Wu's Garden

Wu's Garden Restaurant
418 Maple Avenue East
Vienna, VA 22180
www.wusgardenrestaurant.com

Let me start out this review by apologizing for being later on this week's posting.  There should be another post by the end of the week to make up for the delay.  Now on to the review.

I had driven past Wu's Garden almost every evening on the way  home from work.

Interior Decor

I was very enticed to try this restaurant.  I finally got the opportunity to eat there for lunch with Anita on a Saturday.  The parking lot looked empty as we pulled in.  We thought they may not be open for lunch, turns out they were in fact open they just didn't have a lot of customers.  We walked in to only find one other table of diners.  I was very excited and had high hopes upon seeing the interior decor.  I thought I had found my new go to Chinese Restaurant.

Ornate Ceiling

Anita and I or dered hot and sour soup and wonton soup to start.  The soup came out and it looked like some nice standard bowls of chinese soup. 

Hot and Sour Soup

The hot and sour soup was just blah.  It didn't have the heat or sourness to actually make it hot and sour.  The wonton soup was surprisingly (in a not so good way) different. 

Wonton Soup

The wontons looked liked typical and the broth was rich and and dark.  Apparently, the darkness came from the addition of miso paste, which left us searching for the tofu and seaweed that one would find in miso soup.  That left us confused, were we at a japanese restaurant eating miso soup or were we eating in a chinese restaurant eating wonton soup?  After we finished our soups the bowls were cleared from the table and out came our entrees.

Steamed Rice with Fried Egg

I ordered the hunan chicken as I always do and Anita got the triple delight.  What I was most shocked by was the steamed rice.  It had egg in it!  I'm used to having either plain white rice or in the fancier establishments jasmine rice. 

Hunan Chicken

I was not expecting to see egg tainting my bowl of rice!  The dishes were supposed to come with steamed white rice not something that reminded me of fried rice.  The triple delight was void of a sauce.  It seemed like only steamed vegetable with the trifecta of beef, chicken, and shrimp.  It was simply boring!  The hunan chicken had a sauce but it was a sweet black bean sauce without much heat.  I guess a typical hunan chicken may use a  base of black beans but this was very apparent!The vegetable assortment was also boring.  Seemed to be comprised of primarily broccoli. 

Triple Delight

I was hoping for more carrots, baby corn, mushrooms, and bamboo shoots.

The verdict?  Don't bother stopping by Wu's Garden.  While the interior looked promising, the food definitely left something to be desired.  I guess the search will continue for that go to chinese restaurant in Northern Virginia.