Review: August Moon

Wok shrimp, vegetables and spicy basil sauce. (Credit: Chris Hall)

Independent restaurant scenes thrive on renovation and adaptation, and Louisville is no different. 

Only a handful of the city’s non-chain eateries are situated in buildings that were designed from scratch, and of those Peng Looi’s August Moon Chinese Bistro is among the most distinctive and beautiful. From the front, it has an opaque, austere look — but step through the doors and you find yourself surrounded not by ostentatious luxury, but by a design that’s at once spacious and intimate, modern and comfortable.

The interior, which mixes comfortable lounge seating, a gleaming bar and two spacious dining rooms, is minimalist but soothing — warmly lit and wrapped in gray-green and cobalt-blue walls that rise to a lofty ceiling. And at the rear, vast windows and a sprawling deck place the restaurant right at the edge of a green forest. Design architect Jill Smith once aptly described the concept as “Frank Lloyd Wright on a shoestring.”

The August Moon bill of fare isn’t quite at the “shoestring” level, but Looi (whose other restaurant, Asiatique, ranks among Louisville’s finest dining establishments) has created a menu of Chinese and Southeast Asian dishes that are elegant, affordable and presented with an eye for detail that’s perfectly suited to the space.

Plump, golden wontons, filled with crabmeat and melted goat cheese, nestle in an orderly row, next to a dollop of bright, refreshing Asian salsa — mangoes, red peppers, a bit of pineapple and just the faintest bit of heat ($7, dinner; $6, lunch).

A bowl of hot and sour soup has the fragrance of fresh stock, and a piquant tinge of vinegar and hot chilies, and is filled with bits of tofu, water chestnuts and bamboo shoots that look as if they were individually whittled by a skilled woodworker ($3; included with lunch entrees).

Spicy minced lamb — spicy enough to deliver a pleasant, if mellow kick — has a red, juicy gleam that looks beautiful when wrapped in a sturdy pale green leaf of romaine ($7.50). Every starter on the menu, from pan-seared dumplings with a flavorful ponzu sauce ($7.50) to a vegetarian spring roll ($2.50), is invigorating and well-executed.

On recent visits — both before Hurricane Ike swept through and while the restaurant was running on generator power — service was brisk and unusually well-informed. One night, as we wavered over a couple of Gewurztraminers that we thought might go nicely with some spicy selections, our server recommended a New Zealand Riesling (Villa Maria, 2005, $32) that was several dollars less expensive than our other choices, and paired perfectly with our plates.

On the August Moon menu, the adjective “spicy” translates as “an interesting mix of flavors” rather than the near-universal “hot.” And an order of stir-fried shrimp and vegetables in a spicy basil sauce ($16.50) was just that — exquisitely tender shrimp on a bed of succulent bok choy, draped in a silky brown sauce inflected with fragrant basil, subtle chilies and a generous but pedestrian assortment of sliced baby carrots and canned baby corn.

An order of Malaysian curried chicken ($12) had a velvety, coconut-milk base, an oniony sweetness and the gentlest of spicy slaps.

On the other hand, an order of Mongolian beef — fork-tender medallions with an abundance of scallions and tender white onions — packed a lovely wallop in the form of a rust-brown sauce that seemed a very distant, and oh-so-much-more-interesting, cousin to the usual sweetness that characterizes other more clichéd interpretations of the dish.