Ginger & Garlic - Stylish Chinese in Naperville

I'd heard from family and friends that Ginger & Garlic, a relatively new Chinese restaurant in Naperville, was worth checking out. Today I finally had the chance to go for lunch and I really enjoyed every dish we ordered.

Sure, the Mexican-style building might look a little strange from the outside, still leftover from the previous tenant. However, as soon as I stepped inside I was impressed with the elegant decor with a definite Chinese style. From statues to paper lanterns to the sleek black chairs and neatly dressed staff, everything about Ginger & Garlic is a lot cleaner than other Chinese restaurants in the area (Mapo, Katy's Dumplings).

Lucky for me, the food was equally impressive. The waitress brought over a little dish of slightly spicy pickled cabbage to start us off, which was refreshing to munch on as we perused the extensive menu.

I failed to take a photo of the beef rolled pancake that we ordered to start off - I barely managed to grab a piece myself - but the rest of our meal follows. It's worth noting that the beef rolled pancake came with cilantro, not scallions as I'm used to from other area restaurants. it was very well done though, and the pancake was nice and crisp without being overly oily.


Szechuan Stir Fried Green Beans / Ginger & Garlic by TrackBelle, on Flickr

These were very nicely done, the little black bits were some sort of vegetable, not pork, like often accompanies this dish.


Ke Jia Xiao Chao / Ginger & Garlic by TrackBelle, on Flickr

I'm not entirely sure what the English name for this dish is. It's a Hakka Chinese dish with pork belly, squid and tofu along with red pepper and Chinese celery. It was very good, although I would preferred a little more squid and a little less pork belly. This dish isn't on the menu, but the Chinese name is "Ke Jia Xiao Chao" and it's definitely worth ordering.


Lobster Lo Mein / Ginger & Garlic by TrackBelle, on Flickr

When you order lobster here, you can either order a whole lobster, or a whole lobster over noodles for the same price. Seems like a no-brainer to me. They don't make their noodles in house, but they were very good nonetheless. I loved pairing these noodles with the rest of the dishes instead of white rice.


Whole Sole Fillet / Ginger & Garlic by TrackBelle, on Flickr

This is a whole fish preparation, but not one of the six listed on the menu. Definitely worth ordering. Probably my favorite dish of the meal. We completely devoured it, including the fried fish bones, which were kind of like chips, but better. There is a light creamy sauce over the sauteed fish fillets mixed with a bunch of really fresh Chinese vegetables, like mushrooms, carrots, snow peas and bamboo. Then the rest of the fish is fried and makes for a beautiful presentation.


Chinese Broccoli / Ginger & Garlic by TrackBelle, on Flickr

Chinese broccoli simply sauteed with garlic, no oyster sauce. Delicious, fresh and had a wonderful slightly sweet taste that fresh vegetables should.

Overall, an incredible meal. We inquired about dessert (I could have gone for some dou hua or Chinese tofu pudding), but were told that they only had fruit jellos for dessert, so we passed. I'll definitely be back. There are so many dishes on the menu I'm excited to try, like the shrimp with salted egg yolk and chicken with taro casserole.

I wouldn't be surprised if Steve Dolinsky stopped by soon.

Ginger & Garlic
1633 N Naper Blvd
Naperville, IL 60563
(630) 799-3888
http://www.ggcuisine.com

We pass by this restaurant every time we go visit my in-laws. After waiting months for it to open, we had stopped in a month or two ago. We opted for dim sum though, since we were there on a weekend. Very disappointing. We had to send a few dishes back because they were either stone cold in the middle or unseasoned.

But your report makes me think that the kitchen cooked dishes may be worth a shot. Though given the dismal dim sum we had, Panda Express would have been better!

Yikes - I hadn't tried the dim sum there. I know they had some service issues when they first opened too, but the service was much improved when I went yesterday. A couple of my dining companions who have been more regularly noticed that they have different staff on weekdays and weekends.