By E.T. MOORE
Asian Garden is a small Japanese restaurant in a strip mall off Foxcroft Avenue in Martinsburg, W.Va.
Looking at it from the outside, there isn’t much to see except the rice paper screens and bamboo shades at the window.
Walking inside you realize just how small the restaurant is.
Eight wooden tables are scattered in the center of the room, each flanked by four wooden chairs. Four wooden platform booths line one wall, while five more line the opposite wall. Straight ahead, across the room from the door, is a sushi bar where patrons can sit, eat and watch the sushi chefs.
That’s it. You have seen the entire restaurant without leaving the doorway. It is clean and seems stark even though Japanese art adorns the walls and Japanese lanterns hang from the ceiling.
It seems stark but not unappealing. It seems simple.
My dining companion and I stood there, taking in the room, not sure if we should wait to be seated or just select a spot. A waitress, coming from the back, smiled and nodded her head in the direction of the tables and one wall of booths.
We took that as a “help yourself” and selected a booth.
A padded cushion rests on each side of the wooden bench that solidly surrounds each table. You seat yourself by climbing over one of the benches, just as you would ease yourself onto the bench of a picnic table.
The menu is extensive with selections of Japanese and Chinese dishes. I went with Japanese for my entree. My companion selected Chinese.
We began with an appetizer of Gyoza, which is described on the menu as grilled pot stickers served with a sauce. Gyoza is a dumpling that is deep-fried, boiled or pan-fried. Ours was pan-fried and filled with a beef paste. The cost was $4.75. I guess the flavor depends on the filling. It was a tasty treat, especially dipped into a tangy sauce.
I followed my appetizer with a salad, and my companion had the Miso soup. I love this soup but wanted the salad more. It has a flavor that is hard to describe but, to me, tastes very good. I have talked to other people who don’t like the soup, but it is good for you – another reason to try it.
For an entree, I selected the maki platter, 18 pieces of selected sushi. This combination includes a tuna roll, cucumber roll and a California roll. The tuna is wrapped in rice and seaweed. The cucumber and California rolls are wrapped in rice.
I love sushi and this was among the best I have had. It was flavorful, with just the right level of crispness (vegetables) and tanginess (tuna). I watched across the room as one of the sushi chefs made my order.
I thought the platter was a bargain at $12.95.
My companion went with Chinese and selected the seafood combo with asparagus and white rice for $16.95. This also was good and the portion was large. Scallops, shrimp and lobster (or perhaps a lobster look-alike) were included with fresh, steamed asparagus and Chinese vegetables in a white sauce.
To finish the meal, my companion had green tea ice cream, and I, making the only mistake of the evening, had fried bananas.
The ice cream had almost no flavor at all but was surprisingly refreshing. It seemed to cleanse the palate and would, I think, settle the stomach of anyone who overindulged at dinner. The fried bananas made you want the green tea ice cream.
Fried bananas are literally fried in a batter and sprinkled with sugar. The combination of overly sweet and loaded with grease was too much for me. I tried removing the batter and just eating the bananas, but they still were too sweet.
I learned not to order fried bananas, but I definitely will return for the sushi.
Restaurant reviews are contributed biweekly by Herald-Mail staff writers and editors alternating under the pseudonym E.T. Moore.
Asian Garden
n Food: 4 forks (out of 4)
n Service: 3 forks
n Atmosphere: 3 forks
n Value: 4 forks
Hours: 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday; 11:30 a.m. to 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday; and noon to 9 p.m. Sunday. Closed Monday
Phone: 1-304-263-8678
Location: 748 N. Foxcroft Ave., North Mall Plaza, Martinsburg, W.Va.
