This summer, Orient Express joined Pittsburgh's already-crowded repertoire of Asian restaurants. The place opened its doors at 4609 Forbes Avenue, directly in competition with other Asian restaurants on nearby Craig Street, such as Lulu's Noodles and Thai Place Café. 

Orient Express has a large menu with a traditional selection of pan-Asian dishes such as stir-fries, curries, and noodles. In lieu of desserts, Orient Express offers a wide array of fruit drinks, including bubble teas, flavored teas, and smoothies. 

The interior of the restaurant is clean and organized. Large watercolors adorn the walls, which are painted in soothing tones of beige and ochre. During both of my visits, the place was filled with Carnegie Mellon students looking for a reasonably-priced dinner. 

Our first dish, vegetable dumplings ($3.95), arrived promptly: six small bundles of dough so thick and greasy that it was hard to believe they had been steamed. Though they contained a mixture of corn, carrots, and tofu pieces, the flavors of the fillings were swamped by the insipid, oily taste of the dough. The Kung Pao chicken ($6.95) displayed the same inept execution. This dish was a salty mixture of white chicken pieces topped with peanuts, green peppers, celery, and chestnuts. There was an uncomfortable spiciness to this dish that engulfed all of the other flavors. The Kung Pao chicken, as well as every spicy dish we tried, contained many whole, red chilies, a rather literal interpretation of the small, red chili icons that indicated which dishes on the menu were spicy. 

My companion's Squid Stir-fried with Ginger and Scallions ($7.95) came with several pieces of firm, spongy squid drowned in a sauce of green peppers that did not hint even mildly of ginger. The Pineapple Fried Rice ($6.95) was a bland mix of peas, white rice, and eggs, with pineapple being conspicuously absent. Absent flavors, like those of the ginger and the pineapple, seemed to be a defining characteristic of Orient Express, as if the kitchen was run by a troupe of well-intentioned amnesiacs who forgot that a dish such as Pineapple Rice must contain pineapple to be called, well, Pineapple Rice.

The Stir-fried Singaporean Noodles in Yellow Curry Sauce ($6.50) were a pleasant surprise after several disappointments. Rather than drowning the noodles in a slush of curry, as so many places are wont to do, the chefs had used the curry to add to and accentuate the noodles, which were flavored but not overpowered by the curry.  

During both visits to Orient Express we received curt, hurried service. The wait staff at Orient Express omitted the niceties of introducing themselves to the customers or even of saying "hello." Our waiter seemed to want to get our orders out of the way as quickly as possible, scribbling them down in a hurry and walking away quickly to attend another table. In addition to the general inattentiveness of the staff, there were other problems with the service. During my first visit, my companion and I were charged for drinks that we ordered but that were never delivered.  When we pointed this problem out to the staff, they offered to take the charges off our check, but did not apologize for the mix-up. 

Orient Express aims to please rather than to surprise or excite the palate with original fare. This makes it a reasonable option for those looking for a different location in which to eat standard-fare Asian food. However, the lack of originality, glaring omissions in the dishes, and haphazard service make this an inferior alternative to the other Asian restaurants on Craig Street. In the end, the name "Orient Express" proves to be a suitable description for this clumsy and hurried dining experience. 

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