The new Orchid Asian Restaurant, located on Fair Road in between McDonalds and the Shell Station, is a glorified Seasons of Japan or Varieties of Statesboro. While good food is served there at a reasonable price, it isn’t anything spectacular that you couldn’t find anywhere else.

At the soft opening on Tuesday the restaurant served a limited menu, consisting of a chicken bowl, a pork chop bowl, a sushi sampler and a Vietnamese chicken noodle soup. The take-out menu, however, offered much more. This restaurant seems to be the only one in the ‘Boro that serves pho, a Vietnamese style soup.

The chicken bowl was just that, a bowl of chicken. Varieties also used to serve a chicken bowl while it was in business, and the Orchid version is not much different. There was a side of steamed carrots and broccoli and that made it taste slightly fresher, but it was nothing spectacular.

Along with the meal the waitress offered “Orchid sauce,” which could have given this place something unique, but it didn’t. Don’t be fooled. The “Orchid sauce” was explained as just a regular shrimp sauce.

The biggest upside of the new food stop is the inside of the restaurant. It looked like a place you would want to take someone on a date.

Missing the typical, cheesy Japanese décor, it felt like a fancier Tokyo, which is less than a mile away. Bamboo light fixtures mixed with neutral colors and modern décor made this place relaxed and welcoming.

Even though the chicken bowl didn’t sweep me off my feet, the menu looks promising, offering a wide variety of Japanese and Vietnamese food at a college student’s budget.