Chinatown Garden, Chinatown

While Monkey and I have found our favorite Chinese delivery, occasionally you want to go out to eat Chinese. After some searching and disappointment in Chinatown, we ended up finding Chinatown Garden. (CG is located next to Tai Shan Chinese, and I keep finding myself wanting to pose for a picture under Tai Shan’s awning, just to send to my favorite panda-fanatic friend.)

CG reminds me of a cheaper version of my favorite Chinese restaurant back in Gainesville, in that it serves ‘polynesian’ mixed drinks and it makes Chinese food. CG is not, however, a nightclub that has hosted the likes of George Burns. I will not hold it against the Garden.

They usually have pretty good egg drop soup, but that’s about the extent of my dallying with appetizers there. On most visits, I get the peking duck, chicken lo mein or mu shu chicken. Monkey usually lacks creativity and goes with the peking duck too, or orders the General Tso. Sadly, and it is strange to say this, CG is heavy on the meat and super light on the veggies. Keep this in mind if you like your tso choc-full-o’ broccoli. The duck is fairly moist, which is definitely a plus, and on this visit, Monk and I split a duck. I was full and he was pushing to finish. That seems to be the theme at CG – "we give you too much food."

I’ve never finished a chicken lo mein or a mu shu chicken at CG, and really, the goal is to pig out. Here’s why: you don’t get all your leftovers. Of your leftovers, you only get what will fit into a small 1-cup takeout box. I know; I feel cheated; and I know I should be indignant, and I don’t want to think about what they do with the rest of the food, so stop making me think about it!

Anyhow, what I mean to say is this: eat up. The food’s good enough and the prices are good enough and the location is accessible enough – the Gallery Place metro, of course. (I pity you if you couldn’t figure that one out.)

The one thing that I will say about CG that I can never take back is this: they are helluva efficient there. You have water and hot tea before you’ve even had a chance to settle yourself and look at the menu. And they keep it coming. It’s truly a marvel of over-staffedness, and for that reason I usually feel guilty and over-tip just a little. I mean, people have to get pizaid, right?