A Pan-Asian Menu

Living out in a more rural area of the country, it’s harder to find good food than it was deep within the city. There are good restaurants, but they’re further spaced apart, and the small clumps you get of eateries often tend to accommodate the same kinds of clientele, the same desired tastes. There are a ton of restaurants around me that all serve the same kinds of burgers, the same kinds of wings, the same kinds of burritos, but it’s harder to find something really good and interesting that stands out. Hell, there are five Asian restaurants in my area, all serving some combination of Chinese and Japanese, but only one of them is actually interesting enough to eat at (as the other four taste pretty bland).

I discovered Golden Garden in Lexington, VA, soon after moving into the surrounding area. I wanted some place nice, quiet, that served good food. And I love Asian cuisine, in basically all forms, so I was on the lookout for a place that could suit my tastes. Eventually I stumbled on Golden Garden, a pan-asian restaurant that promised a nice spread of Thai, Chinese, and Japanese food at reasonable prices, and once I ate there I realized this was just about the best place for Asian food in the area.

Now, that isn’t to say the place is perfect. I happen to feel like their food is actually pretty middle of the road. Like most Asian restaurants they have some dishes that are better than others. Their sushi is really great, fresh and tasty, although their sushi prices are a tad high. Their Chinese cuisine is good, if not that authentic, and even their spicy dishes aren’t usually very spicy. But when compared to the other places in the area, which have a couple of good items but are generally quite bland otherwise, Golden Garden hits the itch I have. If the other places are 6s, Golden Garden is a solid 8.

Let’s go through a recent meal I had there to look at what they make that’s pretty good:

Soup and Salad

I always gravitate towards Hot and Sour when it’s on offer, and Golden Garden’s is one of the better versions I’ve had. That’s not just for the area, but in general. A lot of restaurants make a bad Hot and Sour Soup, either too sour, or twoo chickeny, or one of any number of mistakes that makes it taste bad. The pinnacle I found was in Northern VA, a small, local chain called China King, who sadly closed during the COVID-19 pandemic, but their Hot and Sour was so good that I used to get it, on its own, nearly daily when I lived there. Golden Garden’s is a close second, at least. It’s tangy and thick, with the right balance of flavors. It’s full of chunks of tofu, mushrooms, and bamboo, along with floating shreds of egg. It’s got the right balance of textures and flavors that lead me to order it over and over again.

My wife, meanwhile, usually gets their Corn Egg Drop Soup. She doesn’t like spice (although I don’t find the Hot and Sour to be spicy), so she likes something milder. The Egg Drop is milder without being boring. It too has a thick stock, with a tasty, egg-flavored broth. It has nice chunks floating in it, with a lot of egg (of course), and it’s probably packed full of MSG since it tastes flavorful and delightful. A win on both counts.

We also got a house salad, which is a mix of light greens (mostly iceberg) along with tomatoes and cucumbers. It’s served with a house ginger dressing. The salad should, for many, resemble the standard salad you’d get at a sushi bar, just this one was bigger than the standard. It was very nice, with a tangy dressing that wasn’t too sweet or overpowering. I would recommend getting the dressing on the side, though, if you don’t like a lot of wetness on your salad.

Entrees

I’ve sampled a few of Golden Garden’s dishes over the couple of years I’ve lived in the area. They have some pretty good dishes, like theri Kung Pao Chicken and their Mongolian Beef. I don’t tend to settle into one dish that I like to get at any one time, which speaks well of the restaurant, because for many Asian places there’s just one thing I like and everything else tends to feel too boring or basic. I don’t have a set favorite here, though, and yesterday I was feeling a tad cheeky when I picked up my meal.

My selection was the Dragon and the Phoenix, a side-by-side meal consisting of General Tso’s Chicken and Spicy Shrimp. Now, usually I’m not a huge fan of General Tso’s. I feel like it’s an overrated dish and it’s also supremely basic. Fried chicken chunks, sweet sauce, some broccoli garnish. It feels like a dish someone gets if they don’t like Chinese food. Very American, very boring. And that’s not to say it wasn’t in this case too, as it’s hard to spruce up that dish on its own. The best way, in my opinion, is to serve it in a combo with something else as well.

Yes, the Dragon and the Phoenix is basically an up-scale combo platter from Panda Express, but it certainly tastes better there. The spicy sauce on the shrimp side is light and tangy, and it’s nice to see actual vegetables anywhere on a plate with General Tso’s. That dish, meanwhile, is actually pretty dang good. The sweet sauce it’s too sharp or sugary, actually having a light and flavorful tang to it. It’s not overpowering, as too many versions of this dish can be. Plus, getting it at the restaurant meant I got the chicken while it was still crispy, fresh out of the fryer. It’s the best version of this dish I’ve had, even if General Tso’s is still a pretty basic dish.

My wife selected the Pad Thai, meanwhile. She got hers with tofu, as she was feeling more veggies and less meat. The sauce for the dish was mildly flavorful, tangy with the right level of peanut flavor. The eggs within the dish are nice, solid and chunky. The veggies are good, just enough texture for the dish without being overcooked. And the noodles were soft but not too soft. Complimented with a side of lime to add some extra tanginess, the dish was good. It’s not the best Pad Thai, but it does have enough flavor to make it worth getting again.

Sushi

And then there was the sushi selection. Golden Garden has a large and extensive sushi menu, with the usual expected standard rolls, hand rolls, and nigiri pieces, along with specialty rolls as well. Yesterday I got a usual favorite of mine, the Miami Roll: fresh tuna mixed with chili paste, given a little crunch, wrapped in seaweed and rice, topped with fresh salmon and then drizzled with eel sauce and chili sauce. It’s very flavorful, and you get a whole experience with this roll. Sweet, spicy, tangy, and delicious. I love the flavors, and Golden Garden had very fresh, very tasty fish, so the whole roll comes together nicely.

My wife doesn’t tend to get raw fish very often, but she did get a roll yesterday: an avocado roll. The basics of Golden Garden’s sushi comes through here as well, with nicely cooked rice and a good sushi wrapping experience. The avocado in the roll was very fresh and even a little juicy, meaning it was at just the right level of ripeness. A very good avocado roll for someone that doesn’t like fishy sushi.

Final Thoughts

The meal in general was pretty good. We naturally hit items that we knew were decent and didn’t stray too far from flavors we liked. Still, there was variety and some odd choices in there that we normally didn’t get. And the experience on the whole was very good. If you eat in you’ll find very friendly workers who are quite helpful. The food comes out quick and always feels freshly made. It’s a good experience, start to finish, making this a place worth going back to again and again.

About the only real knock I can give Golden Garden is that the interior of the place isn’t super fancy. There are other restaurants in the area that go for a more ornate decorating style, and their interiors feel more lavish. Golden Garden has a basic interior, like a family diner that was converted into an Asian restaurant, and I could see that turning some people off. But if that’s the case, and you’re in the area, order take-out or even delivery. Delivery is free as they do it themselves instead of using DoorDash or some other service. That’s actually a plus in my book.

It’s a good restaurant with good food. It may not be the fanciest place, but Golden Garden gets enough stuff right to make it worth the regular visit.