Friday, September 18, 2009

Honey Garden – Eden Prairie, MN

I had an awful morning through and through, so when FireRetarded sent me an email about going to lunch, I pounced. FireRetarded is just what I need when I’m feeling down. He wanted to go this Vietnamese place he used to go to called Mr. Q’s. And when I say “used to”, I mean when he lived in Eden Prairie TEN YEARS AGO.

Oddly, when we pulled up to the place, it wasn’t Mr. Q’s anymore. But alas, it was still a Vietnamese/Chinese place, so we decided to give it a shot. Honey Garden had a sign out front saying they had a buffet, so we figured why not – at least we’ll get full. And we did.

We got seated right away and right next to the buffet. The buffet was pretty good sized and had about 10 entrees on it, two soups, appetizery things, some salady things, and kimchee – which I thought was out of place. But who am I to say, it’s not like I’m totally Asian or anything.

We loaded up our plates with everything imagineable. They had sesame chicken, hot and spicy chicken, beef broccoli, beef and mushrooms, emperor dinner (chicken, beef, and shrimp), teriyaki chicken, crab rangoons, egg rolls, fried dumplings, sweet and sour chicken, egg drop soup, hot and spicy soup, and probably a few other things I can’t remember. We weren’t going to leave hungry.

We wolfed this food down. FireRetarded said it wasn’t as good as Mr. Q’s, but he still liked it. I thought it was pretty good as well, especially for buffet Asian food. The Emperor Meal was great, but the sesame chicken was the best I’ve had. Great breading and awesome consistency of the sticky gooey sauce all over it. The egg rolls were pretty good, but the crab rangoons were even better. I’m pretty picky about my egg drop soup, but this was one of the better ones. It was still what I call “snot based” rather than chicken broth-based, but it had a great flavor. The only thing I didn’t really care for was the sweet and sour chicken. It was a little too puffy in the breading department for me.

We had multiple plates and definitely did not leave hungry. And what even funnier is now that I’ve eaten Asian food with FireRetarded a number of times, I think I have passed the torch of homosexually-suggestive fortune cookie messages to him. His was hilarious and mine was pretty plain jane. I wonder what I’ll end up with if he’s not eating lunch with me. I’ll have to check it out and report back.

All in all, this is one of the better buffets in Eden Prairie, and now that I know I can drive there from work for lunch, it will happen again. And thanks for cheering me up a smidge, FireRetarded.

Top 5 things about Honey Garden
1. Sesame Chicken
2. Egg drop soup
3. Crab rangoons
4. Emperor Meal
5. Hot and Spicy Chicken

Bottom 5 things
1. FireRetarded and I always end up talking about Gerd and we both miss her. She would have loved to do all these fun lunches with FireRetarded and I
2. The crotchey old Santa Claus guy that stormed out because he didn’t think there was enough food on the buffet
3. Sweet and Sour Chicken wasn’t stellar
4. I’m pretty sure kimchee is Korean
5. FireRetarded took a back way to the restaurant, but I still think I can figure it out, since he took the easy path out when we left!

3 comments:

Ruby said...

See, I can never get my money's worth out of buffet's. I eat one plate and I'm done. Also, I have found rangoons/wontons/other fried yummies to be..soggy after heat lamps and such.

Chao said...

I know what you mean, and that wasn't the case at this place. They were pretty crispy actually (and not like they'd been under the lamps for too long). They were just right. And I always TELL myself I'm only going to eat one plate and never follow through on that. The first plate is just a sampler so I know what I need to go back for more of (how do I not end that sentence with a preposition!?? Stupid grammar rules).

Unknown said...

Excellent food review. I have loved the food at his place too. But never visited it more than a couple of times.

A mom from the bizymoms Eden-prairie community.