The experience

Grace had a lengthy meeting downtown this evening and then got called into the hospital.  So I opted to go take Mina for a quick bite after I picked her up at school.  Benji would hang out and Lolo’s and learn to march.  Mina, of course, wanted First Chinese BBQ.  I told her we couldn’t go back to somewhere we’d been.  She hates Child’s Plate now.  Even though she has found some restaurants she really loves.  Even on the good evenings she still claims to hate it.  She then tried to convince me to go to California Pizza Kitchen.  I had to refuse her again so we’ll have to try and squeeze in a trip to one of these places in the near future to ease the guilt.  We finally settled on Chinese.  I figured we would stay close so we agreed on JK China Garden in Richardson.

JK China Garden

BuddhaI hustled inside through the freezing cold rain carrying Mina.  We stood up front for a couple minutes waiting for the host.  Mina took the time to take some shots by the large vases up front.  She also had me take a picture of the Buddha.

Large Vases

 

One of the waiters arrived and seated us.  It became clear that they were the only two working out front.  They quickly took our drink order and came back a couple times before I was ready to order.  Mina and I finally settled on our choices.

Mina was busy requesting games we could play that evening and about the new bracelet she made in school.  She was very proud that she made it all by herself.  She wanted to show it off.

Look at my Braclet

They brought out some fried noodles for us to munch on while we waited.  Mina was having dreams of going back to May Dragon where she loves these things.  I dream of going back to May Dragon as well.  Here’s her facial expression of “Yum!” while eating the sweet dip.

Yum!

The brought our food out and Mina had to have me try her pork.  She said it was awesome.  I found it just OK.  More tender than most sweet and sour pork but the sauce was the typical sweet and sour which is not my favorite.

She was pleased that they brought out a large bowl of sweet and sour AND a large bowl of ketchup for her fries.  Dip-dip heaven.  After a mid-dinner bathroom break we finished up the meals pretty quickly.  I only had to ask Mina to eat her broccoli once.  Time to pay up and go pick up Benji.  But first a couple fortune cookies.

The food

This place serves pretty typical Chinese.  The food wasn’t bad but wasn’t all that exciting either.  It was good for a quick little bite of Chinese, but I don’t think we’d go back all that often.

Scallops with Garlic SauceI went for the Scallops with Garlic Sauce.  The sauce was a bit sweet for my taste and not spicy enough but the veggies were all very good and well cooked. They went pretty light on the scallops which was good for my diet but probably not good for someone not on one.  Not bad, not great.

Swwet and Sour PorkMina went for the Sweet and Sour Pork.  Mina actually seemed to enjoy hers quite a bit.  She even had me taste hers.  The sweet and sour was pretty tangy. The breading was that sweet crispy batter you typically find on Sweet and Sour.  The pork was actually pretty tender.  Sometimes when you get the sweet and sour pork it tends to be a bit tough.  The lo mein wasn’t bad either.   Mina commented that the fries were mushy in a good way.  I didn’t try them so I can’t say that they were mushy or if it was, in fact, in a good way.

The service

The service was average.  They did do a decent job of keeping drinks filled, but they seemed a bit rushed as it was only two of them serving the whole place.

The kids

They do have a nice little kids menu with Sweet and Sour Chicken, BBQ Spare Ribs and more.  The come with fries, broccoli AND lo mein or rice.  Mina loved the fried noodles they serve with the sweet and sour sauce.  They happily swapped the chicken for pork at Mina’s request as well.  Food was pretty quick as well so you’d probably do fine here.  Nice decor but low key, too.

Total cost: $22.67

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