Lucky Garden
1852 Smith Street
North Providence
by Bob Mariani
Whenever I’m looking for a really "authentic’ meal, and by that I mean food that’s true to its genre, I check with my friend Kenny. This time Kenny directed me to the Lucky Garden, one of his favorite Chinese restaurants and as usual, it was in one of Rhode Island’s more obscure and non-descript locations. A little strip mall on Smith Street.
The décor is about as basic as it gets. Fluorescent lights, no tablecloths and maybe a dozen tables. The menu on the other hand, is about as exotic and broad-reaching as I’ve come across anywhere. The day’s specials are posted on a chalkboard as you enter and right away I knew, I was not in Kansas anymore…Jellyfish and pork hocks? Chicken shark fin? Eel?
Actually, there are three different menus at the Lucky Garden: the more familiar Szechuan and Hunan styles with your General Tao’s Chicken and beef Teriyaki; the Dim Sum menu with brunch-size shrimp dumplings and sticky rice dishes; and the "Chinatown Style" menu with some dishes you’ll find only in cosmopolitan cities like Hong Kong or New York.
We ordered several dishes for our table of five, beginning with a plateful of their lightly batter-fried shrimp. In this instance, you ate the whole shrimp, head and tail, and it was all equally crispy and delicious. Our other starter was an ample serving of batter-fried smelts (a concession, I suspect, to the local Italian preferences). But these were the really light, buttery, fresh-water smelts that melt in your mouth without an overbearing "fishy" taste. I could have made a meal of them.
Next came the evening’s special…the eel; two long slices of black-skinned, pink meat in a kind of dark, sweet Teriyaki sauce. I thought the fish flavor was too overpowering, but the rest of our table found this special outstanding.
For our vegetable, we had the freshly stir-fried baby bok choy, bursting with flavor, with just the right amount of al dente chewiness. We also ordered a couple of very freshly made rice dishes, one with crunchy bean sprouts and the other with mild tofu. Our other main course was the spare ribs cooked to melt-in-your-mouth tenderness in a hearty sweet sauce. Other dishes I’ll be back for are the Lucky Garden’s pineapple seafood fried rice, their turnip beef brisket, and their braised black mushroom with duck.
The restaurant is a family-run business started by three siblings; Chef Kam Tung (Tony), Chef Kam Chai, and Hostess Sherri. They share recipes from some of China’s five-star hotels and bring over thirty years of experience to the table, along with numerous awards from their respective hotels in China, prior to coming here. Expect to see both American and Asian families dining family-style, sharing delicacies from the Chinatown menu.
Appetizers at the Lucky Garden range from $2.95 to $9.95 for the Jelly Fish and Pork Hocks. Entrees are no more than $14 and many are in the $7 and $8 range. On Saturday and Sunday mornings, there’s Chinese brunch (dim sum).
The Lucky Garden is open Monday through Thursday from 11:30am to 10pm; Friday and Saturday until 11pm and Sunday from 11am to 10pm. They have a take-out menu as well. Call (401) 231-5626 or visit their website.
Bob Mariani is a Southeastern New England freelance author. Besides his "Table for Two" restaurant reviews found here, he also writes jazz articles on allaboutjazz.com.
