Chinese used to be my favorite cuisine a few years back. To be sure, I still enjoy a dish or two. But frankly, these days you can order food in any Chinese restaurant without taking as much as a glance at the menu. The same old hot and sour soup, wantons, spring rolls, Manchurian, Schezwan, chow mein, fried rice, pot rice, chilli chicken and noodles. Better to eat at home than pay for the run-of-the-mill dishes!
Then again, it gets boring to go to the same restaurants for the weekend meal. So I decided to try out China Garden at Khar (W). The decor is pretty soothing - a waterfall with turtles and koi fish at the downstairs reception, a tall statue of Buddha on your right as you step out the elevator and muted lighting. The menu had a couple of new dishes on offer. Here is the thing - on one hand you want to try something new and on the other, you want to stick to the tried-and-tested ones because there is no guarantee that the chef will be able to do justice to what is promised on the menu.
So we chose the middle path - fried chicken wantons, chicken in black bean sauce and steamed rice. The wantons were crisp, the chicken at the center was perfectly cooked and the accompanying sauce was a perfect blend of the sweet and sour tastes. If I can make a suggestion - in addition to the sauce served with the wantons, try the black (this is spicy!) and red ones kept on the table. The wantons taste great with the mix.
The chicken in black bean sauce was a big disappointment though. The gravy needed a bit more salt. But I suspect that even with the right amount of salt it wouldn't have tasted any different than any usual Chinese gravy. There wasn't absolutely anything to connect it to the 'black bean sauce' mentioned on the menu. Though the dish contained fair quantity of chicken pieces and they were perfectly cooked, the gravy had failed to soak into them. Lastly, the pieces of bell pepper were too chunky for my taste.
I might make a visit or two there but definitely not in near future.
Then again, it gets boring to go to the same restaurants for the weekend meal. So I decided to try out China Garden at Khar (W). The decor is pretty soothing - a waterfall with turtles and koi fish at the downstairs reception, a tall statue of Buddha on your right as you step out the elevator and muted lighting. The menu had a couple of new dishes on offer. Here is the thing - on one hand you want to try something new and on the other, you want to stick to the tried-and-tested ones because there is no guarantee that the chef will be able to do justice to what is promised on the menu.
So we chose the middle path - fried chicken wantons, chicken in black bean sauce and steamed rice. The wantons were crisp, the chicken at the center was perfectly cooked and the accompanying sauce was a perfect blend of the sweet and sour tastes. If I can make a suggestion - in addition to the sauce served with the wantons, try the black (this is spicy!) and red ones kept on the table. The wantons taste great with the mix.
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| Fried Chicken Wantons |
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| Chicken in black bean sauce and Steamed rice |
I might make a visit or two there but definitely not in near future.
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