The Garden Restaurant, located in Paynesville on Tubman Boulevard midway between the Ministry of Health and SD Cooper Road, has always struck me as being a bit of a mystery.  I assumed it was a Chinese restaurant, but was never too sure, and often wondered if it was actually open for business.

Following a work meeting in the vicinity of the vaguely named restaurant, I was finally able to check out what Garden Restaurant has to offer.  My suspicions as to the nature of the cuisine (Chinese) were confirmed.  The menu was fairly concise, taking up a single side of just one laminated sheet.  Chicken, beef, and pork dishes constituted the various meat items available; there were a number of vegetarian and seafood dishes as well.  Had I been adventurous, I would certainly have ordered the “fish smooth fried.”

A portion of Garden Restaurant’s menu. Photo: Brooks Marmon

As it was, I went with the eggplant in garlic sauce, only to be informed to my great regret that it was not available (no Tsingtao either!).  I opted to console myself with a multiple vegetable dish – cabbage with mushrooms.  The plate came quickly, albeit without rice, which I was informed had to be requested separately.

I had thought that I would see my food being prepared, as the kitchen was situated behind a large transparent wall.  However, my meal was cooked in a corner of the room, one of the few hidden spaces.

I put in an order for rice, and a fairly large plate of room temperature rice was quickly delivered (for only $1 extra).  The cabbage and mushrooms that I then lathered on top were solidly mediocre.  The mushrooms were of the canned variety common to Chinese soups and the cabbage cooked at a significantly shorter interval than that to be found at the typical cook shop.  The highlight was a mild, but surprisingly flavorful sweet and sour sauce.

The interior of the Garden Restaurant. Photo: Brooks Marmon

The food was not outstanding, but for a sit-down dining experience (the A/C was not functional unfortunately), at $7 a plate, there was not a lot of room to complain. One could dine even more economically on the fried rice or noodle and vegetable at $5 per plate.

Unlike my previous experiences at Chinese restaurants, nary a single Chinese, nor foreigner of any kind other than myself, was to be seen, although this observation is not based on a large sample size. Over the course of my dining experience, only four tables were occupied — two of them by parties of one.

Garden offers a quiet and fairly comfortable environment with affordable prices.  Their television also provided my first glimpse of LNTV, which for the majority of the evening was screening a marketing piece on Botswana produced by that nation’s Embassy.

The food was nothing special, and I wouldn’t go out of my way to go back, but if I again found myself in the area on an empty stomach, I wouldn’t be particularly disgruntled by the prospect of sampling my first smooth fried fish.

Featured photo by Brooks Marmon