North Garden is my top choice for dim sum in Winnipeg yet I have always wondered how good their sit down menus are. Talking to my fellow food eating residents they have always raved about the dim sum (as I have) but nobody has taken the plunge for their meals. Thus on a cold wintry day I grabbed a fellow resident and made the trek down to North Garden.
I had previously blogged extensively about North Garden, a large restaurant literally steps away from the University of Manitoba. I have to commend North Garden on their attentive and fast service staff who stand guard and watch keenly on your meal. The interiors are as pleasantly decorated as ever with handsome and tasteful artwork overlooking a cavernous dining area.
The dim sum menu at North Garden is incredible yet I was amazed to find such a diversity of dishes available for their sit down options as well. Akin to its namesake, the menu is predominantly North Chinese cuisine. The list is broken down in the usual fashion categorized based on main protein and cooking style. A large menu with plenty of options to satisfy anyone.
Braised Eggplant with Minced Pork is one of my favourite dishes of all time and the version here is excellent. North Garden does something unique here by adding in BBQ Pork giving the dish a further sensation of sweetness on top of the fattiness of the pork and the soft eggplant. Tender and smooth the eggplant is cooked perfectly mixed in with the sweet, salty and slightly sour sauce. Delicious!
Only found on their dine in menu, these Steam Fish Fillets is a monstrous order of tender basa fillets in a mild soy sauce and topped with Gogi berries and wood ear mushrooms. Growing up this would be a classic dish for when I was under the weather and North Garden does a great job recreating the smooth silky and tender fish with the slight saltiness of the soy and the burst of flavour from the berries which would all be finished with the crunch of the mushrooms. A tad greasy but overall well done!
My dining companion loves Beef with Gai Lan Ho Fan and requested it as such for the dinner. Truthfully it is a classic where the bitterness of the gai lan is masked well by the sweet and tender beef in a oyster sauce broth. The thick ho fan here is no slouch either working to create a textural crunch to the dish while soaking up all the flavours. Again the dish is a bit too greasy with a large pool of residual oil in the plate at the end.
North Garden is already my favourite place for dim sum but it affirmed to me that it does sit down Chinese meals expertly as well. The combination of traditional ingredients and techniques make this an easy recommendation for Chinese in the area.
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