627 W Duarte Rd
Arcadia, CA
(626) 445-0606
No hours added yet.
| Description: Chang's Garden is a Asian and Chinese restaurant where most Menuism users came for fun with friends, paid between $10 and $25, and tipped more than 18%. | Tags: | |
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February 15, 2009
So I went back to try the regular menu, non-noodle, dishes. It was generally good or ok. I’d eat there again to try other dishes, but not going to run back.
The standout was the spare rib wrapped in sticky rice wrapped in lotus leaves. Falling off the bone rib, and five-spice flavored sticky rice—you can’t go wrong!
But the thing is, the only flavor in any of the dishes we got was five spice. If the dish didn’t have that, then it was kind of bland. Except for the big ol slab of pork belly, lovely to behold and good to eat, but I rarely dislike pork belly. Also, the tea smoked fried duck served Peking style was very nice, but hard to eat in that style bc all the bones were still there. The deep fried fish with spinach in the batter was good.
The whole fried fish was pretty good, but the flavor was mostly salt (soy sauce), same for the chicken with chestnuts, which I thought was really boring even with the chestnuts.
I love bamboo fungus, but the dish that had it, with the squash, was disappointing in that there was very little of the bamboo fungus—it ain’t expensive! And they could have seasoned the gravy better.
The snow cabbage and soybeans with tofu sheets was good in that it was different, but again, not much flavor. What were those doughy things called—I used to eat them as a kid, but the whole round version, not sliced, tong yuen. I didn’t like them then and still don’t like them now.
The siu long bao were ok, but no red vinegar, they gave us black vinegar, wth.
I didn’t have the beef rolls, but sounds like they were to die for. Can’t remember at the moment if we had other dishes. Anyway, I’d go back to try other stuff, especially some of the soups that are unfamiliar to me.
August 15, 2008
though not mind-blowing, chang’s garden was a good and authentic introduction to specifically shanghainese food. i came here with a large group, and we sampled 11 dishes, some better than others.
they start you out with some boiled peanuts: this is a nice little snack while you wait. it tasted faintly of allspice.
the service started out a little rocky. they brought out the wrong pork dish—mu shu pork—and it took about five minutes of chaotic “arguing” with the waitress that it was neither what we ordered nor what we wanted. her english was a little rough, and she kept insisting it was good, which was beside the point. this was righted, and the rest of the evening was fine, with the food being brought out quickly and us getting attentive enough service at our large table.
the pork filling was moist but not overflowing with soup as i had expected and had hints of ginger.
can’t remember exactly which steamed fish it was, but it was cooked in a dark, sweet and salty sauce with scallions. the fish had absorbed what sauce there was. it was flavorful, but i wished i had more sauce to drip over the white meat inside.
i was surprised by the tastiness of the duck. any hints of tea were subtle, but the skin and meat were good and neither dry nor too fatty. it would have been great if they had taken out the bones, though as it was a little hard to eat with the dough cakes.
consists of a good-sized pork spare rib that has been wrapped in sticky rice with spices and then a lotus leaf. the lotus leaf imparts an earthy flavor to the rice and pork. the rice had a slight red chili zing, and the meat was so tender and moist it came easily off the bone.
the squash was light and tasted faintly of rock but not much else. not exactly earthy, but of the earth. the bamboo fungus had a crunchy texture, and soaked up the tasty broth this dish was sauteed in. it was a little sparse on the fungus, which although it doesn’t sound appetizing, was tasty and the better of the two.
don’t remember exactly the name, but this dish had largish, green shellbeans with a diced green vegetable and thinly sliced tofu sheets. it was more interesting for the novelty. the bean sheet tasted like the way raw, freshly made tofu from an asian market smells. there really wasn’t any sauce or strong flavor. it had more natural vegetable and tofu flavors.
chunks of fish are battered with strands of seaweed and deep fried. it tasted freshly of the sea. my boyfriend liked it a lot.
the sauce was sweeter, saltier and thicker than the pork. it really needs to be eaten with the steamed rice. the chestnuts were a nice texture contrast to the chewy chicken. my pet peeve though was pulling out the little bits of bone.
beef is thinly sliced and well done, wrapped in a fried pancake with green onions, cilantro and bits of cucumber. between the fragrant green onions & cilantro, i really couldn’t taste the five spice. other people liked it. i thought it was interesting, but the beef itself was not overly flavorful.
round discs of chewy rice starch are sauteed with pork, greens and scallions. it reminded me of chow fun, except chewier. i liked the slightly smoky taste.
These are dishes contributed by Menuism users, either entered directly, as part of a restaurant review, or as part of an image upload.
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