Lin’s Asian Cuisine: Great Food at Great Prices

130 Scenic Gulf Drive, Suite 5B
Miramar Beach
(850) 424-5888

Hours: Open lunch and dinner, Mon.-Sat. at 10:30 a.m., Sun. at noon
Reservations: Accepted
Children's menu: Yes
Dress: Casual

Food
Service
Atmosphere
Overall

By Bruce Collier
June 11, 2009 Issue

If you're like me, you eat much of your Chinese food from cartons, taken from bags dispensed over counters by smiling young people in tiny, brightly lit little takeout joints. Such places usually have a few tables, but they aren't most people's idea of a sit-down restaurant. For those who want a pleasant, tastefully furnished place to sit, relax and enjoy a fine meal of Chinese and Southeast Asia-inspired dishes, there's a new place in town--Lin's Asian Cuisine, in Miramar Beach.

The interior of Lin's has booths on either side, with tables in the middle, but manages to avoid a packed-in feel. The walls bear decorative prints and hangings, and everything feels tranquil and welcoming. The night we ate there, the staff was working the place, and the chef was also stopping to ask diners how things were going. From the looks on the diners' faces, things were going well.

The menu offers appetizers, soups, Southeast Asian and Japanese-style dishes, traditional American Chinese restaurant fare (moo shu, fried rice, sweet and sour, lo mein, kung pao, etc.) and house specials. The proteins include beef, pork, chicken, shrimp, scallops, whole fish, and duck, and there are lighter "diet" and vegetarian dishes. The most expensive main course item on the menu (aside from a market-priced dish) is $15.

We ordered starters, a Thai spring roll and pan-fried vegetable dumplings. The latter was new to me, since I am inclined to pork in my dumplings. I was glad I made the temporary switch. Eight crisp-tender dumplings came, made of spinach-flavored dough, nicely browned and filled with black mushrooms, spinach and other greens, with a soy-based dipping sauce. The spring roll was likewise vegetable-based and went well with a sweet duck sauce.

Other starters include hot and sour soup, egg drop soup, seafood soup, won ton soup, egg rolls, dim sum, teriyaki chicken, pork dumplings, scallion pancakes, and wings.

For the main course, I picked something from the Southeast Asian section, and my friend went traditional. I ordered shrimp sauteed with black bean sauce, and she got shrimp and asparagus. Each of us were served about nine plump shrimp, large size, peeled (except for the tail) and butterflied. My friend's shrimp came in a slightly thick, sweet sauce amid a pile of sliced carrots, sugar snap peas, squash, celery and onions, and asparagus spears sliced and fanned out. The edges of the large serving plate were decorated with artfully carved pieces of cucumber, carrot and onion.

My shrimp had a slightly more pungent sauce, with flecks of black bean, and there were also plenty of crisply stir-fried fresh onions, sugar snap peas, carrots and squash. Steamed rice came with both dishes, and my friend took half of her meal home.

Other choices include sesame chicken, pad thai, General Tso's chicken, orange beef, Mongolian beef, grilled lemongrass shrimp, Thai curry, crispy duck, honey walnut chicken, Hunan pork, whole fish, flank steak with basil, ginger glazed beef, chicken, scallops or shrimp, and a whole lot more. There's also fried rice and Chinese or Thai noodle dishes. Everything we saw come out of the kitchen was carefully and beautifully plated. The servers and the chef seemed genuinely interested in how we liked the food.

There were no desserts listed, and our server didn't mention any. However, she brought out a half-orange, sectioned and peeled for a refreshing little bite to go with the fortune cookies and the bill.

Lin's is located in a shopping center anchored by a regional chain grocery, just across the highway from a retail outlet shopping center. This has always been a heavily traveled place, and since Lin's features a very reasonably priced weekday lunch special (everything under $7) in addition to dinner, they ought to thrive. They deserve it.

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