Vietnam Garden

Style: Vietnamese
Website: www.vietnamgardenva.com

My Rating: 5/5 Stars

Likes: Comprehensive menu with items for many different tastes, prices are reasonable, helpful service, certain dishes are available that are hard to find at similar restaurants

Dislikes: It is too far away for me to visit more often, some more common Vietnamese dishes (such a broken rice and pho) are not the best I have had

Vietnam Garden is about an hour away from my house. My husband and I first went the restaurant because we were prompted by a Groupon about our months ago. Yes, it is the usual case. Since then, we have been back over five times. For an hour long car ride over a painful interstate and often in rush hour traffic, we have been frequently. This is because it is so worth it.

We decided to take my Grandma out on February 15 for a belated Valentine's Day. She had never had Vietnamese food and was excited to try it. However, the husband and I were hesitant to take her because we didn't want to upset her stomach with spicy food. We decided to take her Vietnam Garden because the menu is so extensive and there were a lot of "grandma-friendly" menu items.

The restaurant is located in a strip mall with many other ethnic restaurants. India K. Raja and Teppanyaki Buffet are two of these (which are completely UN-noteworthy).  It appears to be just another random restaurant with old carpet and cheesy Asian decor.

Walking in, the cheesy Asian decor is apparent, but so are the other diners. About six of the the seven other tables are Asians. We always consider this to be an excellent sign of authentic quality! When we are seated, we are served glasses of water and we place our orders. Here is what we had:

We ordered steamed dumplings as an appetizer. These are my favorite Asian dumplings because the pastry around them is very thick and soft. I like to poke a small hole with a chopstick before I dunk it for the first time. The ginger soy sauce that comes with it will flow into the opening and make the first bite a delectable sensation of sausage, spice, and pastry.  It is garnished with a thick cut of carrot and a mystery white vegetable that I have yet to discover what it is. 

My grandma ordered a Pork with Mixed Vegetable with a special house brown sauce, which tasted like an oyster sauce. It was served over white rice. When I sampled a taste of pork, carrot, and mushroom with rice soaked in the sauce, it reminded me of a tasty Chinese food dish. I liked it better than the Chinese I have had recently because everything tasted so fresh. It hadn't been sitting out and it wasn't overly salted. 

Brad and I ordered two different hot pots. A hot pot is a selection of meat served with a broth in a bowl over a bunsen burner. Brad ordered the Volcano On The Sea. This hot pot has prawn, fish filet, squid, enoki mushrooms and scallion in a seafood broth. The pieces of seafood in here are sizable and the portion is very large, especially for the price. My favorite thing about this dish is that or all of the seafood, it is not overly fishy. The broth is hot, buttery, and spicy. When it is spooned over the rice and the fish, it tastes like no other dish I have had before.

I had the Spicy Beef Hot Pot, which has beef, shitake mushrooms, tofu, carrot, Chinese cabbage, and cellophane noodles. When I had my first sip of broth, I coughed. It was spicier than I thought it would be. It wasn't too spicy though. My tastebuds quickly got used to it when I was eating it paired with beef, mushrooms, and rice. It was like eating a spicy beef and rice soup with an Asian zing! The only thing that I didn't like was the amount of tofu. I don't mind tofu, but I don't need really big chunks. This dish was a chunky tofu dish. 

The waiter that was serving us was an expert. He carried both hot pots at the same time without spilling anything. I was impressed. However, the best part about our server was that he asked us if we liked the hot pots. When we told him that we drove from Williamsburg just to have them,  he pointed out a few other menu items that we should try. He said that they are Vietnamese favorites and that he liked them better than the hot pots. We now have a take out menu with four menu items that he circled for us. I think that next time, Brad and I will try some Cripsy Egg Noodle Seafood Delight and Carmelize Fish In A Pot... and yes, that is not a typo :)   .