Maple Garden Going Down Hill?

[Da Rolling Eye]

Went there this weekend to celebrate my brother's birthday. Food wasn't as good as we remembered and service was pretty bad. We haven't been there in a few months and the food was not good at all. Seasonings were all off.

None of the wait help, that was there that night, could speak english so that didn't help any as some of the dishes ended up not being what we thought we ordered. Mom couldn't even get her glass of cab until one of the old timers came in....about 45 minutes later. The other girls just kind of stood around looking totally confused. There were 5 of them, btw, and all totally useless.

Guess we won't be going back there again. Too bad as we've been going there for decades.

[tutusue]

Re: Maple Garden Going Down Hill?

Hopefully it was just an off night but probably not! Maybe tell the owner what you said here? The feedback might be helpful to him/her.

[oceanpacific]

Re: Maple Garden Going Down Hill?

I went to Maple Garden last week and everything went fine. The dishes were brought to the table in a timely fashion and tasted right. We even got the complimentary almond float dessert as usual.

[Da Rolling Eye]

Re: Maple Garden Going Down Hill?

Aside from the fact that the "new" girls couldn't understand what we ordered, the dishes did come out in that timely manner and we did get our fruit float for dessert. It's just that the food simply didn't taste right that night. It was a Sunday evening. Maybe a different crew? Poor Dad asked for his usual kau yuk and the girl didn't understand what he was asking for and said that they didn't have it as it also wasn't on the menu. He finally told her, "Nevermind already", giving her his Korean eye. On our way out, we overheard the owner tell a phone customer that they did have kau yuk.

If you noticed, the owner isn't looking well at all. Mom explained that he does have diabetes and is probably in fairly poor health. We could tell that he was having a hard time trying to keep up with the "usual" traffic at the restaurant.

[achow]

Re: Maple Garden Going Down Hill?

I never ate at Maple Garden before. I been wanting to go there before but it didn't seem to work out everytime. This is an interesting thread that you have going. Makes me think twice about eating at Maple Garden. By the way, I love kau yuk.

[Honoruru]

Re: Maple Garden Going Down Hill?

I love kau yuk, too, but it's hard to find now days. U-Choice Inn used to have them, but not now. Where else do they sell kau yuk?

[Da Rolling Eye]

Re: Maple Garden Going Down Hill?

Maple Garden should be tried at least once. Like someone else mentioned, they had no problems with service or quality of the food. Could be that we just had a "green" crew that night.

Every Chinese restaurant has kau yuk or pot roast pork on their menu. The best kau yuk, that we've had, is from Pake's in Kaneohe. Their's is made the "old fashioned" way and is not the bright red kind that most places sell. There's a world of difference between the two. IIRC, Maple Garden's kau yuk was pretty good and is similar to Pake's.

The good stuff is seasoned with thick soy sauce, hoisin sauce, star anise etc. The meat is boiled, marinated, seared (sometimes not) then steamed. Because they use dark sauces, the final dish is usually very dark and the flavors of the spices intense.

The junk stuff is, more than likely, just stewed chunks of pork in red food coloring, star anise and a few other spices. The final outcome is a bright red and bland tasting dish. Well, bland compared to the good kau yuk.

Also, the good stuff is made with pork belly. The red one, sometimes, but more often than not it's just cut up chunks of shoulder or butt. Big difference.