Indonesia native Henrika Panjaitan opened Panbers Asian Bistro around the new year, for now serving familiar Vietnamese and Chinese fare. Once she’s built up steady clientele, she plans to add sushi and Indonesian plates (which she calls challenging to American eaters). Between herself and her brother (her only employee, currently), she says they can cook across all Asian cuisines. Both are warm and sincere as they greet guests with big smiles.
At lunch, we order the shrimp lobster sauce ($7.95) and chicken lemongrass sauce ($7.25), each with included rice and soup. The mild shrimp dish holds no lobster flavor, as more of a clear, goopy sauce of general fishiness full of egg white strands, green onions and baby corn, plus plump, chewy prawns. It’s highly salty (ask for no MSG, we learn), but less so than the chicken, bursting with floral lemongrass essence under strong fish sauce aroma — too bad it’s unpleasantly gritty and fibrous. Needs work, but fixable.