Asia City is the large new Chinese restaurant on Washtenaw next to Hua Xing. We've been watching this massive building go up with some interest, hoping it would be a giant Hong Kong-style place like we've seen in the LA suburbs, fearing it would be Yet Another Nasty Buffet.
Turns out it may be both.
It's got a decent-looking menu, with a lot of genuine Hong Kong dishes on it, as well as the usual Americanized pretenders. It's also got a giant buffet area (it wasn't open when we were there, but the name tags were up, and it definitely looked like the usual stuff, so not very exciting... though they did have an "open kitchen" area where buffet patrons could get things cooked to order, we'll see). We haven't tried either of these.
And it's also got Dim Sum, with service from carts, so it's going directly up against Great Lake (which also has carts on weekends) as well as Lai Lai (which is checklist-only). However, they're set up to do some stuff we previously hadn't seen around here, like frying items tableside directly at the cart. And they have some new items. We're all for this; if it makes all three places step up their game, that means more and better Dim Sum for us!
What we had was good, but on the expensive side. We're going to show you some photos now, and circle back with them in a while to actually review them because there's no point in reviewing a restaurant during its first week. You shouldn't hold off on eating there, though: if you like Chinese food, check it out. Well, the menu and the dim sum anyway.

Egg custard tarts. We both felt they're the best we've had, possibly ever. Hence they lead off the photo set.

Lobster balls. Served with a peanut curry sauce (in background), which is a great addition to the local dim sum scene.

Chinese cruller stuffed with shrimp paste, with the same sauce. Asian Legend's version is here. (Remember to enlarge this photo first.)

Shrimp in rice roll. Generous sauce, but a bit soggy.

Sesame balls.

Pan-fried cakes with shrimp and scallop. Slightly underdone. Other batches we saw were browned better.

Shrimp paste around sugar cane. Nice addition. We usually think of this as Vietnamese.

Congee with dried scallops, thousand-year eggs, and who knows what else. Assembled tableside.
More photos in the extended post...
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