Hiro Asian Kitchen

First time here and I Dare you not to get addicted to the Sanpei Chicken Clay Pot. The FLAVOR will Consume you. A great recommendation by Eric. Followed with the Roasted Pineapple Up-​Side-​Down Cake. I’m Now Headed to the Bank; I’ve Got To Buy This Place.

I came here for a celebratory end-​of-​semester brunch with my family. Even though the brunch menu is pretty small, we were honestly overwhelmed by all the things we wanted to try. I started off my meal with a Jasmine 75 cocktail, which was exactly the sort of bright, simple drink I like to start off my brunch with. While we waited for the last member of our party, we ordered a plate of the potstickers. Honestly, these were my least favorite part of the meal; I thought the filling was a bit dried out and I though the price was a bit high for the portion ($ 7 for three potstickers which weren’t much better than your average Chinese takeout). Luckily for me, the entrees more than made up for the disappointment of the appetizer. I had the Hiro Slinger, which was absolutely delicious though a great deal heavier than I was expecting (not a complaint, though I was decidedly in the mood for something lighter); my mom got the Chicken and Waffles, which were absolutely sublime; finally, my brother ordered the Breakfast ramen, which he wasn’t crazy about but I liked a great deal.
I do have one complaint to make about Hiro however. For dessert, we decided that we wanted to try one of the green tea waffles. When we placed our order for one, our waitress informed us that they weren’t serving green tea waffles that day, but were instead serving a banana nutella waffle. Now, personally, I’m not a big fan of banana flavored desserts, so I was very disappointed with this news. While it’s certainly the kitchen staff’s prerogative to have specials, but replacing a regular menu item without any notice is a bit strange. If I come in again for brunch, I’ll probably call in beforehand to see if they’re going to be removing menu items for specials.
Beyond the food, the décor was very nice; pretty typical Asian fusion restaurant stuff. Service was fine, if not particularly noteworthy. Definitely looking forward to coming again to try the dinner and regular lunch menus!

Nothing to complain about. Simple menu. Lots of gluten free and vegetarian options. First time having pot stickers, they were crispy just how i like them. Our server (montray i believe) was very knowledgeable and made a great recommendation. Great atmosphere! Fast service!

Miss Leon’s fried chicken and waffles and unlimited do your own meddling mimosas for brunch on Sunday = sure, you could have Asian fusion too…

went twice in one week because this place is that good. i tried going once for brunch and once for dinner, and both gave me a great experience. get the ramen! it has a phở-​ish taste but i really enjoyed it. clean flavor. the broth was really good and the pork was so soft. also, the bulgogi slinger (? i forgot it’s name) was amazing!!! who knew bulgogi, rice, a fried egg, and tator tots would harmonize so well together… i couldn’t stop eating. their sticky rice was good too. i also recommend the eggplant-​tofu dish (it was one of their dinner options). i definitely want to visit again! i gotta try their waffles and desserts as well.
oh yeah and the service was amazing. such great waiters :) i have no idea why this place isn’t full of customers! during the both times i went, the restaurant was almost empty.

Outstanding. High quality ingredients and some of the most creative food in St. Louis. We’ve been here many times and always enjoy Hiro’s savory Asian fusion dishes. My personal favorite is the Spicy Laksa (somewhat like ramen in a spicy shrimp broth). The Beef Rendang is a close second — one of the best stewed/​tender beef dishes I’ve ever had.
The décor is modern and comfortable. One of my favorite places to relax in a booth for a long dinner and cocktails.
One of my favorite restaurants anywhere.
Try it!

I’m a downtown resident and I have been here several times and the food is consistently amazing. I never know in advance what I will order, but I know I will be delighted.

Beautiful restaurant. The décor was very modern, clean, and sleek. It was Filipino night (Tues & Weds) so I went off their special menu. First time here, and I really wanted laksa, but since the waitress told me that the chef tonight was a popular youtube chef, I went with the salmon sinigang paella.
At first look it didn’t look too impressive, but once I took my first bite, it erased any initial doubt I had. The attention to flavor details was amazing. The sauce had this swirl of coconut milk that sweetened the sourish tamarind flavor. It perfectly complemented each other and if that little swirl wasn’t there, it’d be too heavy on the sour side. The veggies were good too. The salmon is what stole the show though. A LOT of places overcook their salmon, so I normally tell them to make it medium rare. I forgot to say so this time, but the salmon was perfectly cooked when I got it. The outside ha this charred, crispy, well done edge, but the inside was buttery soft and moist. It would a perfect medium rare. The rice it sat on top of was cooked like a risotto, in seafood broth I think. It was good, but room temperature. I think it would have been better if it was hot.
The chef came out a few minutes after I took my first bite and we chatted about Filipino, Malaysian, and Indonesian foods in general. The staff and everyone was really nice, although service was a little slow. I think there was only 1 waitress working the entire restaurant. The place just had a big party of 10 walk in though, so I’m sure that threw a wrench in her timing.
I’m not usually a fan of fusion places, but this place was really good. I don’t have much Fili-​mal-​indo options at home to compare it against either, so I guess I can’t compare it to non-​fusion places. Dessert options are very weak though. They only had bread pudding with icecream tonight…

Love Bernie (the owner) and his take on authentic asian comfort food. Hubster and i split the tradition platter (im very queasy about textures, but i got through it and it was good! Husbter loved it!) And then split the chicken claypot. We took food home even! Delicious! Splurge and get the dessert and traditional coffee drink after (cant remember what it was) but it was delicious!

This review is for the Mrs. Leon’s Sunday fried chicken dinner only.
We were excited to eat Mrs. Leon’s fried chicken again. We had reservations but they were clearly not needed, as there was only one other table of two dinning. Hiro as a restaurant is very nice. It’s a long spacious restaurant with a nice bar. We wished we ate off of Hiro’s menu instead.
Our plates were visually appealing but the food was highly lacking. The meal consist of 3 pieces of fried chicken with 2 sides and a piece of jalapeño corn bread for $ 18.
The fried chicken was beyond dry and lacking much flavor. It tasted old and reheated. The temperature was warm at best. The sides were absolutely appalling. They tasted like canned vegetables that weren’t bothered to be seasoned. The jalapeño corn bread was hard with an odd taste, not moist and sweet as it was in the past minus the jalapeño.
When Mrs. Leon was serving food out of Bomber’s it was made to order, hot-​n-​fresh, flavorful and comforting. It use to be Mrs. Leon wouldn’t even serve food if it wasn’t right. A lot has changed.
This food was not worth $ 18 a plate. It’s like Mrs. Leon changed all her recipes… why??? It seemed as though the food was mass produced in the kitchen ahead of time for a crowd that didn’t even exist. Then they have no concept of keeping the food warm. The best part of the meal was the witches brew aka kiddie cocktail. Mrs. Leon needs to revert back to her old recipes. The newly upscale menu is soo poorly executed.

Wow great place
Service was excellent
I had the special Pork belly with the most amazing flavour infusion rice and eggplant
Highly recommend this place

Hiro has been on my list for some time now so I decided while in the area I’d give Sunday Brunch a whirl. It was decent… the menu options consisted of approximately 5 items (no exaggeration)
I went with the Chicken & Green Tea Waffle. The waffle was nice & thick and really did have a hint of green tea flavor along with its off-​green color. I thought this was pretty cool. The chicken was flavorful, juicy and cooked to a crisp perfection. I requested all the topping on the side and didn’t bother adding them to my dish because it was tasty just the way it arrived.
I also ordered a hot green tea which came in a cute little pot with fresh leaves steeping a delicious green tea.
The restrooms were nice & clean; located on the dimly lit lower level but bright enough to find your way without breaking a leg.
There’s a full bar equipped with flat screen tv for your entertainment purposes. The service was very pleasant. Although I definitely wouldn’t return for brunch I can’t wait to try Hiro’s dinner menu ASAP! The space is super cute and I’m just feeling like I need to be there for cocktails & hot sake!
~Christy

Smack in the middle of nowhere, I wanted Asian food, looks like there is no Chinatown here and all of the Chinese restaurants seem scattered and pretty far apart. I decided to give this place a try and it was decent food, pricy though.
I came on a Thursday at around 8 and it was pretty empty. Unilocal came in handy when I had no clue where to eat. I had the spicy laksa ramen and eggplant tofu in a casserole pot, each was $ 17. The eggplant tofu was very small, tasted pretty standard, a little on the salty side and totally not worth the price. The spicy laksa ramen had shrimp, egg noodles in a roasted shrimp broth. The soup was flavorful, they give you an ok amount of noodles and I think about four shrimp. All the shrimp looked the same except for one of them, it looked like a frozen shrimp and was much smaller, perhaps they ran out?
This is vegetarian and pescatarian friendly, but on the pricy end for me.

Man what happened to this place? Since my initial visit I came back twice and both were disappointing. The first time was for Sunday brunch. The house potatoes tots tasted like it came straight out of a freezer bag. There were no green scallions like other review photos showed. The shrimp cakes were decent but they were quite expensive considering you can get the same thing for much cheaper at one of the dim sum places in town. On my second return visit I got ramen again. The soup was still good but it tasted like MSG overload and the egg was beyond overcooked. Ramen eggs are supposed to be runny. These were not even close.
Overall I might be back for ramen when the craving hits once in a blue moon.

My boyfriend and I were craving some ramen. While in the area, Unilocal suggested Hiro. As we walked in we noticed we were one of the few diners in this dimly lit restaurant. Looking at the menu, we were taken aback that a bowl of ramen was $ 16! We both lived in San Diego where a delicious bowl was less than half the price!
After reading the raving reviews about the ramen we took a chance on the Hiro ramen, and I really wish we didn’t. This ramen had absolutely NO flavor. The egg was a basic boiled egg dropped in the soup, not the marinated egg I was expecting. The noodles and broth were all wrong! Honestly, finishing that bowl of bland «ramen» was miserable. The only thing pushing me through was that I was paying almost $ 20 for it.
The service alone was good though we were the only diners at the time. Other than that, I don’t plan on returning.

Second times not the charm. This place has tons of potential, but it’s not doing the simple things that make the difference. Understaffed (one front of house person to do everything!?) for the lunch crowd on our last two visits (Saturday) — SLOW SLOW SLOW SERVICE from staff that doesn’t know the menu…
Ramen noodles were so overlooked they fell apart into mush.
Spicy beef sandwich was decent but falling apart, and shouldn’t the fried egg be on the sandwich? Why in the side?
Dimsum sampler had 4 or 6 pieces tasting great, the other 2 were too firm and rubbery
Overall disappointment and not worth the effort.

I wanted to like this place, but they really shit the bed last night on service. Food was overpriced and the flavors were watered down but at least it was still edible (otherwise warranting 2 stars). But the service was just horrible. Maybe they were understaffed, but that didn’t give the waitress the right to be indignant because she assumed everyone in my group was drunk (I wasn’t, nor was one of the other girls present).
At some point, after waiting for a while for our drink orders, the waitress came by and asked, «Oh, did I not bring you guys your drinks?» We let it slide because she seemed busy/​rushed, and these things happen. Eventually we got to put in food orders and some of those came out.
I had the steamed dumplings and was sharing with a friend who was unfamiliar with the the kinds being offered. As I pointed to and identified the shrimp dumplings, the waitress (who was busy walking around the table doing other things) BUTTED IN AND TALKED RIGHT OVER ME and said very aggressively with an exasperated voice, «NO, those are SHRIMP dumplings.»
OH NO SHE DID NOT. WHITE GIRL DID NOT JUST TRY TO CORRECT THE ONLY ASIAN PERSON IN THE GROUP WHO WENT TO DIMSUM EVERY WEEK GROWING UP.
Okay, that was a bit racist. And basically ruined the experience for me.
But even if that hadn’t occurred, the shrimp dumplings, pork dumplings/​shu mai, and soup dumplings were all kind of dry. And my spicy laksa ramen lacked flavor (the broth seemed watered down and not that spicy). Very disappointing for the $ 17 pricetag.
To add insult to injury, the automatic gratuity for my group was 20%, rather than what I thought was a standard 18%. The level of service we received didn’t warrant anything NEAR that.
Suffice to say, I won’t be coming back and will not be encouraging any friends to try out Hiro.

I’m very disappointed in this place. Today was my first time here and it was during brunch. I was looking forward to having the green tea waffles and pandan. It was actually the only reason I wanted to come into hiro. I’m giving it a 2 star since half of our food was good. We ordered the bao breakfast and hiro slinger. The green tea waffles were on the menu but they didn’t have it. It was also on their Facebook page too.
Our service… it was very bad! We ordered at 11:40 and didn’t receive our food until 12:26. We only saw our server a 3x. When she took our order, brought out our food, and the bill. That’s pretty much it. We still tipped her but not as well as she deserved.
We order the bao breakfast which I would not recommend to anyone. It was scrambled, 2 pieces of bacon, 2 sausages, and 2 baos. I wouldn’t recommend this breakfast because it’s your typical ihop platter minus the bao and it was overpriced (12 $). We also ordered the hiro slinger. It was good with the exception of the food being cold! I’m sure our food was sitting around in the kitchen for awhile.
I will try this place again but not anytime soon. If service and food is better I will update the review. Other than that 1 star off for false advertising
2 stars off for cold food
3 stars off for service.

I had passed Hiro Asian Kitchen several times while on a trip to explore St. Louis and I decided to stop in for dinner one of the last nights I was in town. I’m glad I did.
While there’s outdoor seating, it’s much more spacious indoors. The one downside was the volume of the music being played, which was Pseudo club level.
I was seated toward the back of the house. The lights dimmed because It was already 8−9PM I think. It was fairly empty when I was first seated, but I filled in nicely in short order.
The décor was wonderful. Colorful tones, interesting lighting fixtures and natural wood benches act as conversation pieces while you wait for your meal to arrive.
I’d been seeking a good bowl of Ramen in St. Louis on the trip and found Unilocal has Hiro Asian Kitchen listed in the Ramen category. So… I ordered the Hiro Ramen. I also had the Crispy Tofu which is served with an asian salad and peanut topping & dressing.
I received the Crispy Tofu first. It was beautifully presented. The flavor was truly fantastic as well. Cool and sensuous with a touch of peanut & spice. I would definitely order this again, though it’s large enough to serve two.
The ramen broth was fairly disappointing until I realized it was more of a vietnamese phở style broth. The veggies included were very limited as well. The pork though… oh my goodness the pork belly! Perfectly seasoned, undeniably tender it was some of the best pork I’ve ever had with a ramen. It’s sad that the broth wasn’t quite living up to the pork’s quality and flavor.
If it weren’t for the ramen broth, Hiro Asian Kitchen would get a solid fiver from me. Alas it was not meant to be. If they had billed it as more of a phở than a ramen expectations would have been different.
I’ll definitely stop in again on a future trip to St. Louis though to try the spicy ramen they had on menu as well.

Oh, Hiro. You had us at «hello.» Maybe it was the extravagant lighting and pod-​like booth seating or the fact that it wasn’t super busy and we could enjoy one another’s conversation while stuffing our faces with a sampling of your menu? Either way, we visited not only for dinner but again a few hours later for dessert.
I was feeling both «cocktail-​y» and adventurous so I unwisely ordered something that would have been perfect for a pickle and vodka lover (not me). I would describe it as the highbrow older sister to a picklebeck: beer and pickle juice combo. We followed our waitress’ recommendation and order the crispy pork belly steamed bun sliders with pickled veggies as our appetizer. Holy jamoly those things were tasty! Consider us your taste testers and order them during your visit. My boyfriend grew up in Indonesia so he had the treat of ordering some eats that offered a dose of nostalgia (as well as generous flavor). He ordered the meat and rice heavy, beef rendang. I opted for the Hiro Ramen with pork belly and wheat noodles. If only I could transport a bowl to Indianapolis right this minute. It was 50% comfort food and 50% warm fuzzies. I loved every slurping and generous bite.
We rolled out with happy and full tummies only to return a few hours later after a visit to City Museum. What can we say? We worked up an appetite keeping up with the kiddos.
Here’s where it gets extra sweet. They remembered us and brought out a Rumchata inspired cocktail on the house to compliment our coconut ice cream and blackberry cobbler for dessert. Service like this leaves you fond memories and plans to return as soon as possible. Way to go, Hiro. You had us at «hello» and «farewell.»