Restaurant: Sun Garden, Amherst N.Y. - A taste of Chinatown
The sign in the window said “Homemade Pork Dumpling.”
Not exactly a smoking gun. But my Chinatown antennae went up instantly. First of all, it was odd to see a sign like that in the window of a Chinese takeout stationed in a corporate strip mall. The place was Sun Garden (716-689-8228), 55 Crosspoint Parkway, Amherst, off North French Road near the I-990 exit.
Most of the signs you see in the deep-fried corn-syrup joints are about how cheap they can get. I silently thank the ghost of General Tso every time I spot a “Special $1.99 Lunch” sign. That’s English, but no matter who’s behind the counter you can translate it as “Desperate and careless.” I chalk off those places like a general shading minefields on his battlefield map in crimson ink.
“Homemade Pork Dumpling.” It intrigued me because its message acknowledged that you can get pork dumplings that aren’t homemade, or even store-made. Dumplings that arrive at strip malls all over Western New York frozen, in the back of a truck. The ones that make you wonder, amid an order of potstickers, when the Chinese started stuffing steamed tennis balls with pork.
The young man behind the counter with the close-cropped hair alleged that his cooks were dishing out the real Chinatown flavor, right there in Getzville. Which made me skeptical, to put it politely.
So we put his cooks through their paces.
Those homemade pork dumplings ($4.75 for eight) were good - tender skins, not too thick, surrounding a flavorful pork nugget - but they were, in retrospect, a distraction.
We homed in on the “Salt baked squid” ($8.95) instantly. That’s the same label used by Manhattan Chinatown favorite Great NY Noodletown (28-1/2 Bowery) for a dish of gently deep-fried squid wok-seared with fresh chiles. It’s all but unobtainable in Western New York.
Note the chopped chiles in Sun Garden’s version of “salt baked” (really fried) squid.
Sun Garden’s version is good enough to remind you of Chinatown, but not quite good enough to transport you there. The salty-spicy flavor is there, courtesy of the seared chiles, but the squid is a bit chewy.
Still, to be fair, you can see from the first photo how much that bothered us.
The rest of our feast - including a confrontation with General Tso - after the jump.
The pork dumplings were good, but the outstanding appetizer was the hot and spicy wontons ($3.95). It’s eight slippery rosettes of dough stuffed with pork, boiled and soft, bathed in a zippy peanut sauce with scallions. We were talking about how it was OK, not bad, so-so, until we had a spate of chopstick kung-fu to decide who would capture the last one.
The zippy peanut soy sauce gives Sun Gardens’ spicy wontons a nice little kick.
The small shredded chicken with garlic sauce ($4.50) was competent and tasty, with poultry shreds and fresh veg shards commingled comfortably in a velvety sauce.
We went for the Crispy Orange Flavor Duck ($11.20) to see if the cooks could deliver on the dish’s claims. We were served a platter of chopped bone-in duck, crispy as anything, with a bowl of spicy orange sauce alongside. Seeing their care to let the customer decide where and when the un-crisping sauce should be applied scored points with me.
The thin-sliced orange peel in the sauce hit the spot too.
Finally, General Tso. This dish has been reduced to teeth-rotting doughballs by so many Chinese takeout bandits that I would normally only order it to gain insight into what a diabetic coma is really like.
The General Tso’s chicken at Sun Garden is a cut above, with lighter batter and less of it.
At Sun Garden, as the man behind the counter claimed, the batter was lighter. The sauce was spicier, studded with dried chiles, as you can see above, but you could actually taste chicken.
Yes, it isn’t Chinatown. Well, OK, it’s Getzville. But if there’s anything closer to the shadow of the Manhattan Bridge that you can find in Western New York, please do let me know.
Filed under: Amherst, Restaurants
Have you still not been to Ming Cafe???
I second that - I went to Ming Cafe for the first time a few weeks ago and loved it. It is a little pricy, but it doesn’t bother me to pay more when the quality is there.
As for Sun Garden, I noticed the sign in the window as I drove by and told myself that I must get back there and try it. Thanks for the preview!
Yes, I have been to Ming Cafe. Is it open again? It’s hard to keep track.
And Julie - don’t be shy about popping back in and letting us know what you had, and what you thought.
I’ve been to Ming twice and can’t see the attraction. Educate me, please!
Ming is the freshest you’ll get. A la carte. Every dish tastes different that I’ve tried, as opposed to most places that seem to use the same 3 sauces to create 500 dishes.
Waaaaaay over priced though.
And yes, it’s open, again.
I second the freshness of Mings. Where else do you actually hear the vegetables being chopped and your food being made after you order? I love that it is a husband and a wife, and that they take great pride in their food and service. I just get a goof feeling eating there and don’t mind spending a little extra money for quality food.
Ha! That was supposed to say good feeling!
I’ll give Ming’s a fourth star (of these comments, anyway). Recently had an excellent chicken and eggplant dish preceded by tasty pork dumplings. And the teas and decor actually add to the experience, rather than detract. It’s never going to be fast food, which is a good thing in my book.
Okay, I’m up for lunch.
Let’s do this thing.
I love Sun Garden! BUT - please get the phone number right: 689-8228
The number you printed goes nowhere.
Whoops, thanks for pointing that out. Must have been an old menu.