This popular Hamilton restaurant has been reborn, and it opens TODAY

Credit: DaytonDailyNews

A restaurant familiar to Hamilton’s dining scene springs back to life today.

Asian Lantern opens today at 965 Main Street on the city’s west side in the same spot that for more than 30 years was Chinese Lantern.

Jenny Guan, who previously owned and operated Asian restaurants in Fairfield and Finneytown, said the decision to reboot the longtime restaurant with few changes after its owners retired in December and closed was essentially a matter of not fixing what wasn’t broken.

Guan worked to renovate the restaurant’s kitchen ahead of today’s opening, but that’s the extent of her changes. She hired a former chef, Hor Zhen, from the restaurant to ensure food there continues with the same tried-and-true recipes.

She also decided to add only a few new choices to what essentially will be an identical menu to what area residents knew and loved for decades.

“There are a lot of people who loved their food,” she said. “We don’t want the people to lose. We wanted to keep the food and keep the chef that worked for them.”

The new additions to the menu include items like Korean Spicy Noodles Soup with jumbo shrimp, scallops, crab meat, vegetables and Japanese udon noodles, as well as Hor Fun Noodle Soup with a choice of chicken or beef.

Hours will be 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday to Thursday, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Friday and 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. Saturday.

For more information, call 513-863-2392.

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