Seven Moons for seven fine Asian cuisines

By PAM THOMAS
Journal Staff Writer

• See the menu.

You know a restaurant has made a big splash when it hasn't even been open for a year and an addition is already under construction. That's the story of Seven Moons in North Kingstown, showcasing the cuisines of seven Asian countries: Cambodia, China, Japan, Laos, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam.

From East Greenwich on down, the southern end of Rhode Island has experienced a population boom. Many of these new homeowners have moved in from more urban places such as Providence, where Asian eateries are almost as ubiquitous as Dunkin' Donuts. They couldn't help but pine for a taste of what they'd left behind.

So when Leang and Nathalie Hong began a total renovation of the old Galley Restaurant on Post Road, they put up a marquee that promised that a restaurant specializing in East Asian cuisine, plus a sushi bar, would be coming soon. Thus tantalized, folks hungry for Vietnamese bee boong and Thai soup mobbed the place when it opened last summer, and have been keeping it packed ever since.

I went to Seven Moons for an official review dinner recently, but, as I live only a few miles away and love East Asian food, I've dined there and taken out many times -- and have never been disappointed.

The quality of the food should not be a surprise for those who know that the Hongs previously were owners of what have been some of the tastiest (and most reasonably priced) Asian restaurants in the state: Four Seasons in Providence, Galaxie in Cranston, and Galaxie II in North Providence. Now, though, they're concentrating their considerable talents on Seven Moons.

Rich Oriental embroidery

All nautical traces of The Galley have vanished, replaced with serene Asian decor, all taupes with accents of rich Cambodian or Thai embroidered hangings.

The drinks bar in the middle divides the restaurant in two; the Japanese side has a sushi bar and a long row of tables for which you take off your shoes and step into a lowered Japanese-style seating area. The other side has several regular dining rooms, including one with a working fireplace and large round tables for big parties.

Leang Hong's mother was Vietnamese and his father was Chinese, and he was born in Cambodia and lived for a while in Thailand. Nathalie is Thai and Laotian. So it's no wonder their restaurants have always featured a range of foods from East Asia.

But with seven cuisines to choose from, the menu here is extensive. For our tasting dinner, I brought my husband and two friends so we could try dishes from as many countries as possible.

Jasmine tea was brought to the table to supplement our Asian beer choices; Seven Moons offers such brands as Kirin and Sapporo from Japan, and Singha from Thailand. A good range of wines by the glass are offered, including a Reisling from Covey Dry Run, which always goes nicely with spicy food. There's also sake and a variety of fun cocktails known here as Moontinis.

The menu gives diners an easy out, offering the 7 Moon Antipasto ($19.50) with foods from five countries, such as Vietnamese Nime Chow, Chinese dumplings and Thai Chicken Wings with Lemongrass (the last, with a tasty peanut sauce, were a big hit at my house for the Super Bowl).

But we struck out on our own.

Crisp, dark green salads

From the "healthy Asian salads" column, we ordered the Laotian Cold Bok Choy Salad ($4.95). As promised, we felt positively robust chowing down from the platter of crisp, beautifully dark green leaves dressed with a sweet vinegar and crushed almonds and crispy noodles. It was the perfect dish to share.

Our Malaysian offering was a beef satay ($7.50), six generous pieces of thick, tender beef in a flavorful sauce that tasted neither spicy nor peanutty like other satays, but had a hint of honey.

Though we didn't have it this night, one of my favorite appetizers here is Natang ($5.95) from Thailand. Diners are served stiff rice squares, loaded up with ground pork and shrimp in a slightly spicy coconut-milk sauce so delicious I have to struggle not to order it every single time I come.

The menu also offers a wide assortment of fabulous-sounding soups. One of these days, I'm going to try the Cambodian Delicate Sour Soup, flavored with lemongrass, round Asian eggplant and fish sauce, and the Vietnamese Sweet and Sour Soup (tomato, pineapple and mint). Unfortunately, I'm addicted to the fragrant Thai Tom Yam Soup, which you can have with shrimp or vegetables, but I like it with the chicken flavored with tangy lime juice, lemongrass and basil ($5.95 to serve two).

Many Asian restaurants make this soup, but the Seven Moons version is so excellent that if I were on death row, this would be the soup at my last supper.

Spicy entree was just right

Moving on to the entrees, we ordered the Salted Spicy Pork Rib Chops ($10) without even seeing how they fit into our many-countries theme (they're Chinese). They just sounded good, and they turned out to be our favorite dish of the night.

The platter was covered with pieces of pork, some attached to ribs, that had been fried to such a snappy crispness on the outside we were amazed at how tenderly moist they were inside. The menu warns, "not for the timid," but their spiciness was just bold enough (as long as you don't eat one of the red peppers). Outstanding.

Our Vietnamese entree was Beef Bee Bong ($6.95), which you can order with any kind of meat or shrimp. It consists of room-temperature thin, soft rice noodles similar to angel hair pasta, put together with bean sprouts, cucumbers, lettuce and a tasty sauce made from sugar, vinegar, garlic, fish sauce and crushed peanuts. It even came with a spring roll.

By this time, the dishes were arriving at our table at such a furious pace we were almost having trouble keeping up. We were glad we hadn't ordered the Seven Moons Paella, which came to the table next to us and was so huge (it's $18.95) that it could have substituted for the turkey at Thanksgiving. It comes with clams, mussels, scallops, Chinese sausage and chicken.

Our next arrival was Stir-Fried Cantonese Noodles ($6.95), wide, soft rice noodles stir-fried with delicate pork, crisp Chinese broccoli and other vegetables such as tiny corn cobs in a mild brown sauce. It suffered only in comparison to the adventurous tastes of our other selections.

Japanese cuisine is given a lot of space in the Seven Moons menu (if you take out, there's an entire separate menu for sushi and other Japanese dishes).

A handy way to taste various Japanese foods is to order a Bento Box. (This is popular among kids, even though there is a children's menu.) You choose from 12 dishes in the first column, including various teriyakis or katsus (breaded deep-fried pork or chicken) or beef negima (my husband's favorite, thin slices of sirloin rolled with scallions, served here with cheese, which seems like overkill) for $5 to $8.50.

Then you choose one or two options from the second column, which include a California roll ($3.50, the ultimate beginner sushi roll of crab stick, cucumber and avocado wrapped in seaweed), seven pieces of sashimi (raw fish, $7) or four pieces of nigiri sushi (various raw fish on rice), or assorted tempura ($6).

Tempura is meat or vegetables deep-fried in a batter, and the Seven Moons batter is so light it's ethereal. Shrimp, in particular, can be overpowered by the batter, but not here. You'll also get vegetable slices such as sweet potato, carrots or green peppers fried in the batter.

It all comes in a lovely sectioned-off Asian box, including rice and a helping of crisp lettuce with Japanese dressing -- and it's preceded by a bowl of miso soup. Even with only one choice from column A and one from B for a total of $11, I end up taking food home.

The idea of raw fish turns some people off, so rest assured that any diners you bring along can choose from more than a dozen cooked sushi rolls. My friend Lucille ordered the Spider Roll ($8.50), which is deep-fried soft-shell crab, cucumber and avocado formed into a roll, sprinkled with sesame seeds and cut into eight pieces. The crunch of the crab is terrific with the smoothness of the avocado.

There's a wide assortment of sushi and sashimi, which can be ordered a la carte. My absolute favorite, however, is the mutsu, which the menu describes as escalar, of the swordfish family. A white fish with a texture rather like salmon, it is so rich it tastes like butter ($3.50 for an order of two pieces on rice).

For convenience, however, you can have a sushi dinner combination. The $13.50 version is an excellent price for 14 pieces, including 6 pieces of tuna roll and 2 each of nigiri tuna, salmon, mutsu and other whitefish. Everything tasted as fresh as can be, right down to the pink ginger.

Dessert time

For dessert, thankfully, there are only a few choices. We went with red-bean tempura ice cream, which is deep-fried with tempura batter. When we suggested perhaps we should also order the ginger flavor, our cheerful and efficient waitress, who had been knowledgeable about the menu so far, looked appalled. Two is too much, she cautioned us.

She was right. Moments later, she appeared carrying what seemed to be a large popcorn bowl, but it was filled with ice cream wrapped in fried batter. It tasted deliciously like a waffle with ice cream that was refreshing and not overly sweet. The four of us together couldn't finish it, though we tried. We were stunned that it was only $4.

This combination of excellent, interesting food plus reasonable prices means Seven Moons is always busy -- last Friday when I stopped in to pick up sushi takeout, there wasn't a single parking spot left in the spacious lot!

But it tends to be an early crowd, even on the weekends, and the line moves fast, because the place is bigger than it looks. When we arrived at 7:30 on a crowded Friday night a couple of weeks ago, we only waited half an hour -- a small price to pay for an excellent night out.

****

Details, details

Seven Moons, 6900 Post Rd., North Kingstown, (401) 885-8383. Casual. Reservations for parties of 8 or more. No smoking. Wheelchair accessible. Highchairs available. Open Monday-Thursday 11:30 a.m. to 9:30 p.m.; Friday-Saturday 11:30 a.m. to 10:30 p.m.; Sunday 4-9:30 p.m. V, MC, DIS, AE. Free parking. Appetizers are $1.50 to $13.95. Entrees are $5 to $20. Wines are $14.50 to $29 a bottle.

****

If you like Four Seasons in Providence, Galaxie in Cranston or Asian Paradise in Providence, you'll like Seven Moons.

****

Bill of fare

The bill for two at Seven Moons might look something like this:

2 Sapporo beers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $7.00

Malaysian beef satay. .. . . . . . . . . . . . $7.50

Bok choy salad. . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . $4.95

Salted pork chop ribs . . . . . . . . . .. . . $10.00

Large white rice. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. $3.50

Sushi combination. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $13.50

Tempura ice cream. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $4.00

Tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . $4.04

Tip . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . $10.00

Total . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . $64.49

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Seven Moons