ItaliAsia at the Doubletree by Hilton Tampa Airport

4500 W Cypress St., Tampa, FL 33607

(813) 998-2265

http://www.italiasiatampa.com/

Categories: Restaurant

Cuisine: Asian, Italian

Features: Banquet facility

Cost range: 10.01-20.0

Payment options: Credit cards accepted

Alcohol: Full bar

More in this neighborhood: International Plaza District

The concept, honed at a hotel in Chicago, is half Italian, half Asian, no fusion, something for everyone. That means chicken wonton soup cheek to jowl with Tuscan white bean puree. Nothing wrong with that. Bustling around a spacious, airy dining room, servers could use a bit more polish and training, but a lot of good work is being done in the kitchen: A deconstructed seafood Rangoon brings fried wonton triangles atop shrimp, scallops and lobster meat, brought together with a gingery cream and squiggles of sweet and sour. (A deconstructed Caesar, on the other hand, reads more like a salad in a bag. Why do I, the customer, want to do all the work of assembly?)
While ItaliAsia's pizzas are not likely to launch a thousand ships, the Asian-inflected dinner entrees exhibit some skill: A pan-roasted miso glazed salmon fillet comes rosy-pink in the middle and set atop chewy udon noodles in a puddle of soy-mirin broth and surrounded by stir-fried bok choy and other Asian veggies; the Mongolian tenderloin is zingy with ginger and green onion, just sweet with brown sugar, and juxtaposed with hearty brown rice.