Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Delicious Dim Sum at Great Garden

Deep Fried Taro
Sticky Rice in Lotus Leaf

BBQ Pork Turnovers and Sesame Balls

Interior

Guide to dim sum offerings






Well, in short, our experience here was just fabulous. This is now our number one choice for dim sum in Indianapolis. It's been open for years but, somehow, we just discovered it and had our first meal there this past weekend. It's on the west side in the same strip mall as Saraga grocery. It appears that they offer dim sum everyday. The place was bustling when we got there but they found us a table and gave us the sheet pictured above with the dim sum offerings and prices (click photo to enlarge). There was another sheet of paper divided into sections for small, medium, and large. They gave us a pen with these and the server asked if we needed the regular menu. We declined since we were all about the dim sum that day. We noticed servers going around with carts but weren't sure if we were supposed to mark the illustrations that we wanted or if it was the typical dim sum where you ask for what you want off of the cart. We sipped the tea they had on the table, which we think was chrysanthemum, and waited to see how the system worked. Before long, a server came around with the first cart and then the carts came around rapidly. The server writes how many small, medium, and large orders you take for the cashier to add up when you go up to the register after your meal and the sheet with pictures is evidently just so the diner has a guide to the dishes and the prices. We cannot emphasize enough how delicious everything we had was. We tried some things we'd never had before such as Deep Fried Taro (you must get this) and Baby Octopus and loved them. We tried some familiar dishes such as Sticky Rice in Lotus Leaf, Stuffed Bean Curd Skin, Stuffed Eggplant, BBQ Pork Turnover, and Sesame Balls and they were all exceptional. We ate way too much and still only spent about $30. The service was gracious and efficient.


Obviously, considering how crowded it was, we are behind the curve to discover this great restaurant. However, if you haven't tried it yet (or if you haven't been there in awhile), we couldn't recommend it more.






Great Garden on Urbanspoon

9 comments:

R. said...

Thanks for the tip! Dim sum is on my life list (they can't all be exciting), and this looks like a great place to try it. I think I'll pass on the chicken feet though ...

baikinange said...

I LOVE this place! It's even more fun if you go with a group--I went once with about 10 people and we just pointed at everything on the cart and all had a bit of most of the dishes they serve.
They offer their entire dim sum menu during the week also, but it was considerably less fun to have things made to order than it is to have it come around on the cart. I always stuff myself to the gills and the most I ever spent was $33 between me and the Mr.

Unknown said...

YUM! I can't wait to try it...maybe this weekend.

Graham said...

So happy to hear you say this is your new favorite. I love Great Garden, I've been a devotee for two years now. Their har gow is amazing, and their congee is soooo good.

Anonymous said...

I wish our experience was as good as yours. The service was absolutely terrible. It took forever for someone to approach us and we had to beg for drinks. Yeah, it was fairly crowded, but other tables definitely got served before we did. The language barrier was a problem. We tried to tell one server that we didn't want what she was offering us, and she took that to mean we didn't want anything at all. We finally had to ask another server if we could just order the items we wanted. The food was quite good, but the service really left a sour taste in my mouth. I really miss Shen Yang.

Daniel said...

Great Garden's owner recently (within the past month) had a baby girl! Obviously, mom is home with the baby but she would be returning and she speaks OK English and service should improve.

We usually go later in the evening and of course service is not a problem.

WYA! said...

We are hearing that they've closed and we are so disappointed!

Unknown said...

They did close, but they are opening again this weekend: Under a new name.

http://blogs.indystar.com/indykitchen/2009/11/new_dim_sum_chi.html

YUM - I may have to go this weekend.

baikinange said...

What a relief! Though it had better be exactly the same quality of dim sum or I will be crushed.