Asian Garden feeds every mood, taste by Kristen Power, Outpost staff As a dining reviewer I thought I would have big opportunities to explore new dining options in the Reno area and develop tastes for new cuisine. I was frightfully mistaken. When choosing restaurants I keep returning to the same old favorites again and again, begging for more of the same food I've grown to love. Such is the case with Asian Garden, a small Mandarin/Szechuan restaurant at 1945 South Virginia Street. I used to hate all oriental food. As a child I would eat steamed rice and the occasional snippet of sweet and sour chicken when we dined out at a local Chinese restaurant. I protested Chinese food at every chance I got. But then I was forced to eat the stuff two and a half years ago when I first met my ex-boyfriend's parents. About half way through the meal I thought to myself, "Hey, this isn't so bad."   Asian Garden is on the corner of Plumb and Kietzke. Photo by Kristen Power After that we began eating at Asian Garden all the time. We started small, with heavily Americanized dishes like sweet and sour chicken, and slowly added dishes like mu-shu pork. I grew to love the Mandarin and Szechuan style of food that Asian Garden offered even though I know that the food is a stretch from the authentic food served in the orient. So, when it came to deciding which restaurant to visit for my next review my craving for kung pao chicken kicked in and decided for me. Asian Garden became my only option. Asian Garden features a fairly extensive menu, divided into sections. It has entrees that include pork, seafood, poultry, beef, vegetables and noodles. The menu also features appetizers and a few desserts. There are lunch specials for midday diners, and everything on the menu can be ordered for take out. The restaurant is open from 11:30 a.m. until 10 p.m. seven days a week. I never get too adventurous when eating foreign foods but my recent trip was a bit of an exception. I played it safe by ordering the China dinner for my girlfriend and myself. The dinner section of the menu has 3-course meals outlined already to make decisions easier. Diners get an appetizer plate, choice of soup, and choice of entrees from a select list. Candice wanted to try the egg flower soup, which is something I had never ventured to try. I think the won ton soup is so wonderful and filling and safe that I always order it. However, I gave in on the soup choice. I ordered Almond Chicken and Kung Pao Chicken for the entrees. The server brought out a teapot filled with hot Oolong tea, and quickly set the scene for our appetizers by placing bowls of sweet sour sauce and spicy mustard on the table. The plate of finger foods arrived shortly after we ordered, and we dove in like ravenous wolves. The egg rolls were a bit greasy but they were fried, so it was forgivable. The deep-fried prawns were just okay because there was too much batter surrounding the prawn. The prize-winning appetizer was definitely the crab cheese puffs. These were simply dollops of seasoned cream cheese, with some barely detectable crab wrapped in a sheet of dough and fried to a crisp. The outside wasn't greasy at all, and the cheese on the inside was warm and soft and just the right consistency. There wasn't much crab in the crab cheese puffs, but they were excellent nonetheless. (Maybe this reflects my eagerness for the holidays to arrive, but I think these would be perfect on a buffet table at a holiday party.)   The ambiance makes for easy, relaxing conversation. Photo by Kristen Power The soup arrived next and we were shocked by its appearance. The soup had a foggy white color, from the egg whites, specked with orange and green vegetables. Candice said she'd never seen egg flower soup that looked like this, but we tried it out and discovered that it was not as bad as it looked. It was only a bit bland and in need of mass quantities of pepper. Next time I'll stick with the won ton soup, but for going out on a limb this wasn't a horrible experience. We weren't able to polish off the bowl of soup at our table before our entrees arrived. We got a medium sized bowl of steamed rice with almond chicken and kung pao chicken. Both plates of chicken looked nearly the same and only a few shades of orange differentiated the two. The lighter dish was the almond chicken. The tiny pieces of chicken were mixed up with what I think was watercress and another unidentifiable vegetable, bound with a gingery sauce, and garnished with almonds. The almond chicken was enjoyable, but it was no match for the spicier competition: the kung pao chicken. The kung pao chicken is noted on the menu as being hot and spicy, and that's no lie. Red peppers, about an inch or two long, hide out in the deep orange sauce, and flecks of the same peppers dance about on the surface of the chicken. I wouldn't recommend eating them whole because they are so hot, but the flecks of peppers add a zing to the entree that is a party for the palate. Mixed in with the chunks of chicken and the sauce were green bell peppers, onions and a few other vegetables I couldn't name. There was so much food on the plates that we knew we would never finish. I ate as much as I could and then threw in the napkin, feeling satisfied that I had just eaten a fabulous meal. It was filling, it was diverse and it was a bit adventurous as well. Our server boxed up the leftovers, which turned out to supply two more meals, and brought the check and two fortune cookies. The fortune in my fortune cookie turned out to be a blessing. It said that I would do well on a test and the following week I did. Not only is the food excellent and filling at Asian Garden but the decor and service are great. The lighting is dim, but not so dark that you have a hard time seeing across the room. There is no loud music playing or TVs with music videos dangling from the ceiling to distract diners. The noise level is low and lends itself to great dinner conversation. The service staff is also good. Sometimes I can go to a restaurant and the server stops to check on my table every five minutes. That gets irritating. I can eat on my own, no help required. The Asian Garden staff knows this and stays back allowing diners to relax and enjoy their meals. Don't get me wrong, they were still militant about keeping the water glasses full. As I mentioned before, I've dined at Asian Garden numerous times. The appetizers are always tasty, the entrees are large, filling, and loaded with vegetables and the prices are the most reasonable in town that I've found for oriental cuisine. No matter what mood I'm in I know I can find a dish to satisfy me. Posted Nov. 5, 1998 Copyright 1998 Nevada Oupost