Chinese restaurant Rose Garden is set to close, giving you a limited time to enjoy its unusual menu

There’s the regular menu of Chinese-American classics at Rose Garden, a mom-and-pop Chinese restaurant in South Hill.

Then there is the “Taste of China special menu.”

That’s the bonus menu co-owners Kathy and Jack Wang introduced more than a year ago, and it offers what the Wangs bill as more traditional Chinese cooking.

I regret I haven’t written more about Rose Garden’s new specialty menu because the restaurant’s tenure in its South Hill home looks to be coming to a close.

More on that in a moment.

I’ve eaten a good chunk of the Taste of China menu and have been as dazzled by the quality as I am every time I eat at Tacoma Szechuan, the region’s best destination for modernized Chinese and Szechuan cuisine.

Like that Lakewood restaurant, Rose Garden serves fiery dishes big on flavors you won’t find at any other local Chinese restaurant.

Rose Garden calls one spicy chicken dish simply “spicy seasoned chicken,” and it’s similar to the chong gin hot chicken at Tacoma Szechuan.

To borrow a phrase from a co-worker, Rose Garden’s version is like the fanciest popcorn chicken you’ll ever eat. It’s drenched in a coating of fiery peppers that impart a delightful spiciness and a simultaneous tongue-numbing sensation. That dish comes threaded with stir-fried green beans.

Then there’s Rose Garden’s eggplant with the sour-spicy-garlicky sauce and the stir-fried lamb with cumin. The quick-fried bok choy and the wonton in spicy chile oil are all I need for a good night’s dinner.

Much of the Taste of China menu emphasizes vegetables and fewer fried options. It’s downright flavorful, fun, interesting food. That it’s in South Hill, an area known for its love of chain restaurants, makes it an even more remarkable find.

It’ll be a shame if we lose it.

Negotiations with the building’s new owner have not been fruitful, so now Kathy and Jack are searching for a new home almost 15 years after they purchased the restaurant.

They plan to close Sept. 30 and then will turn their full attention to finding a new home.

Kathy Wang worries about how spaces are too expensive or how much upgrading they’ll require. She also worries about what will happen to her longtime employees.

If anybody knows of a space, contact them at 253-770-9988.

Whether a first-time visitor or old hat with the restaurant, here are my favorite dishes of their more authentic Chinese dishes. Give them a try if you have not already, but do so by Sept. 30.

Spicy seasoned chicken: It’s a must order, as is its seafood sibling dish, spicy seasoned fish. Both come battered with that so-spicy-it-hurts Szechuan spicing. $12.50

Dry-sauteed garlic green beans: Green beans are quickly stir fried with so much garlic, the dish should come with a warning card to hand to co-workers apologizing for how much you stink. $9.95

Stir-fried bok choy: A garlic sauce clings to stir-fried baby bok choy, and it is magnificent. $9.95.

Eggplant in garlic sauce: A little tweak of vinegar deepens the flavor of the sticky garlic glaze on wedges of stir-fried Asian eggplant. $9.95.

Cumin lamb: A heady blast of cumin wafts from this stir-fry of lamb and vegetables. For those sensitive to gamey flavors, the lamb is completely absent of any of that, a benefit of the expert spicing. $12.95

Wonton in hot oil: It’s as spicy as it sounds and comes swimming in hot chili sauce, not that I’m complaining. $7.95

Also on the menu: I regret I have not yet tried the jalapeno lamb ($12.95), the clams with chile sauce ($12.95), the cold beef tendon appetizer ($9.95) or the steamed whole rock fish ($20 to $35). I hope to do so at a new location.

About the special menu: As many times as not, the server will forget to tuck in the special menu with the regular menu. If you don’t see the menu with the bok choy, dry-sauteed green beans or spicy seasoned chicken, ask for the special Taste of China menu.

Chinese-American fare: If the more authentic Chinese menu does not click with your palate, the classic Chinese-American dishes are among the best in Puyallup. I’m talking the kind of dishes you’ll find at Yen Ching in Lakewood, Dragon Ball in Sumner and Hong Kong Restaurant in Tacoma — my current trio of favorite chop suey restaurants.

Rose Garden’s sesame beef comes with tenderized beef strips that are battered, fried and served in a sticky salty-sweet glaze that’s so dark, it’s practically black ($12.50). The fried honey walnut prawns come with cubes of fresh mango that always seem to carry prime ripeness ($14.95). The chicken-and-lettuce wraps on the starter menu are filling enough to be an entree and are a hit for low-carb diners if you skip the crispy noodles ($8.95).

Rose Garden Chinese Restaurant

Where: 12615 Meridian Ave. E, Puyallup

Info: 253-770-9988 or rosegardenfoods.net

Closing: Sept. 30, but the restaurant hopes to relocate

This story was originally published September 26, 2018 at 11:30 AM.