MILL CREEK — About six months ago, new owners purchased the former Imperial Gardens restaurant, which had been closed about two years. A couple of months after it re-opened, two Herald readers e-mailed me. One recommended it. The other shared all the things that went wrong with her dinner party’s service.
When readers send me very different experiences like this, I wait a while and then visit the restaurant. I waited three months to go to the newly renamed Zen Garden for a late lunch on a recent Sunday.
My friend and I arrived with a little time left before dim sum ended at 3 p.m. Consequently, we were seated with three menus — dim sum, dinner and “set menu,” but there was only one of each. Other servers were busy moving round table tops past us and resetting empty tables, so we couldn’t get their attention to ask for another set of menus. Our server didn’t return until it was time to take our order and I wasn’t ready because I had waited while my friend selected his dish. To smooth these early bumps and to give me time to look at the menu, I requested an order of pot stickers ($5.95) and my friend said he would like an order of cashew chicken ($9.95).
For those of you who like dim sum, this menu looks very traditional, with choices like mung bean cakes, steamed dumplings and calamari with rock salt and pepper. I didn’t find prices on the menu, and the order list was in Chinese characters. When I asked our server about dim sum, he abruptly indicated that dim sum was almost over and didn’t give me prices or more information.
There’s a “Noodle and Rice” menu for lunch ($4.95 to $10.95) that’s on each table, in addition to all the menus we already had. This one has inexpensive selections but five varieties of congee — a dish that’s usually limited to menus in Seattle’s International District plus other interesting choices such as spareribs with black bean sauce chow mein ($8.95) and scallops and shrimp on rice noodles ($10.95).
The “set menu” is a little confusing because there are two columns of prices but no explanation of the difference. The most expensive dish is rock salt ranch chicken $12.95 or $20.95, and our server didn’t offer an explanation of the dishes or prices on this menu. Other choices have interesting names like tofu minced beef with Chinese parsley with egg swirl soup ($8.95), and there are six hot pots ($8.95 to $13.95). The combination dinners are also on this menu and range from $88 to $198 and serve from four to 10 people, which didn’t apply to our dinner, so I turned to the regular dinner menu.
I requested the Fok Chow-style fried rice ($11.95), which the menu said is famous in the State of Fok Chow and made with assorted seafood topped with seafood clear sauce. Our server said this dish isn’t “dry” fried rice and indicated I wouldn’t like it. When I tried to explain that I wanted to try something traditional, he cut me off saying, “You won’t like it. Chinese people like it. Not you.” I asked for time to find another dish and tried to not be too disturbed.
Before we could enjoy our appetizer, we had to ask for napkins, forks and water. Our pot stickers, arranged on a lovely dish shaped like a table, were steaming hot from the stove but the wrapper was thicker than usual, making them doughy. The dipping sauce was served in a bowl-like dish that looked as if it had been a ladle but the handle was broken off, leaving the “bowl.”
After our appetizer was served, I ordered the braised Chinese mushrooms with seasonal vegetables ($9.95) and the deep-fried sole served with a sweet corn sauce ($11.95).
About halfway through our appetizer, our server brought my friend’s cashew chicken. It would be a very long time before my dinner arrived. In addition to our orders not being given to the kitchen or prepared at the same time, there was an unexplained delay in the kitchen with mine.
I tasted some of my friend’s dish, which was bland but OK, and filled the rest of the time noticing that my tea cup and saucer were chipped, and the unattractiveness of our table location. We were directly across from the cart that held the dirty dishes. As others dined, I waited and watched the stack of dirty dishes grow.
My friend was more than halfway through his dish, despite dawdling, when my order arrived. The sole struck me as odd. The sauce looked like a thicker version of egg flower soup over deep-fried fish filets, and that’s exactly what it tasted like. The mushroom-vegetable dish was very good but the “seasonal vegetables” included canned baby corn despite it being the height of fresh corn season, plus carrots, celery, onions and broccoli, which are available year round.
After we paid the bill, we decided that dinner was acceptable but nothing special and our service was almost as bad as one Herald reader described.
Herald restaurant reviewers accept no invitations to review, but readers’ suggestions are always welcome. Reviewers arrive unannounced, and The Herald pays their tabs.
Contact Anna Poole at features@heraldnet.com.
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