Blossom Trail, featuring $3.95 luncheons and $6.50 all-you-can-eat buffets, with the largest Vietnamese restaurant in Orlando alongside, the Saigon, which has similar budget-stretching appeal. Nor does it have anything in common with the Benihana in town, tucked into the Orlando Hilton, or the half-dozen outlets of the Kobe Japanese Steakhouse and Sushi Bar. This newcomer is a simple little stand-alone that specializes in rolls, two dozen of them with such intriguing names as Rollins, Orlando and Lee Road, and they're wonderful preludes to the more ambitious menu with the usuals -- teppanyaki and tempura, curried beef and sukiyaki. Lunch, Monday through Friday; dinner, entrees $8 to $22, Monday through Saturday.
Japan Hill/Da Mee Rak
7225 W. Oakland Park Blvd. 954/572-9197
Lauderhill
A Korean-owned Japanese surprise with elegant decor and excellent selection of sushi and sashimi along with other Rising Sun standbys, but there's also authentic Korean barbecue prepared tableside and kim chee pots loaded with enough zest to make you forget you're in Florida. Lunch and dinner, entrees $7 to $13, served daily.
P.F. Chang's China Bistro
436 N. Orlano Ave 407/622-0188
Winter Park Winter Park Village
Opened in March, this newest link in the upscale chain that started six years ago in Phoenix is as stunning as its Florida forebears in South Miami (8888 S.W. 136th St., 305/234-2338) and North Miami Beach (17455 Biscayne Blvd., 305/957-1966), with stacked stone walls, a magnificent mural, California slate floors, outdoor patio and 11th century Ming horses. The initials stand for founder Paul Fleming and the Chang for a culinary Yin and Yang balancing act with grain and rice fan fare and T'sai meats, poultry and seafood, presented in authentic Cantonese, Hunan, Mongolian, Shanghai and Szechwan styles. The on-view kitchen is as unique for Chinese restaurants as the presence of non-Chinese chefs, led by Luis Munoz, Sheraton veteran in charge of a limited menu of the classics, including Singapore noodles, Malaysian chicken, catfish with black bean sauce, and strictly Western desserts. Lunch and dinner, entrees $7.95 to $13, served daily.
Red Bowl Rice & Noodle Company
22191 Powerline Road 561/394-6699
Boca Raton
Opened in January by the same Karl Alterman who brought us the easy-to-recommend GiGi's in Mizner Park three years ago. He went around the world for his next brainstorm, coming up with something he's labeled "CoolAsian." Why not? Pan-Asian is woked out, and he's making a magical merger of the cuisines of China, India, Japan, Korea, Malaysia and Vietnam. Doing the hybridization is executive chef Bobby Lane, former chef-owner of Oxley's in town, and he oversees preparation of five different satays, a splendid ginger-mango sauce with the "Lo Phat" spring rolls, wasabi cream for sesame-crusted tuna and a buffeteria for a mix and match of meats, sauce, noodles and rice, followed by such knockout dessert bowls as banana chocolate wontons with vanilla ice cream and caramel sauce and fortune cookie-crusted key lime tartlet with mango sauce. Lunch, Monday to Friday; dinner, entrees $9 to $11.95, nightly.
Yasumoto Bistro
9700 Collins Ave., 2nd Level 305/861-5475
Bal Harbour Bal Harbour Shops
With a pair of successful Sakura Japanese restaurants in his portfolio, one in the Doral area (9753 N.W. 41st St., 305/477-4477) and another in Coral Gables (440 S. Dixie Hwy., 305/665-7020), owner Bok An charted a new course, something he ambitiously labels "World Cuisine," including everything from oysters Rockefeller and grouper ceviche presented in a rice cracker bowl to blackened snapper with Cajun Caesar dressing and Vietnamese five-spiced quail with fennel and red onion slaw; from angel hair peppered with rock shrimp, grilled mahi-mahi with sautéed peaches, pistachio-crusted Chilean sea bass reposing on saffron risotto to grilled Atlantic salmon on a roasted Japanese eggplant salad with Chinese hot mustard and grilled chicken paillard with wilted spinach, potatoes flecked with rosemary and a malt vinegar jus. There's also an endless selection of sushi and sashimi plus hand rolls and tempura. Lunch and dinner, entrees $10 to 24, daily.