China Garden Restaurant

The Scene
Pleasant but not unusual. Booths run down two walls, one of which has a line of high windows. Glass tops the red-and-white flowered tablecloths, complemented by red polyester napkins. With the menu comes a bowl of greasy crispy noodles to cut your appetite.

The Food
Everything from chow mein and egg foo young to emerald shrimp. The new owners have emphasized fresh seafood, including Maine lobsters and Seattle Dungeness crabs kept live in tanks by the door. The restaurant boasts about its Peking duck and Dungeness crab with ginger and scallions, available seasonally. Vegetarians can choose from among a half-dozen variations of bean curd and veggies.

The Service
Not the restaurant's strength--at least on one slow Sunday when the server disappeared into the kitchen. When you order a special meal, make sure from the beginning that all the components--such as China Garden's signature "coconut snowball" dessert--are available.

What to Order
China Garden steak, more tender than the lobster, with rich sauce-soaked mushrooms.

What to Skip
The bland velvet corn and minced chicken soup. If you're contemplating the Sea and Shore, consider ordering two entrees rather than a package deal. You can probably find a tastier accoutrement for lobster than the red pepper sauce, which flowed across the dividing line of broccoli to taint the shore.