SGV: Tasty Garden Now Open in San Gabriel

After I got back from New York, I took my mom out to dinner for a belated Mother’s Day dinner. We decided on the newest Tasty Garden in San Gabriel. It’s been open less than two months and it still feels really new from its sparkling clean interior decorated in hues of royal purple.

Beware people- this is NOT real shark’s fin. So essentially what you get when you order the egg and shark’s fin dish are egg whites and noodles. Not a bad dish if you think of it that way.

I love bean curd so when I spotted this lamb hot pot with bean curd, I decided I wanted to try it. It came with a little flame to keep it hot. This dish ended up be rather bony but the sauce was tasty enough. We had to get more rice to finish off the savory sauce, mushrooms and bean curd.

Any regular reader of the Minty will recognize how much I love pea sprouts, shoots and tendrils. Tasty Garden had a variation with bamboo pith. I love bamboo pitch! Unfortunately, the gravy for this dish didn’t taste like anything in particular. Spoon sauce from the lamb dish and the problem was solved.

I recently talked about a dish that figured prominently in my childhood- the steamed minced meat loaf with salted fish. Tasty Garden’s version was very large and probably the best dish we had this night.

Usually I wouldn’t have gotten so much meat and would have gotten seafood or at least mixed protein noodles but my brother doesn’t really like seafood. So we got the beef and I’m glad we did. The beef turned out to be very tender and the noodles were crispy enough. You have to ask for it to be crispy and the juxtaposition of the crunchy bits with the softened noodles from the gravy is just perfect.

Having been to the other Tasty Gardens in the SGV, I rather liked this one as it wasn’t too busy. Granted, we were eating very early and could have ordered from their tea time menu (just think of it as a Cantonese Happy Hour sans booze even though some drinks are served in boot steins!).

Tasty Garden

608 E Valley Blvd., Ste A, San Gabriel, CA 91776 — (626) 280-3338

 

© The Minty 2012