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Mini Garden Chinese Restaurant, a closer look
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Reid at Mini-Garden (from '05) |
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 Mini-Garden Express on Yelp! |
Mini-Garden Beretania on Yelp! |
Mini Garden Noodle House Downtown on Yelp! |
Aloha!
11/10/11 - Yeah, a lot less sexy than Doraku Sushi in Waikiki and all the fabulous eateries we've been checking out in New York recently, but don't even think about passing-off Mini-Garden as too blaise. There are three outlets available, two being full-scale restaurants on N. Hotel St. in Downtown and S. Beretania St. in McCully, and the remaining being a semi-fast-food version inside the giant 99 Ranch Food Court Mart. Currently on Yelp, the ratings given for this small family of eateries are 2 1/2 stars for the first (Downtown), 3 stars for the second (S. Berry), and 3 1/2 stars for the last (99 Ranch). I'm assuming the first two don't rate quite as high primarily because they have to compete with all the other full-fledged Chinese restaurants around town, while the last competes almost in a fast-food class, in which case, they are definitely at or near the top of the list! I say almost fast-food because they do not house pre-made foods steaming-away in Sterno'd trays like a prototypical Panda-like joint, but instead make everything to order. What is fast-food about them are the prices, paper or styrofoam plates, order and pick-up at the counter arrangements, and general Food Court setting! Kind-of a hybrid eatery, I guess!
I love the casual nature and roomy, hangar-like atmosphere of 99 Ranch. I think they should put in a giant theatre and a beer garden on one end! I'd be there right away!
You may remember recently when I took a pass on my originally-intentioned return visit to Mary's Mediterranean Cuisine, located at the far end of this very food court. Instead of some lula and eggplant kebabs, however, I suddenly found myself having vivid, dreamy thoughts of a hot oyster chicken cake noodle, roast duck, beef bittermelon, and maybe a crispy gau gee on the side! In other words, Chinese food was looking much better, especially since our first visit to Mary's was a bit lackluster and this outlet of Mini-Garden has long-been a trusty, very reliable source of good food on the cheap. Such is life. I ended-up with a dish I first sampled at the excellent Fatty's Chinese in Waikiki, utilizing lots of egg:
At Fatty's, I had an unbelievable runny egg beef (yeah, that's the name!), but here I tried the runny egg shrimp, which wasn't even on the menu. Most Chinese restaurants are pretty flexible, though - whatever creative combination you want, they can usually fix it up for ya!
I was actually surprised at how this runny egg shrimp turned-out. Unfortunately, it wasn't really for the better. There was more gravy than egg here, and you could literally taste all the cornstarch utilized. The amount of shrimp and sizes of each piece were on the smaller side, but I guess that's understandable in a setting like this - hopefully, there's more egg and shrimp at their two restaurant locations!
The gau gee, while coming as tasty as anywhere, was also short on size, not regarding the wrappers but pork/shrimp filling. I usually find most versions of gau gee a bit heavy on filling, with so much meat inside it's amazing they don't burst at the seams, but this one, on the other hand, contained a little too little filling! Guess that's the fast-food side coming out!
Had I taken pictures of all the times I've visited Mini-Garden at 99 Ranch Market Mapunapuna, this page would be substantially longer. The reality of the moment, however, is that that's all I've got, so we're gonna have to switch-over to their other shop on S. Beretania St., just before McCully St., sandwiched between Watanabe Bakery and uber-izakaya Shinn:
There's usually ample parking in the lot just past (right of) the building, although opportunities are greatly reduced these days during dinner, as new-comer Izakaya Shinn shares the lot and can produce some decent crowds.
Once inside, you'll see that the dining room is appointed on the average, maybe higher-average side of the scale when it comes to Chinese restaurants, nothing too fancy but nothing ghetto, either:
At the entrance, instead of the resident arrowana, confined in an animal cruelty tank sized just so, where, propelled by its tiny pectoralis majors, the snake-like creature can only swim forwards and backwards, there was a single flowerhead, a kind of cichlid that represents yet another Chinese symbol of fortune and prosperity:
Looks like some decent white-meat fillets there, but we settled for something a little more socially acceptable. After asking our kind waitress for a deep-fried fish variety, this is what we were presented with:
Sometimes, you just gotta do it. There are so many stigma-attached Chinese foods - sweet and sour anything, chop suey, beef broccoli, chow funn, chow mein, lemon chicken, shrimp canton, fly lice - all can appear as folksy-hilarious as a '70's stoner movie. Each, however, has their origins in something very authentic and highly respectable, and all are very delicious, if only done right!
This waitress-recommended fish was deep-fried perfectly in a light, crunchy batter, then tossed in a sweet/sour sauce laden with a crispy cocktail of green peppers, onion, carrot, and bean sprouts. Despite the stigma, it worked extremely well. If I had to take a guess, I'd say the fish was basa, or Vietnamese catfish, which produces some of the moistest, flakiest, tastiest, most white-meat fillets around:
Gotta say, I'm more of a chow mein guy, but mom has always been a chow funn kind of girl. And that settles it!
With Mini-Garden's downtown location known as a noodle house, I was hoping for some carry-over effect, and was not disappointed in the least. In a departure from most places, I love the fact that they didn't use carrots, broccoli, celery, cauliflower, and even round onion, but instead went with a simple but proven combination of soy-braised beef, long stalks of green onion, a rounding of bean sprout, and, of course, gorgeous ribbons of chow funn noodle. I love it! The thick, flattened strands were chewy and moist, with a great body and mouth-feel, and the dish as a whole was a bold stroke of genius for its simple, yet very tasty results.
Our final entree was another bold statement. These braised spare ribs were also full of rich flavors, both from the sticky, tasty sauce and the meat itself:
The meat was braised nicely, with lots of caramelization and smokiness, while the varying textures, shapes, and flavors of this particular cut, due to lots of bone, lots of fat, and lots of dark meat sections, provided a rustic, old-fashioned, country-style dish that was heart-warmingly delicious! Quintissential Mini-Garden, me thinks - like a local-style Chinese restaurant, the bold, strong flavors provided lots of oomph, but like an authentic Chinese restaurant, there was also a depth of flavors and a smooth, harmonious complexity involved, as well. Can you imagine this over hot rice?
Good stuff!
The thing about strong, local-style flavors in many Chinese restaurants around town is that they can often be rather one-dimensional in depth, with a resounding impetus placed upon in-your-face amounts of sugar, salt, shoyu, fruit flavorings, or other such bases, without an accompanying complexity derived from garlic, ginger, herbs, spices, and other more subtle elements to balance things out a bit while also offering so much more as far as skill and culinary creativity goes. I think Mini-Garden does a pretty good job of adding this very type of complexity to its dishes while also catering to the more primal, more readily-stimulated parts of our palate. In the end, I think it all works out extremely well here.
Anyhow, as always, try 'em out for yourself!
Me, I've been laying relatively low on the restaurant scene lately, but haven't been completely dormant - India Cafe, Jin Din Rou, JJ Dolan's, and Roy's, off the top of my head. You'll be seeing a few of hese spots real soon.
Hey, hope you're having a great and wonderful week, and hope your weekend goes just as well!
Take care, and Aloha till next time!
Aku
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Mini Garden Express
1151 Mapunapuna St. at 99 Ranch Market
833-3828
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Mini Garden S. Beretania St.
2025 S. Beretania St. in McCully
946-3828 |
Mini Garden Noodle House
50 N. Hotel St. in Downtown
538-1273
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