Evergreen Taiwanese Restaurant

05/31/2008 Posted by c197933

The atmosphere here = lame but the food is FANTASTIC. I really like the Beef with Tomato/Green Pepper and Steamed Buns.

Pros: Food, friendly staff

Cons: ambience, parking

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

06/08/2007 Posted by cymrotom

Having lived in Taipei for four years, I can attest to the authenticity of both the food and the ambience. Taiwanese food is known for it's freshness, not spice and Evergreen delivers on this. As for the ambience, I spent many a meal in a fluorescent-lit basement restaurant in Taipei where I enjoyed all sorts of Chinese cuisine from Cantonese to Northern-style cooking, Sichuan and Hunan to Shanghai and Taiwanese styles. Evergreen's strength is its variety of traditional Taiwanese specialties interlaced with dishes from the Mainland. If you want authenticity, try Evergreen.

Pros: Authenticity

11/01/2005 Posted by arielle_liora

Evergreen is great if you are a vegetarian or not. There are almost as many options for vegetarians as for meat eaters, even soups, which in most places have a meat broth. There's a wide variety of non-meat, beyond just tofu and seitan (mock duck). The food is always good, and the price is definitely right. The service can be a little hit or miss. The ambience isn't exactly romantic, but it doesn't really matter when the food is as good as it is.

Pros: Food, Vegetarian options, Price

02/26/2004 Posted by battistini

This is one of the two best Chinese restaurants in Twin Cities (the other was China Crown in Roseville, now closed). It specializes in Taiwan-ese cuisine but the chef, Connie Wen and her sister, will prepare other styles to order (I had Mao Po Tofu, a Szechuan dish, that was excellent). Though everything is fresh, if you want to explore the limits of this restaurant, stick to Taiwanese specialties, which are mostly on the chalk board, not the menu. Connie's husband, who waits tables, will guide you since his English is very good. In New York, this would stand out but in Twin Cities, this restaurant is an earthquake in the ethnic dining scene. Remember, except China Crown, every Chinese restaurant in Twin Cities until now has served only Cantonese food. Though Cantonese is allright, you owe it to yourself to try other styles.

Pros: food, service

Cons: absolutely none

08/09/2003 Posted by liping_t

Taiwanese cuisine is the word here. Very quiet, owing to unfortunate location in a basement thus easy to drive by without noticing. Very clean interior. Quiet. Helpful owner/manager who will try his best to help you with the menu. Food choice is not extensive, but everything is cooked well. The noodle dishes aren't as tasty as Cantonese style cooking however and the appetizers are authentic, so caution is to be advised to the uninitiated. Overall, a good place to go for value chinese.

Pros: Clean, quick service, good dishes

Cons: basement location, too quiet