Tag Archives: Chinese

China House (Westerville)

Posted on April 18, 2018 by | Leave a comment

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5860 Westerville Rd, Westerville, OH 43081
(614) 899-2882

A theory: the further a Chinese restaurant is from OSU, the harder it is for the proprietors to believe that non-Chinese guests could appreciate their traditional preparations. China House is about as far from campus as any restaurant in Central Ohio with a Chinese menu could be, and, well, yes, yes we can use chopsticks. Honestly! We would like to, too. 

Please?

With the sustained application of polite insistence, the desired menus and utensils were acquired. Further efforts yielded these 4 dishes: Broccoli with Lily Bulbs, Seafood Longevity Noodles, Beef Stew Radish, and Wen Chang Chicken. 

We eat a lot of green vegetable preparations in Chinese restaurants, and none have been better than China House’s Broccoli. It’s Chinese broccoli, of course, and the minced lily bulbs made for an intriguing water chestnut-like accompaniment, but the real trick was of a goldilocks nature – not too oily, not too dry, not too salty, not too bland. And, the broccoli wasn’t over cooked (or undercooked!). Just right.

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Beef Stew (with) Radish is a common sight on menus geared towards a Chinese audience. China House’s version was entirely in keeping with previous experiences, featuring tender beef, beef tendon, large chunks of radish, some veg, all in nice thick gravy redolent of Chinese 5 spice. Those of us who enjoy the traditionally assertive 5 spice flavor and are comfortable with the texture of tendon gave it a solid thumb’s up. 

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Seafood Longevity Noodles were a bit divisive – everyone appreciated the flavor and enjoyed the generous portions of shrimp and scallops within, but the mushy texture of the noodles was both argued to be typical of the genre and, to several of us, thought unpleasant.

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The Wen Chang Chicken confounded. It was half a chicken, butchered whole and bone-in, plus head! So far so good – jibes with previous experiences. But, it was covered with what we’re pretty sure was egg roll dipping sauce. There was lots of excessively polite discussion regarding this curiosity at the table, but when we left it was largely untouched. 

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In summation: Four dishes – two hits, two misses. The menu is large, and more exploration would likely yield more gems. Help us!

Menu:

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Does Columbus have any ‘real’ Chinese food?

Posted on March 23, 2018 by | 8 comments

This question finds its way to us with increasing frequency, both online and in person, from dismissive newcomers to Central Ohio as well as jaded locals. We have plenty to say about it, but first, lets talk about this idea of what’s ‘real’. 

‘Real’, in this context, is almost always used as a synonym for ‘authentic’. To the extent that anyone has the authority to categorize any Chinese food as authentic, it certainly isn’t us. 

What we can do, though – with a little help from our friends – is to distinguish the restaurants that are cooking menu items for the Chinese palate from those that are not. In other words, while we’re not fools enough to believe that we can measure any given restaurant’s success in maintaining absolute fidelity to Chinese culinary tradition, we do believe that our merry band of grazers can discern the intent to appeal to a Chinese audience. And, we can share our thoughts on what we enjoy.

OK, so back to the original question. We have to admit that it evokes a mild sense of indignation in us, as we’ve been enjoying the fruits of many of the city’s delicious Chinese kitchens for years – often with Chinese dining companions – and have felt some measure of pride in the range of options available to a city of our size. I mean, ‘Are there any?’ Of course! How many? 

Time to make a list. 

This was a process full of surprises. Once we made our initial list, and then continued searching, we were astounded by how much it grew. There’s an awful lot out there, and far more than we’ve had the opportunity to experience.

Sounds like a new food adventure to us! Over the next year, we’re going to visit/revisit each one of the restaurants on the list (linked below), and we’re going to try them with as many people as is practically possible so we can try as broad of a range of dishes as possible. We’ll post a brief accounting of each here, and hopefully put that pesky question to rest once and for all. 

The List:

Well, almost there. Please bear in mind that while we’re trying to be complete, we may not have caught everything. If we missed something let us know! Also, please understand that some of these restaurants will only have Chinese-American offerings shown on their website. You have to explore their broader menu in person to get the full story – which is exactly what we intend to do.

After the full list (which also includes markets and bakeries), we’ve taken our first stab at categorizing restaurants by their specialties. This will be refined as our adventure progresses, but is intended to illustrate the breadth of regional and culinary specialization found among the city’s Chinese offerings.

Columbus Chinese Food Guide 

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Posted in Bakery, Chinese, Grocery store, Restaurant

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King’s Garden

Posted on May 31, 2011 by | 8 comments

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CLOSED: 9/30/12

Cuisine: Chinese (Cantonese)

7726 Sawmill Rd, Dublin, OH 43017
(Old Sawmill Square Shopping Center)
Mon – Closed, Tue-Sat 11am – 10pm
Sun – 11am – 9pm

Click here to map it!

King’s Garden has been around for a while, but what caught our attention was an ownership change that shifted the restaurant’s focus from Beijing-style Chinese to Cantonese-style. The new owners have a long history of running solid Cantonese restaurants in Columbus; the husband used to own Shangri-La on Cleveland Ave., the wife’s family use to own Wong Gei on campus, and her brother runs Yau’s on south campus.

Our eating team dove right into menu and test-drove some classic Cantonese dishes.

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Congee is rice cooked down with water at a very low temperature until it has a creamy consistency. This is usually served for breakfast and it cooked with different savory items like chicken, beef and etc. The version above is made with century/preserved eggs and pork. It was cooked to the right consistency and the subtle sweetness of the meat and congee was punctuated with the slight pungent taste of the century eggs.

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The pickled vegetable with shredded pork noodle soup usually comes with rice vermicelli noodles but this version came with the heartier wonton egg noodles. It was very satisfying with its salty, porky broth.

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This vegetable and pork noodle soup is different from the one above as this soup is thickened by eggs. The soup was velvety and the combination of the vegetables with the pork gave the dish a subtle umami taste.

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The seafood pan fried noodle was a welcome change after all the soft texture of the previous dishes. The noodle is quickly deep fried and placed at the bottom of the plate to be covered in a wonderful soy/oyster corn-flour thickened sauce.  The sauce will slightly soften the noodles but not completely so that you can have a wonderful combination of soft and crunchy texture.

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Normally I would never order fried rice in in Columbus because it almost always comes out to be a soggy oily mess. King’s Garden’s fried rice is the exception. This salted fish with chicken fried rice was the epitome of wok hei and skill of the chef. Every single grain of rice was enveloped by the heat of the wok resulting in a non oily and flavor packed dish. I can now rest in fried rice/wok hei peace in Columbus.

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If you enjoy tendons and brisket, the beef stew pan fried noodle is a must order. The tendons and brisket has been braised for hours turning them into buttery meat goodness and is a great companion to the pan fried wide rice noodles.  If tendons are not your cup of tea, you can order either the beef stir fried noodle or beef rice noodle with black bean sauce.

We were all extremely happy with the quality of food and pleasant service. The only downside for most of us is that this place is not in our neighborhood. For those who live in Dublin, this place should be your go-to Cantonese restaurant.

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Fortune Chinese Restaurant

Posted on April 8, 2011 by | 12 comments


Cuisine: Chinese (Sichuan)

2869 Olentangy River Road, next to Buckeye Bar & Grill
(614) 263-1991
Hours: Sunday – Thursday, 11am-10pm; Friday and Saturday, 11am-11pm

Click here to map it!

After hearing mixed reviews about Fortune’s new ownership from friends and readers, we ventured to this unassuming storefront on a gray weekday and had an utterly transformative lunch. We had heard that the new owners were concentrating on Sichuan cuisine and we sought dishes with the classic mouth numbing Sichuan peppercorn. For the uninitiated, the heat of Sichuan peppercorns doesn’t translate exactly to the Scoville scale; instead, the spice numbs the lips and tongue creating a unique sensation. In Chinese, this numbing spiciness is referred to as ma la. We’ve had some great Sichuan dishes around town, most notably some items in the Imperial Garden Weekend Buffet, but Fortune has the most successful and faithfully reproduced versions of typical Sichuan dishes.

We started off with two bowls of dan dan noodles (one bowl is plenty to share between two people). This quintessential Sichuan dish has been butchered up and down by Americanized noodle shops and we were a little disappointed to see that it came with egg noodles and not the typical thin flour noodle. By the second bite, we had forgotten the noodle and were completely wowed by the flavors. Drenched in chili oil and liberally sprinkled with crisp peppercorn flakes, the ground pork and peanut toppings contributed to the overall flavor and we were substantially impressed. In no time at all, our sinuses were clearing up and our mouths were totally numb.

Another dish we couldn’t refrain from ordering was the lamb with chili pepper and cumin. Since the capital of Sichuan, Chengdu, is one of the end points of the Silk Road, Middle Eastern flavors such as cumin is very common in Sichuan cuisine. For this specialty dish, we were expecting lamb that was a little bit more dehydrated but with tender pieces of lamb and aggressive spicing, we weren’t complaining at all. The copious amounts of sliced garlic and green onions rounded out the flavors and Angela declared it near perfect.

I was tickled pink when I noticed Sliced Beef in Fresh Hot Pepper. It’s one of my favorite Sichuan dishes and pairs perfectly with nothing more than a bowl of steamed rice. It’s really a one bowl meal: layers of napa cabbage, tender beef slices, and sometimes mung bean noodles all the way at the bottom. And despite its thick layer of chili oil, it’s not really that spicy, but very pronounced in ma la flavor. This dish also comes in a fish version and we can’t wait to try it!

Ma po Tofu is another classic Sichuan dish that is often poorly executed elsewhere. This wholly vegetarian dish was the best version we’ve tried in town. Liberally sprinkled with cumin and peppercorns, the silken tofu was further complemented by garlicky thick cut leeks.

This photo sums up our selection of classic Sichuan dishes, heavy on red chili oil and utterly delicious.

To round out our meal, we also shared a simple dish of pea shoots stir fried with garlic. Even in the best of kitchens, delicate leafy greens are so hard to execute consistently. At Fortune, the leaves were just barely cooked through, the stems still had a nice crispness, and it was not too oily. A true indicator of great skill.

On our way out, we noticed that the new management had posted signs of their house specialties. We did well by ordering three of the eight, and we can’t wait to come back to try more! Left column, translated: Beef Tripe with Hot Pepper Sauce, Ma La Dried Beef (Beef Jerk with Red Chili Sauce), Diced Rabbit in Chili Oil, Ma La Beef Tendon (Beef Tendon with Red Chili Sauce). Right column: Ma Po Tofu, Fish Filet in Hot Pepper, Cold Beef with Spicy Sauce, Dan Dan Noodles.

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Posted in Asian, Chinese

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Imperial Garden, Weekend Buffet

Posted on March 9, 2011 by | 7 comments


2950 Hayden Road
Columbus, OH 43235
614-799-8655
www.imperialgardenoh.com
Buffet available Saturdays and Sundays 11:30am to 2:00pm

Click here to map it!

The folks here at alt.eats would like to issue a formal apology to our readers: we’ve been holding out on you and we’re really sorry. The weekend buffet at Imperial Garden is so extensive, it required several repeat visits before we could coherently write about it. Every time we go, we spend too much time eating, and too little time taking pictures and notes. For a comprehensive list of buffet offerings, take a look at, our friend, ChoosyGourmand’s blog post.

We like to start in the back room, where the spread consists of soups, snacks, and desserts. There are always three soup options, a salty soup of the day (such as fish with pickled mustard greens), an unsweetened fresh soy milk, and a sweet red bean soup. There are also a dim sum items like sesame balls, noodles, dumplings, and fried crullers. We like to save the sweet red bean soup and fried mochi sesame balls filled with peanut paste for the end of our meal. A note for the uninitiated: the sesame balls are very popular so keep an eye out for them or they will be gone before you blink!

Don’t fill up in the back room because the double steam tables in the front room is where all the goodies are! Since Rod has done such a great job documenting each dish, we’re just going to highlight our favorites. Above, clockwise from top: braised beef tendon with bamboo shoots, roast duck, julienne pressed tofu with bamboo shoots and pork, braised beef with turnips.

Salt and pepper crispy shrimp. “Salt and pepper” is a common preparation method for fried squid and pork chops. These shrimp are excellent and can be eaten whole or peeled.

Perhaps my favorite item of the entire buffet is this Sichuan peppercorn fish filet. It’s made with chili oil and Sichuan peppercorns which gives two layers of heat, front end spiciness from the chili oil and tongue numbing spiciness from the Sichuan peppercorns.

Pig ear and wilted romaine salad dressed in a delicious sesame and chili oil sauce.

Mapo tofu with pork intestine. This is an unconventional take on mapo tofu which is usually ground pork stir fried with cubed silken tofu and chili oil sauce.

Tender baby octopus (or squid) stir fried with celery.

The buffet offerings at Imperial Garden are not for the faint of heart but less adventurous eaters can eat very well. There is always white rice, rice vermicelli, stir fried bok choy, and two soups at the front of the buffet. In addition, the salt and pepper chicken wings, Japanese eggplant, and northern styled julienne potato (naturally crispy) are delicious alternatives to the more unfamiliar dishes. Most menu items are in the buffet and at about $13 per person, the buffet pricing is a bargain for its variety and quality.

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Posted in Asian, Chinese

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