Dining review: China Garden Asian Bistro gets sleek new space

My reaction to the sight of a white Chinese take-out container (preferably adorned with red pagodas) is downright Pavlovian.

I have always loved American Chinese food, with its plump, doughy dumplings, crispy egg rolls, sizzling stir-fries and slippery noodles. Ever since living in New York, where decent-to-great Chinese eateries can be found on any block, this guilty-pleasure cuisine has been on my list of top three culinary cravings.

That said, it's a craving that, in Alaska, is hard to satisfy. After some disappointing meals, I eventually invested in a wok and a FryDaddy and learned to make my own. So I was excited when I started hearing about a "new" Chinese restaurant that turned up quietly on the rather off-the-beaten track corner of International Airport Road and Cope Street.

Touting itself as China Garden Asian Bistro, I was intrigued by its upscale moniker and decided to give it a try. I grabbed my family and headed out for a Chinese feast.

As it turns out, China Garden is not a new restaurant after all. It's just a new location for an old-school Chinese stalwart on Fireweed Lane (the menu says it's been "serving Anchorage since 1975"). But a new location can often mean a new lease on life for a restaurant, so I was hopeful that the menu would rise above mediocrity.

First things first: The dining room is surprisingly lovely. Open, airy, sleek and spotless, with warm red walls, modern fixtures and shiny wood floors, the atmosphere makes an excellent first impression. This was offset, somewhat, by the folded take-out menus and flimsy chopsticks that were brought to the table. The devil is in the details.

Unfortunately, the food does not match the decor. The meal itself was … inconsistent. There were some highs and lows with most dishes falling squarely into the category of ordinary.

Our moo shu pork ($16.95) was served, not with Chinese pancakes, but with Mexican-style tortillas. To be fair, they worked fine and tasted OK (in fact, we discovered that most of our dishes could be eaten burrito-style — fusion, anyone?) but it felt a bit like corner-cutting and I dearly love proper moo shu pancakes. The filling was fine — eggy and slightly sweet — if a bit bland.

Another disappointment were the pot stickers ($8.95). My family has rarely met a dumpling that it didn't love, but these were the exception that proves the rule. The noodle wrapper was fine but the filling had a mealy, spongy texture. And, if I'm honest, I'm still not 100 percent sure what the protein was.

The egg rolls, on the other hand, were crisp, well-stuffed and a relative bargain at $4.95 for three. A satisfying snack, my children demanded (and greedily consumed) a second order.

The shrimp with spicy garlic sauce ($16.95) had an assertive, acidic sauce that I liked (though the shrimp were a bit overcooked) and the Szechwan-style beef ($15.95) was pleasantly spicy (though the slightly tough beef would have benefited from being sliced thinner).

Our favorite dish was the simple and humble pork lo mein ($13.95). The pork was well-cooked, with a flavorful char and a tender interior. The noodles were firm and not overly sauced. And I loved the thin slices of celery, an underused and underappreciated ingredient that brings a nice grassiness and slight but pleasant bitterness to a dish.

Across the board, the vegetables in the dishes were executed nicely, with a still-crisp interior that allowed the flavors to shine through. And I love the (slightly prosaic) addition of water chestnuts and bamboo shoots to a stir-fry. It's like nostalgia from a can.

But overall, the dishes felt heavy and, even while exercising strict portion control, my meal left me feeling slightly weighed down. And while the presence of a lot of oil and sugar is not exactly unprecedented in Chinese American cooking (gasp!), a lighter hand would have resulted in more appetizing dishes.

If the food at China Garden was mostly unexciting, it still gets points for an unexpectedly lovely dining room, nice service and generous portions. Bonus points for their late-night hours (dine-in and delivery until 2 a.m. most nights) making it a good option for late-night revelers, night-shifters, red-eye flyers, and insomniacs. But to attract me back during prime time, it will have to make a few changes in the kitchen. Meanwhile, I'm back to my own cutting board.

China Garden Asian Bistro

Hours: 11 a.m.-2 a.m., Monday-Saturday, 4:30-11:30 p.m. Sunday

Location: 1020 W. International Airport Road

Contact: 907-272-2626 and ChinaGardenAK.com

Dine-in and delivery

$$

**1/2