Wanderer’s Garden – Minnetonka, MN

TheDoctor talked Smallz and I into going out to lunch today. As most of you know, that’s not terribly difficult and simply involves a txt message like “What’s for lunch?” and then we figure it out from there. I did some quick Internet-sleuthing to determine which places within a half-hour drive I needed to review (the list is getting smaller and smaller). I found one called Wanderer’s Garden – a Chinese food buffet up north a bit. Smallz had been there, and said it was passable, so we headed there.

It’s a fairly standard Chi-Buf, so nothing much to report on the inside of the place. Plenty of people inside, a good sign. We got a table and headed for the buffet. There’s a salad portion of the buffet (which we all skipped) and then there’s the main Chinese-food portion of the buffet. I grabbed as much food as I could handle on one plate, knowing I’d have to go back for more, and headed back to the table.

The appetizer parts were about 50/50. The cream cheese wonton was flat, almost devoid of cream cheese, and pretty overdone. However, the vegetarian egg roll wasn’t bad. A tad too much cinnamon (par for the course in the Twin Cities, apparently), but still pretty tasty and perfectly cooked.

The various entrees were less impressive, to be honest. It seemed like all of the brown sauces were the same and not very good. The sauces were a little gritty/gummy. The meat was chewy compared to most chi-bufs I’ve been to and I wasn’t really a big fan. I even had some of the egg-foo-yung, which ended up being less than stellar. The sweet and sour chicken looked fine, except for the neon yellow sauce that I think was the sweet and sour sauce. The chicken itself wasn't that great either - a bit rubbery for my taste.

I even went up a second time to try some things I hadn’t gotten the first time and to retry some things, just to make sure. It didn’t help. The second plate was just as unappealing as the first one. I had planned on this lunch being a three-plate lunch, but just wasn’t feeling a third plate.

The highlight of the buffet for me was the sesame chicken. I know this dish isn’t hard, so that’s a little less than impressive. It was decent though.

The place was doing really good business, but I was less than impressed. Disappointed, in fact. I can think of a ton of much better Chinese food buffets to go to before I’ll go back here. Sorry, Wanderer’s Garden, I’m not a fan.

Top 5 things about Wanderer’s Garden
1. Sesame Chicken
2. Egg rolls
3. Lo Mein noodles
4. Fried rice
5. It's less than $9 to eat the buffet for lunch

Bottom 5 things
1. Beef and Broccoli
2. Sweet and sour chicken (and the freaky yellow sauce)
3. Egg foo yung
4. Cream cheese wontons
5. Potatoes stir-fried with onions

www.wanderersgarden.com