Happy Garden Chinese Restaurant

FOOD

Chicken with broccoli gives Happy Garden’s buffet a familiar savory starting point. Green florets accompany the chicken, making vegetables a substantial part of the dish. In Chinese-American cooking, this preparation is usually built around a savory sauce. It is a natural companion to rice, particularly when the meal also includes sweeter chicken preparations. The buffet selection changes through service.

Orange chicken brings the sweet-sauced side of that cooking into focus. Bite-size coated pieces carry an orange-colored glaze, with other browned, glazed hot dishes also in the selection. The familiar Chinese-American style combines fried chicken with a sweet citrus sauce. It is one of the richer poultry choices, and a useful dish to know if that sweet-and-savory combination is what you enjoy in a Chinese buffet.

The mushroom preparation is worth giving its own place in the meal. Whole and sliced mushrooms mingle with onion and green pepper in a dark sauce, with the mushrooms prominent throughout. The mushrooms’ earthy character is a familiar match for the onion and pepper in Chinese-American cooking. Broccoli and carrot also appear among the hot vegetables, adding to the selection alongside the chicken.

Crab Rangoon is a particular favorite at Happy Garden. Wontons filled with cream cheese, along with egg rolls, are part of the buffet’s appetizer selection, familiar small dishes that can be overlooked amid the hot entrees. Cream cheese gives the Rangoon a mild richness and a little tang inside the fried wrapper. An egg roll alongside makes an agreeable start before the chicken dishes.

Egg-drop soup offers a gentler accompaniment. Fine ribbons of egg run through a yellow broth, giving the soup its characteristic delicate texture. The name describes the traditional preparation: beaten egg is stirred into hot broth to form those soft threads. It is a familiar beginning to a meal of sauced chicken, fried appetizers and rice.

Egg fried rice carries pieces of egg among the grains, along with small vegetable pieces. Long, thin noodles provide another substantial accompaniment, with bean sprouts mixed through the strands. Both have a place alongside the sauced dishes, but the egg and vegetables give them interest of their own. They make useful companions to both the savory mushroom dish and the sweeter orange chicken.

Sesame-coated balls add a Chinese sweet to the smaller fried foods. Their round shape and seed-covered surface make them easy to recognize, and the sesame adds its familiar nutty character. They are a little something sweet alongside the savory appetizers, before the cold desserts.

The dessert counter includes small triangles of chocolate layer cake and pink-and-white layered cake with a red topping. Red gelatin and orange wedges add further choices. The cakes are cut into modest portions, with distinct layers visible in each piece. There is a proper little dessert course here after the Chinese hot dishes, whether cake, gelatin or fruit is your preference.