Oriental Garden - Review

Intro
Oriental Garden - Recommended
14 Elizabeth St, New York 10013
Btwn Canal St and Bayard St
Phone: 212-619-0085

Haven't had Dim Sum in a while, so we stopped by Oriental Garden in Chinatown. Still the best in the city in my opinion. Overall, I give the restaurant a 78/100.

My Menu

1) Shrimp and Pork Dumpling (Siu Mai) **
2) Seared Garlic Chive Round Dumpling ***
3) Sticky Rice (Law Mai Fan)
4) Seared Round Doughy Pork Dumpling (Sen Jian Bow)
5) Long Rice Noodle Dumpling and Shrimp (Cheong Fun) *
6) Garlic Chive Dumpling **
7) Chicken Feet (Fung Jiao) *

* Good
** Great
*** What the F – in a good way

Dish Comments
1) My favorite dim sum item since I was a wee lad has always been siu mai. These are great here. Juicy, a nice porky flavor, and a nice thin delicate skin. Just writing about it makes me want to eat some right now.
2) A big what the f moment as this brought me back to my childhood as well as back to my trips to Taiwan. Impossibly thin tender skin, super crisp exterior, and an explosion garlic chive and shrimp.
3) Ok dish, but nothing to write home about. My keys to law mai fan are rich mushroom/pork flavor that should be warm, chewy and slightly juicy. Didn't get any of that here...
4) As soon as I saw these dumplings, I needed to order them since they were one of my favorite things in Taiwan. Unfortunately, the skin was way to thick and doughy and the filling was barely there. If I never visited Taiwan, these would be OK...
5) Tasty, but not great. The long rice noodles don't have the best texture - noodles all clung to each other, but overall the flavors are still good. My perfect cheong fun would have soft, delicate skin that fall apart easily in the mouth. Not here.
6) Another great garlic chive dumpling, but with a slightly thicker skin then the other garlic chive dumplings. Still very delicate and I'm pretty sure the same filling...great stuff.
7) This dish usually scares most people, but it's actually quite delicious. You only eat the skin and gelatin and discard the bones of the chicken feet. The skin here is tender and has good flavor.

Overall Restaurant Experience (78/100)

• Food 8.0/10 – In my opine, the best dim sum in NYC. Still not quite as good as the dim sum from Flushing and NJ (e.g. 1 9 Seafood Restaurant)
  
• Service 6.5/10 – Like most Chinese restaurants, the service was pretty bad. All of the waiters have attitude. Also, the dim sum does not come out that much - you basically need to ask the waiter to order it.
• Atmosphere 7.5/10 – Small place (like 20 tables), so unless you go with 8 people you're definitely sitting with others. I don't mind so much as it's funny looking at people watch in disgust as you eat chicken feet. Place looks like the standard Chinese joint, white circular tables and the standard dragon on the wall. Bathroom is surprisingly neat as most Chinatown bathrooms looks like a port-a-potty at lollapalooza. We got there at 11:45am on Saturday and were seated immediately - it was packed by 12pm. Crowd was mainly non-Chinese and consisted of large groups.
• Price 8.0/10 – Great price. $28 for the total meal and we were stuffed. Still a little costly for Chinatown dim sum, but totally worth it.

Closing Comments
I so wanted to rock out pictures, but this was a random meal so didn't get to bring the camera. My next investment for the blog will be a phone with a very good flash camera. Definitely the best place I've found in Chinatown for dim sum. Oh ya, afterwards we went to Chinatown Ice Cream Factory for a scoop of Green Tea and Taro Ice Cream...spectacular stuff.