5318 East Arrowhead Parkway
Sioux Falls, SD 57110
605.339.8582
website
A simple takeout Chinese food option that caters to rural areas in east Sioux Falls, South Dakota, Imperial Garden is a pretty simple space with a focus on takeout and a lot of simple dishes of beef, chicken and seafood. While it’s all a local option compared to the other chain restaurants in the area, the flavors and textures of the food here sort of end up blending together.
Here are some of the things on the menu here I have tried. The spot has a lot of Chinese specialties. Among them:
- Sweet & Sour chicken: This dish is my favorite, with the crisp chicken going really well with some chopped green peppers and, interestingly, a little bit of pineapple to spice it up. The sweet sauce unites all of the flavors.
- Szechuan chicken and shrimp: Chicken and shrimp cooked Szechuan-style. In a dark brown sauce. The shrimp is a little crunchy and the chicken is great, but at the end of the day it sort of tastes the same as the others.
- Mongolian beef: This one is a well known dish of flank steak served in a hoisin and soy-based dark sauce. The dish is good, and it’s topped with some crunchy noodles to give it texture. Once again, the sauce is very similar to some of the others and it’s hard to tell it apart.
- Almond chicken: The chicken is fried and in a light sauce, which has a surprising strong almond taste to it, which doesn’t take anything away. I like this one, it’s a dish I haven’t seen in a lot of other places.
The spot is clean on the inside and it definitely gets the food out efficiently. That said, it’s a spot where some of that food tends to blend together, and there aren’t a lot of distinguishing features on some of those dishes. Texture-wise, they sort of run together as well.
All told this spot has a lot of dishes to try, but it might be better to stick with the safer, well-known classics.
Recommendations
- The spot offers take out options and dine in. The dine in experience is clean and to the point, and take out gets moved out of the kitchen quickly.
- The almond chicken is unusual, and a unique offering. For a good dish that is better known, you might try the sweet and sour chicken.
- The appetizers, like egg rolls, are worth a try.
Another Food Critic 