New Garden Asian Cuisine
The Eggplant w/ Hot
Garlc Sauce is hot, sweet
and a delightful dish for
vegetarians and carni-
vores alike.
Star Chinese restaurant off ers value, tasty dishes in Seaside Carousel Mall
P
Picture a carousel — the bobbing plastic horses,
the twinkling lightbulbs and the incessant, revolv-
ing carnival soundtrack. There, what foods come to
mind? Hot dogs? Elephant ears? Corn on the cob?
Try Mongolian beef.
Indeed, there’s a charming and wholly worth-
while Chinese restaurant tucked in the back of
Seaside’s Carousel Mall. It’s called New Garden,
and it’s damn-near an oasis in a deluge of fading
ephemera.
Now, Chinese in the Carousel Mall isn’t new.
New Garden is at least the third regionally-in-
spired restaurant to rent the space. The family-op-
erated restaurant opened last March, though you
might’ve missed it — I sure did. Being at the back
of a kitschy tourist mall will do that.
But the recommendations kept trickling in: “I
know it sounds funky but you’ve got to try it.”
“It might be the best Chinese food on the coast.”
“The eggplant with garlic sauce is amazing!”
So, ¿ nally, with a whistle and some whimsy, I
spun around on my heel and wandered in, gawk-
ing at the asinine T-shirt shops, the caricature art-
ist, the odd stillness of this relative ghost town.
New Garden is at the back of the mall, ensconced
by 6-foot-tall dividing walls. With a shared, open
ceiling, the restaurant is at once separate and
part of the mall. The carousel soundtrack bleeds
into the comfy, spacious, bright and clean dining
room. There are loads of tables, booths, and a big
stone ¿ replace I never saw running. Colorful tap-
estries hang from the ceiling. The kitchen too is
half open — you can hear the sizzling woks and
spy À aming bursts as they’re tossed.
The menu, in Chinese and clipped English, is
vast and opaque. With nothing more than titles and
occasional photos, it lists over 120 dishes and 40
more lunch specials. While certainly Americanized
in its offerings, New Garden could loosely be con-
sidered the descendant of Szechuan and Cantonese
cooking: simple preparation reliant on sautéed pro-
teins and vegetables, brought together with sauce.
My server, thankfully, was not shy about prof-
fering her favorites, as well as making sure my
needs were met. By assessing my proclivities —
did I like spice? did I have any dietary restrictions?
— she guided me toward the Mongolian Beef
($12.95), which I had spiced “medium,” two on
a four-alarm scale. The plate appeared in no time
at all. Even without the side of rice, it was huge.
Tossed in an oily, red pepper sauce, the beef rested
on a bed of rice noodles with onions, scallions and
the occasional hot pepper. The heat eventually got
my nose running, but in no way overtook the À a-
vor — if I wasn’t paying proper attention I might
not have noticed at all. The onions were ideal, car-
amelized and still crisp. The strips of beef were
plentiful and gristle-free. The thin rice noodles
22 | February 25, 2016 | coastweekend.com
added a light, airy, contrasting crunch. Even while
ignoring the rice almost completely, there would
be leftovers worthy of another lunch.
I was less enamored with the of Cumin Chick-
en ($10.95), which was also recommended. Cer-
tainly, though, it lived up to the name. Blunt and
musky, it might as well be called the CUMIN
Chicken. The ancient spice provided back-of-the-
throat heat and coated the accompanying carrots,
onions, jalapeños and bell peppers. The essence
to me was almost pan-ethnic, as much Indian and
Mexican as Chinese. Regardless of origin, unless
you buy your cumin by the pound I’d suggest
something else.
Well, not just anything else: the Eggplant w/
Hot Garlic Sauce ($9.95) was indeed absolutely
marvelous. As I ordered it, my server inquired
about my heat tolerance, as the Hot Garlic Sauce
is measured on its own scale: A “medium” Hot
Garlic Sauce equates to “hot” in any of the oth-
ers. I saddled up and had no regrets. This partic-
ular day was awfully cold, gnarly, wet and wind-
swept, and the Hot Garlic Sauce had me taking
off my cap. To be sure: It wasn’t meaningless,
carnival, feat-of-strength type stuff; just robustly
hot. While just a tad sweet, the slick sauce was
also terri¿ cally garlicky. And in this case — un-
The daily special of Gen-
eral Tso’s Chicken with
rice for $5 is an excellent
value.
like the cumin — I celebrated the intensity. Before
the plate was even set down before me I smelled
the pungent plumes of garlicky steam rising, and
my mouth began to water.
The eggplant aroused further senses: It was
one of the most attractively colorful dishes I’ve
seen lately. The skin of the eggplant was a purple
gradient, deeply darkened on the edges, bright-
ing towards the center. The À esh was tan, burnt
yellow, off-orange. It was dotted with green peas
and chives, red peppers, black beans and the
seeds from hot peppers. Splattered chaotically
but evenly in the rectangular frame, it resembled
something like a Pollack painting. The eggplant
was divine, buttery and so so soft. A delight for
vegetarians and carnivores alike, I melted along
mouth
OF THE COLUMBIA
COAST WEEKEND’S LOCAL RESTAURANT REVIEW
Story and photos by THE MOUTH OF THE COLUMBIA • mouth@coastweekend.com
New Garden Asian Cuisine
Rating:
300 Broadway St., Suite 21, Seaside
(Inside the Carousel Mall)
503-738-9639
HOURS: Winter – 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily / Summer –
11 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily.
PRICE: $ – Most entrées are around $10; there are nu-
merous deals to be had
SERVICE: Cheerful, really quick, dine-in or take-out.
VEGETARIAN / VEGAN OPTIONS: One of the better al-
ternatives in the area
DRINKS: Beer, wine, bottled soda and juice.
with it.
I ordered it as part of the “Weeknights and
Weekend Special,” which includes two pot stick-
ers, a spring egg roll and choice of soup along
with the rice for no additional cost (total: $9.95).
The fried rice was rather bland, light on accoutre-
ments, but added a little ¿ rmness and texture to
the soft veggies. The pot stickers were perfectly
fried, crispy, À aky and yet still soft. The innards
were meaty, with a hint of ginger. The spring roll
had a similarly exquisite shell, but prioritized rice
noodles above veggies inside, and thus became all
starch. I went the Hot and Sour soup route, which
included the basics of the Egg Flower with some
sweet spicy kick, tofu cubes, and pork stock. All
in all, quite a deal for 10 bucks.
And yet, New Garden topped that one with the
daily special: General Tso’s Chicken with rice for
only $5. While a bit sweet and bread-heavy for
my taste, it’s a stellar value. Bento Boxes, basi-
cally four-item samplers, are another way to try
multiple items.
As such, New Garden will pique my radar
from when I’m lunching in Seaside. And while
the restaurant has yet to turn me on to any new as-
pects of Chinese cooking, New Garden’s unclut-
tered, durable preparation, generous portions and
low prices have given me reason to spend time in
a carousel mall. And that’s no small feat.
KEY TO RATINGS
poor
below average
good & worth returning
excellent
outstanding, the best in the
Columbia-Pacific region
