New Garden Review

For over a year there has been a sign in the window of an empty little shop in Fort Thomas that a Chinese restaurant was coming soon. I absolutely adore Asian cuisine so I have been dying to try it. Fort Thomas is not exactly known for its cuisine or businesses in general. This is a residential neighborhood and small businesses often struggle only to close their doors in less than a year. I would love to see this change.

New Garden

1031 South Fort Thomas Avenue

(859)781-7888

Last night Pete and I jumped on the opportunity to meet up with some friends and give it a try. Keeping in mind that their Grand Opening was just on Wednesday, we assumed they were still working out some kinks. We waited about 10 minutes for the only empty table to be cleared. It is obviously a family venture and the woman (I assume the mother) was the only waitress, cashier and bus boy. We stood patiently by the door soaking it all in.

The restaurant is small, only 20 or so tables and a little sushi bar. (That's right cake eaters. I said sushi. Right here in Fort Thomas, who would have thought?). It was clean, bright, simple but cute and the family seemed very sweet. We got our table, waited for our friends and looked over the menu. Quite a lot to choose from, I must say. All your typical Chinese fare, a page of Japanese options, sushi and several non-Asian options for kids (pizza, cheeseburgers, chicken, shrimp...). Watching the plates come to other tables I was having a hard time deciding what to get as it all looked amazing.

We ended up getting some crab rangoons to share, I had to try out the sushi so I got a few a la cart pieces and a small size saute vegetables with white rice. Pete had his usual sesame chicken. Our friends had the chicken broccoli and the deluxe sushi plate.

Again, reminding ourselves they just opened, we enjoyed the time out with other grown-ups but soon realized we had been there for an hour and ten minutes without even the appetizer. Since it is small and there is only one front door, every time it opens, you feel it. Not horrible, but I was a bit chilly the entire evening.

Slowly but surely the food came out of the kitchen (I assume by Dad) and our questions were answered by a 12-13 year old boy (let's call oldest son). The portions were huge. The combination size that I got, was a meal in its self. The dinner size which Pete had was definitely enough to share especially if you ordered an appetizer. My sushi was good, everything else....I'd love to say it was great but unfortunately, it was just OK. I decided I would rather stick with carry out from Casual Chinese but I would definitely go back for the sushi.

Prices were very reasonable and again the portions were pretty big, I just wish everything had more flavor. We sat for awhile waiting for our check before we finally walked up to the counter and paid mom there. Two hours later we were walking out the door, bellies full but we didn't even bother taking home our leftovers.

I wish them success as I would love to see them stick around. I wish I could give them an A+ but in reality it was more like a B- maybe even a C+. If you try it, please let me know what you think. I hope I am wrong.