Szechwan Garden - Revisit

I met my friend @wibia for another birthday lunch. We both like Szechwan Garden, and I have been itching to get back there since the last time I went and had the salt and pepper squid. I said then that I really wanted to try the salt and pepper fish (#115 on the menu, $15.95) so this time I did.  We also had the shredded roast duck with pan-fried rice noodles off of the lunch menu (the one on the back of the dim sum menu) ($4.95). I also had a taste of his hot and sour soup.

So, I was pretty right about being excited to try the salt and pepper fried fish. I had enjoyed the very peppery (and salty) seasoning on the squid before, but the squid itself was too chewy for me. The fish was thin and tender and much more appealing (and I like squid when it’s tender). I love the little crumbles of toasty garlic on top of the fish. The pieces with those on top were the best—they gave it an added nutty flavor. The fish was a thin white fish—maybe tilapia? They give you a lot, particularly since there is no veggies or anything with it, so I would recommend sharing it with others and/or with a dish heavier on veggies. They do give you a side of rice to go along with it.

The noodle dish we also shared is one of @wibia’s favorite things at Szechwan Garden I think. I’ve seen him order it a couple of times. It’s a nice dish as well—the super thin rice noodles are sautéed with bits of the roasted duck, egg, scallions and a few pieces of red pepper. It’s a better accompaniment to the fish than rice I think, just because the noodles have more going on, and add a bit of moisture to an otherwise kind of of dry meal. I really liked the bit of egg of course, and the scallions added some flavor and texture to the dish. We did add some soy to it, which brought the flavors out even more.

The quick bite of the hot and sour soup was tasty too—had the right balance of spicy and sour and nice bits of tofu and mushrooms and egg. My favorite thing—the broth isn’t gelatinous like some can be.

The menu here is huge, so I am pretty sure there is something on there for just about everyone. It would be fun for someone to start a blog and eat their way through that menu. Now that would be a feat.

Szechwan Garden

3649 Lafayette Road

Indy 46222

317/328-2888

Szechwan Garden - Revisit

I have a lot to talk about! This post combines a couple of meals—lunch with my friends Sacha and Scott and a business dinner. (Most prices listed here are dinner prices, lunch is always cheaper.) So I got to try a lot of things.

I am just going to sort of jump around with some of the stuff. Combined, I tried several appetizers/dim sum items (dim sum is only available at lunch). I really enjoyed the shrimp and chive dumplings—very chive-filled for sure (I am thinking maybe some scallions too). Nicely pan-seared giving a little crispy edge. Not a ton of shrimp, but just enough to give it a fuller consistency. At dinner we tried the scallion pancake ($3.50), crab Rangoon ($5.95), pot stickers ($5.95), and the just straight up dumplings ($4.50). Of these, I probably liked the dumplings and pot stickers the best. The pot stickers were nicely pan-fried as well, giving just a touch of crunch on the outside and the dumplings were softer, and sitting in a spicy chili/soy broth. But it was nice to have some of the fried items to go along with the dumplings—the crab Rangoon were more cream-cheesy than crabby, but were fried just right and were super hot and crunchy. The scallion pancakes is crispy, but with a softness as well. Lots of fresh green scallion flavor.

chive dumplings

potstickers and dumplings

crab rangoon and scallion pancake

Of the various entrées I had over the course of both meals, some of the highlights were the pan fried green beans with little crispy bits of pork belly ($8.95 for dinner portion, lunch is cheaper)—the beans still had a snap, but had a slightly blistered skin from the heat. I also really enjoyed the Chengdu braised fish in hot chili oil. This one probably had the most kick of all the dishes. The fish was tender and was lovely over the rice served alongside. A table favorite was the shredded pork with garlic sauce ($9.95). This dish was a bit spicy as well, and had a rich garlic sauce. There were lots of sliced onions and red and green peppers as well. I liked the way that the meat and the veggies were all sliced similarly to each other, giving just the right proportion of all the flavors in each bite.

Green beans

Chengdu Fish

Shredded pork

We also had the fried squid with salt and pepper ($14.95). I generally love salt and pepper items, and the crust on this had a good crunch and flavor, but the pieces of squid suffered the chewy fate that it so often does. Based on the flavor of it though, the fried fish fillet with salt and pepper is on my list for my next visit. I think with more tender fish, this dish will be super tasty. Salty and a fair dose of pepper as well. I can’t wait. We also had the shrimp and garlic sauce ($13.95). This one was good as well—tender plump shrimp plus more fresh veggies—bigger ones here if you’re looking for a more balanced meal between protein and veg. There was broccoli, red pepper chunks and peapods. I enjoyed it, although it was a bit blander than the other dishes. The beef chow fun was an interesting one as well, and also not spicy. The homemade thick noodles were sautéed with scallions, bean sprouts, and large pieces of sliced beef. This is more of a soy-based sauce, with maybe just a touch of sweetness. I liked the fresh noodles. That’s pretty much my story in any type of cuisine though.

squid

garlic shrimp

beef chow fun

For me, the biggest miss was my lunch order of sautéed eggplant with basil sauce (and I asked them to add some chicken). In the past when I have dined at Szechwan Garden, I have seen people eating big plates of eggplant and I always wanted to get it, even though I wasn’t exactly sure which dish it was (there are several eggplant dishes on the menu). This dish was really overly oily and had little flavor at all. I actually tried to order the garlic-based eggplant dish at dinner to see if it was better (and to see if my lunch may have just been a fluke), but somehow it got forgotten and by the time we realized it, we had all had WAY too much to eat to order more. So, someday maybe I will figure out the mysterious eggplant dish.

eggplant

Which brings me to my final thought, how can you ever really get a handle on this place? How do you even know what to begin to order when there are 374 menu items (plus the dim sum)? So do you order something new every time or stick with old favorites? I know I am trying the salt and pepper fish next time, but that’s about as far as I can get. How do you guys handle it and what are your favorite items?

Szechwan Garden

3649 Lafayette Road

Indy 46222

317/328-2888

Szechwan Garden

I have been wanting to try out this place for lunch ever since I heard they have dim sum on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays.  I have been nagging hubby for a Friday lunch over there, and he finally gave in. I love dim sum, and while I enjoy the dim sum lunches at Shanghai Lil’s, variety is the spice of life right? And it is always nice to find something a little cheaper.  Szechwan Garden is set in what looks like an old family style restaurant—it is quite large.  When we got there, there weren’t many people in there and the menu they gave us was not the dim sum menu, so make sure if that is what you go for, that you ask.  They brought us one, with pictures and everything. So we ordered the standards for us—the spring rolls, the shrimp dumplings, the sui mai, as well as a few other things—the fried dumplings and the scallion pancake.

Probably our favorite thing was the fried dumplings ($3.95)*—they were sort of like pot stickers in flavor, but the dumpling skin seemed less doughy and had amazing crisped edges.  The inside was a pork filling but there were fresh bits of green onion in there as well that kept it from tasting like the filling of every other dumpling.  But the skin was what really made it special. They were delicious.

The spring rolls ($2.65) were also quite good (4 come in an order, hubby had already taken one). They were the deep fried type, and filled with your standard cabbage type filling, but the wrapper on the rolls was more like a super thin type crepe—it had a great crisp texture, but with just a tiny bit of sponginess if you know what I mean.  They were crazy hot when we first got them, and actually benefited from sitting a bit. We both enjoyed the second one better than the first.  But they were also quite good and I liked that the insides weren’t all stringy like some are.

The shrimp dumplings were your standard shrimp dumplings ($3.95)—just the dumpling skin stuffed with shrimp and nothing really else. I always have to have an order of these when I have dim sum, and this time was no exception.  They were probably middle of the pack for all the ones I have had.  The scallion pancake ($2) was pretty good as well—a nice additional filler thing.  I like to balance my steamed things with crunchy items and this served as a good crunchy item.  However, this was not a dish that was served well by sitting around at all, so eat this one quickly if you get it. After a bit, it started to lose its crunch. It had a decent amount of scallion flavor.

By far our least favorite thing was the sui mai, ($2.95) or steamed pork dumplings.  Honestly, as soon as I saw them, I had my doubts.  The pork filling was dense and tough, like a bad meatball.  The dumpling that the meat sat in just didn’t seem as fresh as everything else—actually the dish on the whole just didn’t have the freshness that everything else had. It tasted like it could’ve been made a few days ago.  I like sui mai that taste like they have some other ingredients in them (they are sometimes made with shrimp as well as the pork) but these dumplings just tasted like pork to me.

All in all, it was a good experience, and I am intrigued to try the regular menu as well. There were several groups of people who came in for lunch and ordered communal dishes that all looked quite tasty.  I was really eyeing the sautéed eggplant at the table next door.  And I am hoping to get better about trying more places on the west side. There are so many options over there.  What other Asian places do you like on that side of town?

Szechwan Garden

3649 Lafayette Road

Indianapolis, IN 46222

317/328-2888

*note that I may have reversed a few of the prices-- on my receipt a couple were in English and a couple were in Chinese. I made my best estimate, and the total bill including two drinks was right at $20 if that is helpful.