North China Garden on 6th Ave.

I’ve said way too many times that we’ve never found dim sum in Tacoma.  That’s still true.  But that doesn’t mean we don’t eat Chinese here.  Our place of choice right now is North China Garden on 6th Avenue.  It’s a few blocks east of the superstar blocks of Chopstix, Six Olives, Jazzbones, Il Fiasco etc. – near the always amazing MSM Deli and next to an adult video store.

We went to North China Garden last night and, as with previous visits, we were quite happy.  You have to realize that this isn’t fine Chinese food like you’ll find in San Francisco, Boston, Oakland, or some of the nicer places in Seattle.  This is better than grubbin’ take-out Chinese, but not significantly so.  We love it.  The food is good and the prices are decent.

Our test dish for any Chinese restaurant is its hot and sour soup.  Ever since we started making hot and sour soup at home we’ve been more and more disappointed when eating out.  However, North China Garden’s soup is quite good and is often the reason we go there.  We’ve been extremely happy with nearly everything on the menu.  Moo shu pork, Mongolian beef, Sesame chicken, the steamed dumplings, and a lot of other things have all been satisfying. 

Having recently undergone a significant remodel of their dining room, the place often seems relatively empty.  Last night was actually quite busy.  Go there.  Try it out.  These young owners are extremely nice and this is a small business we’d love to see succeed. 

The best thing of all – they deliver.