Z & Y Garden Review

Z&Y Garden served generally enjoyable dishes, from spicy Sichuan items to mild Yunnan soups. The restaurant, just another nondescript joint in Chinatown, was nearly empty (two tables occupied) while we were there, yet made warm and welcoming by the great shy yet friendly and happy waiter. Excellent service.

The five items we ordered came out extremely fast. They were: 

• Steamed chicken in clay pot. A traditional Yunnan dish, the waiter explained the cooking technique involved putting the chicken in the special pot with a small air hole in the bottom, then putting the pot on a steamer. The steam builds in the pot and condenses, cooking the chicken and making a very chickeny soup. It ends up being a good chicken soup and was the favorite dish of the table. "This would be a great thing if I were sick." "It is a great thing." Served quite hot in temperature, it remained hot throughout the meal and served as a nice foil to the spicy dishes; we kept returning to it to calm our taste buds.

• Crossing the bridge noodles. Another traditional Yunnan dish. The waiter arrived with a large bowl of soup containing noodles, and a plate with chicken, pork, ham, bean curd skins (these garnered much attention because people are generally fans of them), lettuce, cabbage, and possibly something pickled. We let the items sit in the broth for a while to flavor the broth and to let it cool to a pleasant temperature. The meat was very soft. The broth was mild and many people enjoyed it. In fact, at the end of the meal I noticed one person repeatedly refilling his bowls of soup, ignoring the other dishes. (He said the other dishes were pleasant but so spicy a little goes a long way.)

• Numbing spicy seaweed. Spicy, as exemplified by the layer of hot oil at the bottom of the dish. And one can smell the spiciness. It's a spiciness that arrives after one swallows. The seaweed was long strings, a bit more assertive in flavor and requiring more chewing than seaweed one is regularly served. Everyone says they prefer the ordinary seaweed.

• Beef with flaming hot oil. A traditional Sichuan dish, not unlike the rendition we had at Spices II. The beef here was reasonable quality and fairly tender but not as soft as the chicken we had in Spices II's dish (which we generally preferred). This dish was also quite spicy, comparable to the seaweed (as well as Spices II's version), though more spicy in the center of the dish where the meat was literally covered with peppers. Everything also got more spicy as it rested in the chile oil. Included lettuce and something we think was a cabbage that tasted similar to celery.

• Eggplant with basil and garlic. Selected for a vegetable dish. Also spicy (which surprised us) though not as much as the Sichuan dishes. (The leftovers, however, ended up more spicy than the Sichuan ones, if that helps give some idea of how spicy this dish was.) Eggplant was in strips with skin and dotted with peppers. Two of us liked it, although our usual eggplant with basil expert did not approve. (One person didn't add a remark.)

Total was $13/person including tax and tip. We didn't have any drinks.

Original Announcement

Let's surprise Z&Y, a Sichuan and Yunnan restaurant in Chinatown, by having some non-Chinese people converge on it on Wednesday at 8:00pm. Please tell me if you are coming so we can arrange how we are getting there; walking would be 2/3rds of a mile from the New Montgomery BART station.

http://www.zygarden.com/ (only the beginnings of a web page)

The restaurant was formerly named Sam Lok, in case that means anything to you.

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