The neat thing about hiking adventures is that it is usually followed by a dining adventure. This past Sunday afternoon following Norm K's Freeway and Donkey Wash Trails Hike UYE, I tried Lotus Garden Cuisine.
Lotus Garden Cuisine is in the shopping center at the northwest corner of Rainbow and Sunset Roads immediately north of the 215 Freeway Rainbow Road exit. Due to its proximity to three major roads, it is in easy reach to motorists commuting across the valley. This is a Chinese restaurant that many people could enjoy. One of the many is yours truly who will share his positive experience dining here.
From my experience dining in Chinese restaurants there are two types of dining environments. One is the take out style restaurant with tables and the other is the cozy restaurant with a server. Lotus Garden Cuisine is the later.
I made it in time for the lunch special. In my opinion, the Chinese Restaurant lunch special is one of the best deals around. For the price of a fast food restaurant, the lunch special gives a lot for the money. As soon as I set eyes on their lunch menu, I was impressed. They offer over and above what many of the Las Vegas Chinese restaurants do. When it comes to the lunch special, many of the Chinese restaurants serve either egg drop or hot and sour soup calling them soup of the day. However, Lotus Garden Cuisine offers hot and sour soup, egg flower soup, wonton soup or house salad with house dressing. I have yet to see a Chinese restaurant offer house salad with house dressing as a lunch special choice. The lunch special menu gets even better. Hitherto now, every Chinese restaurant lunch special charges additional for shrimp-based entrees. At Lotus Garden Cuisine a Mongolian Beef entree and shrimp with lobster sauce lunch special is $6.75. All 22 lunch special entrees cost $6.75. They include soup or salad, egg roll, and fried rice. Plus, before the meal, they give you crunchy skinny noodles with duck sauce. I was starting to enjoy this dining adventure.
I complimented all this food with hot tea. I'd pour the tea from a tea pot into a small cup. The advantageous thing about hot tea besides the taste is that it gives me a break from the high sugary soft drinks that customarily compliment my dining adventures.
The food was served over the Chinese Zodiac place menu. Looking at the place mat, I had a revelation about myself, "Being born in 1972 makes me a rat." But a good rat that is ambitious and sincere. Kind of like this review. Anyways the food served on the place mat was on regular china with silverware. This isn't China Go Go or one of those places where the food is in styrofoam boxes with plastic forks. There was a quality presentation to the food. And ultimately a quality taste.
From the wonton soup which included broccoli to the shrimp chop suey, this was delectable Chinese food. There was sufficient shrimp interspersed with the vegetables, sauce, and onions that made up the shrimp chop suey. The egg roll was bigger than a Twinkle. The fried rice had a nice texture.
I had zero complaints about the service. The waitress would check up on me and never rushed me. Plus, she never charged me for the hot tea.
The lunch adventure concluded with the check and fortune cookie. All this delicious food that I shared with you and hot tea in a cozy atmosphere came out to $7.30 before the tip. That is less money than Panda Express and even some of the food at McDonald's. My fortune would read "Keep your plans secret for now." Now is over, and I can let everyone in on my plan that I am spreading the word that there is a really good Chinese restaurant called Lotus Garden Cuisine that is a hop and a skip from the 215 Freeway off the Rainbow Road exit.