Pleasant BBQ Garden

The pouch is always on the look out for new Chino BBQ and Cantonese joints because we all know that Cantonese grub is prolly the best overall Chino vittles that has ever been devised. The variety and flavors of the dishes in this cuisine is just awesome, you can eat a different dish everyday and never get tired of it. There's no shortage of Cantonese grub in this town but a lot of them are very middling and some are just plain slutty and the good ones like Ming's and Best BBQ has gone up in prices. Pleasant Hill Rd has become the mecca for all Asian ethnic grub but to the east of 85 is still home to mostly Cantonese grub. Within the Assi market shopping mall comes a relatively new Hong Kong style BBQ joint that quietly opened to some mixed reviews... The owners are supposedly from Flushing and we all know that Chinatown in Manhattan and Queens don't play when it comes to authentic vittles... You won't last long in this town if your shit ain't up to snuff with the ex-pats and FOBs. I don't know why the entire family moved out of NYC because not many Asians leave the city once they have established a business or local standing but I assume, like myself and most people migrating out of NYC, it's because of the sky high triple taxes, impossible to pay rents and overall lowered standard of living... And not to mention gang activity and protection money in those hoods from what I have seen in the movies. You work like a dog and live like a rat in that city, but the cheap and affordable ethnic grub can keep you there a lifetime... But enough with the trials and tribulation of the pouch's past, let's come back to reality and the reality of some potential amazing grub...
This place is pretty small, a few tables, open kitchen in the front with the BBQ meats hanging in the window and a full size kitchen in the back... The set up is very similar to most small Chino restos. It's kinda like the Buford Hwy Ming's but up on Pleasant Hill (the Ming's on P-Hill is bigger but still in the same category). The menu is pretty extensive with all the classic hits and dishes of a HK BBQ shop. The prices here is a lot cheaper than most places around. But then you have to question the quality and execution from said lower prices... Shit, I have eaten at so many dumps around the world, dirty little alley way noodle shops that had some of the best tasting shit around... And it literally coulda been shit, but it's all about the execution and seasoning. Let's take a quick bite and see if this new Chino BBQ shop has what it takes to make the pouch swoon or drop a massive load in their can... Which I over heard a bunch of old Chinese ladies saying it was very clean in Cantonese compared to the other dumps... Splash.

Hong Kong Style Wonton Noodle. It's very very tough to make a proper HK wonton noodle soup... The broth needs to be pitch perfect with a delicate balance of pork, dried fish and shrimp flavors... But a quality made chicken stock with dried shrimp works surprisingly well. This version was decent not great due to the lackluster broth, it just didn't capture all those key essence. But the noodles were toothy and have a nice bite to them. The wontons were flavorful and decent sized with an equal amount of pork and shrimp. It's not a bad bowl of wonton noodle soup but I would put the money towards something else on the menu until they have nailed the broth here.

Congee with 1000 year old egg and pork. This is prolly my main test for a Cantonese joint.. It's the classic congee bowl that I have dreamt about on a regular basis since I was a baby pouch to this day. It is the ultimate comfort dish, so velvety, so smooth, so rich in flavor, so comforting in every way on a cold ass day. This version was all that except the preserved duck egg were in tiny pieces and not much of it at all in the bowl, the pork bits were more prevalent but it needed an equal balance of both and in bigger pieces. It's a great rice porridge on it's own but don't be so fucking chintzy on the other good stuff, ya hear?!

Beef Chowfun. This classic noodle dish has become increasingly more and more pricey, I have seen this dish go for as high as $15... Fifteen motherfucking duckets! This place was charging a normal reality based rate of $8.50... And it was tasty as shit. The flavoring aka umami was in full effect. The noodles could use a bit more soy to give it a darker look and glaze but it didn't take away from the overall flavor factor. The beef slices were marinated well and tender after a quick wok fry. Was it the best I have had in this town? Hell no, but for the price of this generous portion, it was pretty damn good overall. I would get this again and it comes out fucking piping hot.

Sour mustard with chicken. The classic dish is usually done with intestines which I love but to make it a bit more eater friendly for the table, we went with chicken... Yeah, I know, boring. But the sour mustard was made in house and it was pretty damn tasty. It was the right amount of sour and sweetness to the lightly crisp mustard, the small use of black bean sauce came through just enough and the other filler veggies were fresh and crisp, cooked through just enough. I tell you what... If you have leftovers, mix this in with some fresh wok fried lo mein noodles and that shit will be a hit, believe the pouch.

Combo #3: char siu, roast pork, roast duck. Not a bad looking spread. I had ordered this with the other dishes but he totally forgot about it, he was like it didn't come out? I told him look at the table of food, do you seen any BBQ meats on it? I got this to go anyways because after 4 dishes of addictive grub leaves the pouch with not much space left for fried chicken later, so I only snacked on a couple pieces of each. The char siu could be a little more sweeter and the color a bit more vibrant (I know I know the bright red char siu are due to food coloring but that's why it's so good) but overall it wasn't fatty and tasted pretty good. The skin on the roast pig was ultra crispy, the small fat layer was rendered decently down and the meat was tender. The duck was nice meaty pieces with a thin crackly skin and the fat rendered perfectly. For $15-16, this meat combo was fairly priced and the quality was just as good as the other top spots... It would be even a better deal if they gave you rice with this... Shit, I didn't ask for any so they might have done it anyways, they seemed nice enough to make you happy.

The classic dishes I tried were pretty good overall on this visit... But was it worth the drive all the way to Duluth? Yeah, I would say it's worth the drive on a weekend, that's the trade off you have to make, the cheaper prices for the distance. If it was ITP on Buford Hwy this would be my new go to spot for HK vittles. But for now, I will only make my way up there on the weekends. There's still the Chinatown food court that slays it on a daily basis with the wide variety of grub that can be had in that shithole on the cheap.

1630 Pleasant Hill Rd #220
Duluth, GA 30096