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I have a new dilemma. It’s called “Tree Country” and it’s a new restaurant on Coventry.

What is the dilemma? There are now three good Asian restaurants on Coventry: Pacific East, Mint Cafe and Tree Country. (Yes, there’s a fourth Asian restaurant on the street…but…well…yeah.)

The three horned dilemma
Pacific East is an excellent Japanese restaurant. I go there often. One unfortunate thing is that people think of Pacific East only as a sushi restaurant.

Yes, it has great sushi, but it’s more. The dobinmushi soup is sublime. I just don’t know how else to express the light flavor or the aesthetic of this soup, served in a teapot. The zaru soba noodles are cool satisfaction on a sunny day. Their bento lunch box (great on a Saturday) is a really good bargain and very tasty.

Mint Cafe is an excellent Thai restaurant that I’ve mentioned many times before. Their shumai appetizer (fried!) are savory little dumplings that are horrifyingly addictive. The tom yum goong soup is a really good balance of sour and spicy, in such a way that if you’ve never had it before you might be thrown off guard for a moment. The crazy noodles are a solid and never-disappointing basil-hot pepper dish that I almost always order despite being tempted by the other menu items too (curries, lard nar, pad…).

But now? In the place where Que Tal once lived there is Tree Country. Tree Country has a wide ranging menu that includes Japanese, Thai and Korean. Interestingly, like another reviewer, I went with their Korean because it’s something you can’t find at Pacific East or Mint Cafe and I haven’t had Korean for too long, since I regularly visited places on Payne while at grad school. I wasn’t disappointed by their Spicy Pork Bul Go Gi. My friend got a japanese style noodle soup with tempura shrimp and reported it to be very good, although the broth was less salty than at Pacific East.

Photos for your enjoyment:

So what do I do? Three great Asian restaurants that are nearly in a row on the same street. I’m pretty sure I’ll wind up going to Pacific East for my soups and sushi, Mint for my noodles and to Tree Country for Korean and the dishes I can’t find elsewhere on the street.

Cleveland Heights Dining Guide
Oh, and here’s something else I found: the Cleveland Heights Restaurant Guide published by the city. Browsing the list, I realize I’ve been to a few other places (like the Bodega, the new jazz/martini/cool bar on Coventry) that would be worth reviewing.

I also realized after reading the guide that there are four more Asian restaurants on Lee: the well-know Lemon Grass, Ariyoshi (review from “Past the Line”) offers sushi and Aoeshi Cafe which (on the windows) advertises panini and sushi (!?!). There’s also a Thai restaurant near Superior and Lee next to Zagara’s, but I totally forget the name and can’t find it now on the guide. Doh!

I’m not sure if Aoeshi is open yet…but I’ve been to the Aeoshi on the west side several times. They had sushi and very tasty Korean, but the panini offering is new. I’m looking forward to a Bul Go Gi panini…I think…it could be good. I think.

A fad?
So there are seven restaurants that offer either Japanese, Thai, Vietnamese, Korean or Chinese cuisine all within a mile or so of each other. Is it a cluster or is it a fad that, five years from now, we’ll remember as “that time when there were all those Asian restaurants in Cleveland Heights”?