Asian Legend

Cuisine: Taiwanese, Chinese
Address: 516 E. William St., Ann Arbor, MI
Price: $

We spotted this new restaurant in the old spot of Kabob Palace and decided to give it a try. As a rule of thumb, eating Chinese food outside of the Chinatowns of big metropolitan areas can be a disappointment. But Asian Legend ended up convincing us that fresh tasting, authentic Chinese food can be had right here in Ann Arbor.

Asian legend has a narrow and rather long dining room and friendly and competent service. There are nicely framed black and white photos lining the sunflower yellow walls. Overall the look of the place is neat and pleasant.

The menu is refreshingly different than what we have seen at other Chinese and Taiwanese joints. There are plenty of vegetarian choices and several fresh, lightly cooked offerings. We wanted to sample as many things as possible, so we ordered four of the appetizer/snack plates (小吃 xiao chi). The seaweed and dried tofu ($4.25) is a cold snack - we loved the texture of both the tofu and the seaweed - very refreshing!

The Chinese watercress with garlic ($5.95) was simply delicious! The watercress was gently sauteed with a bit of garlic and salt - that's it!

The scallion pancake ($2.25) was a bit thicker than what we have experienced at other restaurants but still pretty tasty.

We also tried the beef wrapped in onion pancake ($4.50), which was quite good, especially dipped in the chili sauce provided at each table.

We are definitely adding Asian Legend to the list of favorite cheap eats joints!