Hot and Cold Fusion

The Oasis Hotel & Convention Center is just an interesting place. I've been there only a few times since I moved here about a year ago, twice for events and once to eat at the new restaurant inside, Fire & Ice.

When you turn off of Glenstone Avenue into the complex, first you see the giant waterfall. Then you see the bright color blocks. Then you meet whomever is working at the gate-in my experience, someone extra-friendly who can tell you exactly where to go and who smiles a whole lot. Then you head down the winding driveway to your destination. Given the waterfall, the friendliness of the staff (on par with an enthusiastic theme park mascot who waves you through the gates and toward the roller coasters) and the fact that Fire & Ice literally incorporates both fire and ice into its schtick, I was afraid this restaurant would be more gimmick than great food. But that is absolutely not the case. Everything about Fire & Ice impressed me.

The décor is swanky but still comfortable, with lots of clean lines and black and metal, with bright accent colors on anything that's upholstered. It all feels very modern. Plus, the "ice" part of the restaurant's name comes in on the bar top. The place where you'd rest your arms is not ice, but the place where you'd rest your beer is. If you sit at the bar, you can see into the kitchen, where you might catch a glimpse of Executive Chef Wing Leong cooking up some of the Asian fusion the restaurant serves. The sauté chefs really know how to work a wok, hence the "fire" part of the name.

When we ate at Fire & Ice, the service was impeccable. Our server, who was cheerful and helpful and took great care of us when we asked questions about menu items, first offered us bottled mineral water. We chose to stick with tap water. Was that uncouth? We were okay with it. He brought out bread with two kinds of butter spreads. One was sweet and fruity, and the other was savory: a papaya butter and an herb butter.

The appetizer menu is full of reasonably priced, very tempting goodies, such as blue lump crab cakes, flash-fried calamari or a shredded hoisin duck napoleon. We chose to go with the stir-fry lettuce wraps ($7). You can pick from a variety of meat fillings, and we went with chicken. The assemble-them-yourself wraps were spicy, sweet, crunchy, warm and cold all at once, with a mixture of red bell peppers, carrots, chicken, bamboo shoots and a hoisin-lime dipping sauce to fill the lettuce. They were a fun (and a little bit messy) finger food that tasted fantastic.

For my entrée, I ordered the Fire & Ice paella ($25). On a big bed of saffron rice, the paella had lobster tail, crab claws, mussels, oysters, chicken and chorizo. It was delicious. I'm sometimes leery of ordering a dish with several different kinds of seafood because I'm always worried that something in the bunch will be overcooked. But everything in the paella was perfect, and the bold rich flavors of all the different ingredients blended perfectly. It tasted like a gourmet version of the kind of hearty food I'd enjoy steaming in a big bowl on a cold winter day. And, as an interesting touch, the teeny-tiniest bit of Asian sauce was drizzled on the edge of the plate, giving the dish just a hint of sweetness every now and then.

My friend ordered the island sea bass ($21), which is cooked inside a banana leaf. It's served on a bed of purple sticky rice on top of the banana leaf with vegetables and a sweet glaze. The presentation was colorful and fun (we don't always eat off banana leaves), and my friend said she really enjoyed the dish.

Most dinner entrées at Fire & Ice tend to fall in the teens and twenties, with a couple items up in the $30-plus range. But that's not to say you can't have gourmet goodness for a lower price there. I was tempted to order Not Your Mom's Meat Loaf, which is only $8 and is made of beef, pork and chorizo and wrapped in applewood-smoked bacon. Friends who have been to Fire & Ice say this is excellent. The sandwiches and most of the lunch menu, which includes fish tacos, fall at around the same price point. The salad with sesame-crusted ahi tuna, edamame, miso honey vinaigrette and more looked delicious and was only $10. I wish we could have tried it all, and I'll definitely be back for more.

I'd recommend giving Fire & Ice a try, whether you just want to have a drink and an appetizer or go all out. This place seems to have its bases covered in terms of a fun and impressive menu with a satisfying range of prices. And that ice bar... it's definitely worth a look.

Fire & Ice, open from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday to Thursday and from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday, bar open until midnight nightly, 2610 N. Glenstone Ave., Springfield, 417-522-7711, Handicap Accessable and a Smoke Free Environment.