SOUTH PORTLAND – To be able to eat and run is one thing.

But it’s not often you find a place where you can eat a lot in a hurry.

Additional Photos

The lunch buffet at Asia Restaurant in South Portland offers choices from soup and appetizers to dessert for $7.50. Photos by Gabe Souza/Staff photographer

Jessica He takes a customer s order from the menu.

That’s one of the great things about the lunch buffet at the relocated Asia Restaurant in Mill Creek Shopping Center. For years, the restaurant was across the street, behind a drug store.

But earlier this year, it moved. The new space is bigger and brighter, and complete with a lunch buffet to complement the extensive menu.

The restaurant specializes in Cantonese, Szechuan, Hunan and Mandarin cuisine.

It’s located in a shopping center with a CVS, a bookstore and several other stores. So it’s a good place for a quick lunch while doing errands.

I was seated immediately during a recent lunch visit. When I said I wanted the lunch buffet — $7.50 a person — I was told to help myself right away.

There were two buffet tables with a dozen or more choices — plenty of variety, but not so much that I felt overwhelmed.

I bypassed the fried appetizers — crab rangoon was one — and got a cup of egg drop soup. It was smooth and full of velvety egg floating in the broth.

I also tried — small portions, mind you — some Hunan pork, vegetable lo mein, pork fried rice and cashew chicken.

All were good. I especially liked the fried rice, which was lighter than many fried rice dishes I’ve had, with very tender pork.

When I got back to my table, I had a glass of water — which was refilled every time I took a sip — and a pot of tea waiting for me.

Just to do my duty as a reporter, I went back for seconds to sample some rice noodles with vegetables and some pan-fried dumplings. I liked both. The dumplings, with a slightly tangy meat filling, were crunchy and very good.

There was also some fruit and Jell-O for dessert, but I passed.

If you don’t want the buffet, the menu has more than two dozen lunch specials for under $7, ranging from $4.50 for pork chow mein with fried rice to $6.95 for cashew chicken, fried rice and choice of appetizer.

Mandarin specials are also offered at lunch, about a dozen of them, most priced at around $6.75. These include kung pao chicken; chicken, beef or pork with garlic sauce; Szechuan spiced shrimp; and Hunan beef, chicken or pork.

There are appetizer combination plates for lunch such as beef teriyaki, egg roll and fried rice for $5.75; and boneless ribs, egg roll, chicken fingers and fried rice for $6.25.

All the lunch specials are served from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Because of its location just over the Casco Bay Bridge near Route 77, the restaurant is on the commuting route for a lot of people. There are lots of choices for take-out dinner, including about 16 dinner combos for $8.25 each.

The features staff of The Portland Press Herald anonymously samples meals for about $7.

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