Kai Asian Fusion opens in Wells with new, expanded menu: 'They love the food'

WELLS, Maine — Nick Legere went all the time to Kai Asian Fusion back when it was in Springvale. Now, he enjoys eating at the restaurant at its new home at 2063 Post Road in Wells.

Legere, of Sanford, stopped by the eatery on Monday, Feb. 5, during his lunch break from his job out on Drakes Island. He ordered smoked eel, a salmon avocado roll, and a spicy crab roll. He also got a salad. The meal, he said, was “great.”

Tony Lin and his wife, Louisa, who own Kai Asia Fusion, were born in China and immigrated to the United States several years ago. They first opened their restaurant in Springvale in 2018 after learning the art of preparing and serving sushi under Peter Chen, who owned and operated Sake in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. The couple relocated their business to Wells on Dec. 28 to be closer to their home and their young children in Arundel.

“It was very short to New Year’s Eve for us,” Lin said.

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Kai Asian Fusion unveils new restaurant, new menu

The new Kai Asian Fusion has a single dining room that seats around 70 diners and a bar with drinks and a widescreen television on the wall. There is also a sushi bar in the back of the dining room.

The layout is a departure from the Springvale site, which had a small dining section at the entrance, a central dining room, and a glassed-in area that offered views of Main Street and the Nasson Little Theatre next door.

Not only is the restaurant’s venue new, so is its menu. Kai Asian Fusion now offers poke bowls, which mix rice or salad with choices of protein, vegetables, toppings and sauces. The Kai Poke Bowl, for example, serves up salmon, spicy tuna, spicy kani salad, seaweed salad, tobiko, mango, avocado, edamame, almond flakes and a scallion kai house sauce. The Vegetarian Poke Bowl offers salad, seaweed salad, avocado, cucumbers, Japanese pickles, mango, edamame, sesame seeds and a scallion sweet miso sauce.

Also new on the menu are bubble tea drinks, which have those little tapioca pearls floating in them.

“We just wanted to bring new stuff for this area,” Lin said.

The restaurant also now serves much more Chinese food than before.

And, of course, Kai Asian Fusion continues to serve sushi, such as the kind Legere ordered during his lunch hour, as well as other cooked and uncooked dishes in the Japanese tradition.

There is the Godzilla Roll, which is salmon, white fish, kani and cream cheese, all wrapped with tempura seaweed and topped with tobiko and spicy mayonnaise, for example. There is also the Lucky Charm Roll, filled with spicy and crunchy yellowtail, avocado, roe and cream cheese. Both are but two examples on the long list of cooked and uncooked specialty rolls the eatery offers, in addition to its salads, soups, and other appetizers.

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'We are happy they say they love the food'

Lin said the people of Wells have been welcoming during the past several weeks.

“They come to us,” Lin said. “We are happy they say they love the food.”

Lin spoke highly of his restaurant’s Springvale days, expressing gratitude for the loyal customers who dined there and – most importantly, he said – ordered takeout and kept his business afloat during the difficulties of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The people there are so friendly,” he said. “They helped us out a lot.”

Kai Asian Fusion is open daily, from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Mondays through Thursdays, from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays, and from noon to 9 p.m. on Sundays. For more information, call (207) 646-9868 or visit online at kaiasianfusionme.com.

This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: Kai Asian Fusion opens in Wells with expanded menu