16 January 2010

#86: Wei's Garden

Date Visited: 8 January 2010

Meal: Dinner

Diners: 2 - Me & Wendy

Experience: It's Friday night, daddy's hungry, and feelin' like Chinese! We decided to try Wei's Garden, having seen it's brightly lit sign from the Route 15 bypass many times before this our first visit. We were informed by our order-taker that Wei's has already been open for about a year.

We decided to try out some of our favorites, to see how Wei's Garden stacked up. For an appetizer, we tried the Crab Rangoon, which comes in triangular pieces, rather than the traditional pinched-together four-cornered style. It was nontheless delicious. We tried a couple of soups; Wendy got the Wonton Soup and I got the Chicken with Hot & Sour Soup. Wendy said the Wonton was very flavorful, as opposed to the bland kind you often get elsewhere. The Hot & Sour was nice and thick, tangy, and not too hot. For her entree, Wendy got the "Triple Delight (Mandarin Combination): Combination of shrimp, beef, and chicken sauteed with vegetables in our special sauce." She thought it was very good; I had the leftovers for lunch the next day and it was still very good! For my entree, I got the Kung Pao Chicken. It was unlike other Kung Paos I've ever had; it wasn't very "saucy" - each piece was was fully coated with the sauce, along with the peanuts and vegetabies, but it appeared kind of dry on the outside. Fortunately, it was very tender and juicy on the inside, and delicious. It also had just the right amount of spiciness for me (most people would probably call this "medium").

As for the service, it took a while for our food to be ready (we ordered there, for takeout). Apparently they felt sorry for us having to wait so long, so they brought us an extra couple of Crab Rangoon pieces while we waited.

We went back again a week later to see if our experience would be any different. I ordered the same Hot & Sour Soup and Kung Pao Chicken. It was exactly as before, which is to say, very good! Wendy got the Wonton Soup (again very good), but decided to try one of the Chef's Specialties: "Crispy Jumbo Shrimp with Walnut". The shrimp were jumbo all right, but not very crispy. I think this was a result of it being for takeout; it got a bit soggy in the container by the time we got home with it - not really their fault. Again, the service was very slow, and a couple of customers who were there before us had to wait a long time too. By the time our food was ready, a different lady brought it out from the kitchen, and told us she included something extra because we had to wait. It was some kind of dessert (not on the menu); kind of a custard with orange flavoring.

If you'd like to try some Chinese food that's a little different, give Wei's Garden a try!

Location: 161 Fort Evans Road NE, Leesburg, VA 20176, 703-771-9188

Web site: none

Total bill: $30.22 + $6.00 tip = $36.22

2 comments:

J.A.W. said...

We visited Wei's Garden again on 18 June 2011 and had basically the same experience. The service was extremely slow, so they brought out our Crab Rangoon while we waited for the rest. This, I think, is one of the best items on the menu. They use real crab, which is kind of unusual. I think the slowness is mostly due to not enough cooks on duty (there seemed to be only one). Also, I think on some items they are trying too hard for perfection and it just doesn't come out right. We'll visit again after some time passes and see what changes.

pharmacy said...

ha ha I just loved it "feelin' like Chinese.." it was very sarcastic. Anyway, so do I, I just love the Chicken with Hot & Sour Soup, it was a good election. Indeed.