Asian Noodle House
204 Dryden Road, Ithaca
607-272-9106
Collegetown
From the folks who brought us Little Thai House, Asian Noodle House (formerly "Tap") is a classic noodle shop with a substantial variety of noodle and rice dishes and soups, plus gourmet Asian pizzas, with plentiful portions and reasonable prices. The curry puffs appetizer were a treat, and Thai grilled chicken with noodle was served with a perfect Thai peanut sauce. Our entrees came with a small salad, generously adorned with bean sprouts and bits of tofu.

Capital Corner Restaurant
118 West State Street
607-272-7350 (fax 272-9398)
Downtown Ithaca
Hours: 11am-10pm 7 days a week
This new establishment where Asiatic Garden lived for decades has a lot to live up to, and is off to a very good start. We were impressed that our egg rolls came out of the kitchen almost as soon as we’d ordered them, hot and fresh. The steamed dumplings appetizer didn’t arrive in quite as timely a fashion, coming after the first of two entrees. Our beef satay, with chunks of fresh tomato, was a pleasant surprise, and the sesame chicken (a Chinese restaurant staple) was good. They have affordable combo dinners and lunch specials, and deliver free with an order of $8 or more.

Dasan-J Korean Restaurant
104 Dryden Road, Ithaca
607-256-3333
Collegetown
Dasan-J's Korean BBQ dishes are served over sticky white rice, with a side of crisp salad. The menu features a vegetarian selection in addition to beef and pork, wraps as well as platters, and affordable lunch specials.

Jade Garden
113 North Aurora Street
607-272-8880
Downtown Ithaca
Hours: 11:00-10:30 Daily, Fri & Sat til 11 pm, Sunday opening at noon.
Jade Garden offers a small but well-stocked Chinese lunch and dinner buffet right off the Commons, plus tasty food prepared to order for dining in or carry-out service. The restaurant is clean and casual, and while they don’t compare to the sheer variety at the larger buffets in town, they don’t seem to have to.

King Buffet
734 South Meadow Street
607-256-3388
Ithaca Southwest
Hours: 11 am - 9:30 pm daily, til 10:30 Fri & Sat
King Buffet starts out as a Chinese buffet, but ends up with a much broader array of food. Their fresh and flavorful dishes include plenty of vegetarian dishes, sushi, carve-to-order ham and roast beef, and kid-friendly items like pizza and spaghetti.

Kyushu
2300 North Triphammer Road
607-257-6788
Ithaca Northeast
A new Japanese hibachi restaurant and sushi bar in the Tops/Applebee's plaza on North Triphammer Road in front of Pyramid Mall, Kyushu offers hibachi-style dishes (cooked table-side), fresh sushi, and a variety of other Japanese meals. The food is delicious, well prepared, and surprisingly affordable; complete lunches cost $6-9, and complete dinners $12 and up. Things seem vaguely uncoordinated, but on opening day, we won't complain. (The hibachi chefs certainly aren't uncoordinated, or someone would lose a finger!) When the staff has everything down pat, they may well rate a "5."

Ling Ling
Ithaca Shopping Plaza & East Hill Plaza
607-272-0718 & 607-273-1668
Ithaca
Hours: 11-10 Mon-Thurs, 11-11 Fri & Sat, Noon-10 Sun
Ling Ling, a pair of carry-out or eat-in Chinese restaurants, offers quick and inexpensive and tasty Chinese food. They offer a surprising variety of Szechuan, Hunan, and Cantonese cooking a la carte, with several options available as combo dinners ($7-8 or so for entree plus fried rice and egg roll), and a couple dozen lunch special possibilities, where $4.60 gets you an entree with fried rice, plus soup or an egg roll. Make sure you check which one you’re calling, or you’ll go pick up your food at the wrong place!

Little Thai House (Collegetown)
202 Dryden Road
607-273-1977
Collegetown
A tiny, casual eatery for take-out or eat-in service. You can order items from the menu, but your best bet is to select two already-prepared entrees from the steam table as a combo (or one large portion) for $4.95. We recommend the Pad Thai and one of the other entrees. Some dishes are deliciously spicy, and there’s good chili sauce if it’s not hot enough.

Little Tokyo Korean Japanese Restaurant
113 East State Street, Ithaca
607-272-8638
Downtown Ithaca
Hours: Lunch 11:30-2:30, dinner 4:30-9:30
Little Tokyo is a promising new restaurant, with a variety of Korean and Japanese lunches and dinners, plus a list of sushi rolls made fresh. Lots of the meals offer a choice of meats, tofu, or vegetables, making this a promising downtown vegetarian destination. The food was very good, and plentiful, though they need to work on better-organized service in this oddly shaped (long and narrow) restaurant; one waitress might well have been enough in a different layout, but ours seemed overwhelmed when the tables were only about a quarter full. They should do well with the $10 business lunch crowd, if not the $5 bargain lunch crowd.

Madeline's
215 East State Street
607-277-2253
Downtown Ithaca
Hours: Lunch and dinner 7 days
A trendy bar and eatery with fancy food and fancy prices, on the east end of the Ithaca Commons. Exceptional bar featuring a great single malt Scotch selection. Listed only.

Main Moon Buffet
401 Elmira Road, Buttermilk Falls Plaza
607-277-3399
Ithaca Southwest
Ithaca’s original "Chinese Buffet," Main Moon has expanded in response to the arrival of competing buffets in town. They’ve added sushi and a more complete salad bar, in addition to the wide array of Chinese food and such kid-friendly offerings as chicken wings and french fries. There are always vegetarian dishes on the buffet.

Miyake
416 Eddy Street
607-277-6767
Collegetown
Hours: Open for lunch and dinner 7 days a week
In the former location of Kayuga, Miyake features attractive new decor and an expanded menu. After we'd been sitting at our table for a while (the restaurant seemed understaffed), we were greeted with a small dish of pea pods to nibble on, and served hot green tea. The steamed gyoza is a bit wilted, but the calamari tempura is exceptional and the sushi very good. The spicy tuna roll seems to carry most of its spiciness in a sauce drizzled over the top, instead of throughout the tuna. We look forward to trying more of Miyake's menu, including the hot food.

New Delhi Diamond's
106 West Green Street, Ithaca
607-272-4508
Downtown Ithaca
Hours: Lunch and dinner daily
On Green Street just off the Commons in Downtown Ithaca, Diamond's features an all-you-can-eat lunch buffet with an ever-changing variety of Indian specialties, as well as a dinner menu for sit-down dining. They never manage to maintain the supply of nan, the traditional Indian flat bread, or refill water glasses in a timely manner, costing the restaurant a rating point. The silver lining? When there's nan, it's fresh and warm, and perfect for mopping up some spinach aloo or other thick sauce. The tandoori chicken is always delicious, and we recommend a mango lassi (think smoothie) with your meal. There's always room for a bowl of kheer, a sweetened, creamy rice dessert.

Plum Tree
113 Dryden Road
607-256-8081
Collegetown
This Japanese restaurant at the "kneecap" bend of the lowermost block of Dryden Road offers good sushi and sashimi and a plentiful variety of cooked meals with very nice presentation. Now all they have to do is differentiate themselves from Kayuga, just a half block away.

Sangam
424 Eddy Street
607-273-1006
Collegetown
Hours: Open 7 days a week
Sangam's daily lunch buffet is a good way to sample this Indian restaurant's offerings, though there's not quite enough variety on the buffet from day to day to explore what they're capable of. Come back for dinner, or order lunch from the menu. The mango chicken is excellent, and Sangam offers traditional tandoori (clay oven) roasting. They can cater to vegetarian and even vegan needs.

Sticky Rice
401 East State Street, Ithaca
607-275-3641
Downtown Ithaca
Hours: Lunch Mon-Fri 11:30-2:30, dinner 7 days
Thai and Laotian restaurant at the back of the Gateway Center, just east of the Ithaca Commons. Theoretically open for lunch, but always closed when we try to go. Listed only.

Taste of Thai
216 The Commons
607-256-5487
Downtown Ithaca
Hours: Tues-Sun, 11am-3pm lunch, 5pm-10pm dinner
With a great fancy Thai restaurant on Route 13, and a great casual Thai restaurant in Collegetown, it’s nice to see something in the middle price-wise, but with top-notch food. The Pad Thai was delicious, and not quite what we were used to, and the Khao Pud Supparod, or pineapple and chicken fried rice, with slices of Thai sausage and raisins, was our first experience with sweet fried rice. Nearly all the dishes can be made vegetarian, using tofu, vegetables, or mock chicken or duck in place of meat ingredients. Our waitress was great, but some of the “supporting cast” in the dining room seemed to need a bit more coordination.

Taste of Thai Express
526 West State Street, Ithaca
607-272-8424
Ithaca West End
Hours: Mon-Sat, 11:30am-2:30pm lunch, 4:30pm-10pm dinner
This west end eatery, just east of Route 13 on State Street, features the same exceptional food as Taste of Thai on the Commons, but this one delivers as well as having eat-in service. Our food arrived far faster than the promised 40-45 minutes, and everything was correct, fresh, and hot. The cashew chicken, a Vietnamese-style dish, was a delightful surprise, with a marinated wood-grilled flavour and crunchy strips of onion and green pepper. (Web Site)

Thai Cuisine
501 South Meadow Street
607-273-2031
Ithaca Southwest
Known for having "the best Thai food in New York State," Thai Cuisine could rest on its laurels, but there always seems to be just that extra attention to detail. This is certainly one of Ithaca’s best restaurants, with good service, exceptional food, and an attractive presentation. Thai Cuisine specializes in spicy food (there are options for those who prefer their food blander) and it’s important to note that "medium" is more than spicy enough even for the hardiest spice lovers. The deluxe pad thai makes a wonderful shared appetizer, and we recommend the "Ped Long Song" duck dish as an entree. Don't forget dessert! On the weekend, try the dim-sum style brunch. It's an affordable and fun way to sample many of the restaurant’s specialties in smaller portions.

Wok Village
23 Cinema Drive
607-257-8881
Ithaca Northeast
This attractive and casual Chinese restaurant offers lunchtime dim sum on the weekends, a plentiful and ever-changing weekday lunch buffet, and nice dinners consisting of traditional Cantonese, Hunan, and Szechuan Chinese dishes, plus an array of Vietnamese specialties. (Web Site)