Evergreen Taiwanese Restaurant
Minneapolis, MN 55404
Phone: (612) 871-6801
- Price:
- $
- Hours:
- Sun-Thu 11am-8:30pm, Fri-Sat 11am-9pm
Editorial Review for Evergreen Taiwanese Restaurant – by Jennifer Blaise
The Scene
Finally, true Taiwanese cuisine has arrived in the twin towns. Evergreen is attracting crowds not for its ambience, but rather for its incredible, affordable eats. The sterile cafe, tucked away in a basement, is minimally decorated. But once seated at one of the simple tables, diners will find themselves charmed by owner Frank Hwang--he runs the front of the house, while his wife Connie cooks. He'll suggest dishes that will keep you smiling throughout dinner.
The Food
The mouthwatering menu, a mix of Chinese basics and Taiwanese dishes, offers something for everyone: carnivores, herbivores, spice-lovers and kids. Start with a basket of staff-recommended steamed buns or delicately wrapped, meat-filled dumplings. Flavorful specialties include tender Mongolian beef with crisp green onion, tangy sesame chicken and spicy Mandarin shrimp or scallops tossed with vegetables in a rich, smooth sauce. Noodle dishes are nicely prepared, if a little bland, but the Taiwanese-style stir-fry is aromatic and delicious.
Editorial content is independent of paid advertisers. Any expenses are paid for by Citysearch.
Insider Tips
Know Before You GoThere are several vegetarian dishes, along with imitation beef, chicken, pork and seafood. All vegetarian dishes are cooked in separate woks.
The ExtrasThere's no liquor or dessert, but Azia is only a couple blocks south and offers both until 2am.
Save TimeThis spot is great for takeout--call in your order, then pick it up on your way home from work.
User Reviews for Evergreen Taiwanese Restaurant
04/09/2008 Posted by maverick92
I love Evergreen for the following reasons: The food is excellent. They will make almost anything "mock"-if you are a vegetarian and you haven't had Sesame mock chicken, you are in for a treat. It is also great for kids, and sharing. The service is very nice-the owner waits tables and will always listen to what you need. Besides the food, the TEA IS FREE! That's right-I love tea and can drink a lot of it, esp with Chinese food. So the fact that they give you as much tea as you want, and it's free is great. They could charge 2.00 or something, but they don't. The one thing that bothers me is the weird place it is located. I can take it being in a basement, but I worry about the alley it is on, and if you have to park in back and walk thru the strange strip mall to get in, it smells really bad. Like stale smoke and mold. So I always try and park in front. Also, if you have friends that drink alcohol, and want drinks with their meal, they won't get them here. I brought a friend and she was so upset she could not order wine with her meal that she wanted to leave. Dumb!! I don't care if I they don't serve it-Evergreen was a PERFECT choice for our dry new years eve last year. A funny thing that happened at Evergreen a few months ago. We took my brother there for his bday. He loves hot food, so he ordered this shimp dish with peppers. He started to eat it, and began to sweat. Pretty soon he was gulping water and fanning his face. I called the server over and asked her what kind of peppers those were, as they seemed very hot and my brother was used to hot food. She said, "Oh no!! You are not supposed to eat those peppers, they are for flavor and should be put to the side of the plate. They are the hottest peppers from Taiwan-we have to import them specially." Oops.
03/26/2008 Posted by withmetta
This is a great place for wonderful selections of vegetarian dishes--often in other restaurants we have limited choices, the problem with ordering in Evergreen is that the choices are TOO many! Highly recommend: tofu with basil, orange peel veggie chicken, vegetarian noodle soup, noodles with black bean sauce, stir fried noodles (Taiwanese style), peppery deep fried veggie chicken and veggie dumplings (steamed or pan fried). I would not recommend the mapo tofu (a popular dish in Sichuan) as it is very salty and sweet. Having traveled in Sichuan and tried authentic mapo tofu there, I did not find Evergreen's version satisfying.
Pros: great Taiwanese food, a lot of vegetarian options
Cons: can get busy sometimes and it takes time for the food to come
