If you live in Squirrel Hill or Shadyside then well, the sushi Gods have smiled upon you. Ya'll have Sakura Teppanyaki N Sushi on Forbes Ave (big fan) and Sushi Too on Walnut St (not a fan) which both deliver...but only to a small radius. So sure, for me it's great for game nights with f.o.r.ts who reside on that side of town, but not so optimal for us southern folk. So, alas, sushi delivery continues to elude me.
Until Sunday night.
On many occasions on our drive home from Papa PID's place we'd passed Asian Garden on rt. 88 and hadn't really thought much of it. It didn't stand out from the (hundreds of thousands of) other strip mall Chinese joints I've seen in my hay day, so we drove on by. But while jonesin' for sushi on Sunday night I spun my handy Urbanspoon Slot Machine (which you can ALWAYS find on my blog to the right if you should need it) and it told me that I should order sushi from them. So I gave them a call. It went a little something like this:
AG: "Hello, Asian Garden"
TOP: "Hi I'd like to place an order please."
AG: "OK you want pick-up or delivery?"
TOP: "I wha.....you DELIVER?!"
AG: "OK delivery. What's your address?"
I was jumping around the living room like a small child who was just told she's going to Disney World in the morning. PID and I decided to split a Spicy Crunch Tuna, Christmas roll (Tuna, Avocado and Tobiko) and Sweetheart roll (Spicy Crunch Tuna topped with Tuna and Avocado). We happen to have a deep appreciation for tuna and avocado, OK?
I ordered a house salad with ginger dressing as well.
When it arrived, PID and I were still so excited that we decided to make a nice romantic home dinner out of the evening (yet another Loch Ness).
PID had the Spicy Crunch and 1/2 a Sweetheart roll...cuz he's my sweetheart.
I had the DELICIOUS Christmas roll and the other 1/2 of the Sweetheart.
And here is my salad soup. Literally. There was so much ginger dressing I couldn't even taste my lettuce or feel it's crunch. It was like slop. And the dressing was awfully sweet.
SOMEBODY was hoping we would be messy eaters... no such luck for this TOP-Dawg.
Cliffs Notes:
Appetizers: 1 house salad with ginger dressing @ $2.95
Entrees: 1 Spicy Tuna Roll @ $5.25
1 Christmas Roll @ $6.25
1 Sweetheart Roll @ $9.75
Tax: 7% (Allegheny County only) @ $1.70
Delivery Tip: $8.00 (for braving 88)
Total for two: $33.90
Overall Opinion:
Now, to be clear I am precisely 3.6 miles away from Asian Garden so it doesn't seem that far -- but approximate 3.4 of those 3.6 miles are on rt. 88 through Castle Shannon -- the most ridiculously awful stretch of road to ever exist. So I was nervous my sushi would be warm by the time it arrived. But no! It was still chilled and fresh and DELICIOUS! It definitely exceeded my expectations of a strip mall Chinese joint and then some. So a normal person may not tip nearly 40% but I thought this guy deserved it. While it wasn't the best sushi I've ever had, it was far from the worst. And the fact that it catered to my laziness certainly gained it major points in my book. Though I will never again order another house salad from them, I will stand by my support of Asia Garden and their sushi and delivery service through thick and thin!
No comments:
Post a Comment