Guan's Garden

On Sunday, May 17, 2009, I had Sunday dinner at a new Chinese restaurant called Guan's Garden, in the Rutherford Shopping Center in Frederick County, off Route 11 North. It was located at 123 Market Street, behind the McDonald's in that shopping center. It was having a grand opening that was advertised in a leaflet that came in Saturday's mail.

Guan's turned out to be a typical small Chinese place of the type found in many shopping centers. It had nine square tables, each seating four people. You placed your order at a counter in the back, next to the kitchen. I decided on a small order of Item 76, shrimp with cashew nuts and white rice.

I wanted to order hot tea, but they didn't have it. When I asked for water I had to pay for bottled water. The meal came fairly quickly, served in the type of plastic clamshell box used for carry-out orders.

The box had a reasonable number of medium-sized shrimp, along with such diced stir-fry vegetables as carrots, celery, baby corn, and green pepper, with a fair amount of roasted cashews and white rice.

I had not previously encountered an Oriental restaurant that did not serve hot tea. I also had not seen one that had a container of chopsticks on every table. The meal was merely OK. The sauce over the vegetables and shrimp was quite bland, and I boosted it with soy sauce.

My visit was one of curiosity; now that it has been satisfied, I'll probably not go there again. The Mimosa Fusion Asian Restaurant in our local shopping center on Senseny Road is a much better place, and it's only half a mile away from my home.