jamillah garden -- islamic chinese food

i know that i've eaten at a pretty good restaurant when i'm inspired to go home and write a new food blog entry.

with our appetites a bit thrown off schedule from this holiday weekend, we were looking for an interesting place to eat. we stopped at a strip mall in convoy that we have yet to explore. jamillah garden was one of the two new restaurants in this strip mall and featured islamic chinese food. our curiosity piqued, we decided to step in and order.



inside, the restaurant looked like a typical chinese restaurant including an aquarium with colorful fishes and red high-backed booths. the menu featured a lot of dishes i have never heard of before, including "mutton-haslet soup" and "beef dough slice chow mein." there were also many recognizable chinese dishes. however, as i will explain later, the dishes with traditional names such as "salt and pepper shrimp" are sometimes created in a very different style from what we're used to. the prices were not the cheapest we've seen, but definitely reasonable and moderately cheap for a sit-down chinese restaurant with fresh quality dishes. you should know there is no pork on the menu, but there are a lot of beef, lamb and seafood dishes.

we decided to order two dishes, "salt and pepper shrimp" which is a favorite of oo -- and i picked the "lamb dough slice chow mein" because i love chewy noodles and wanted to try it in a style i haven't sampled before!



the "salt and pepper shrimp" arrived and looked a lot different from what we normally see in traditional restaurants. unlike the whole red-colored shrimp with heads attached and fiery red peppers, we had a dish with shrimp that looked a bit like popcorn shrimp, sprinkled liberally with garlic, green onions and cucumber. when we tasted it, the shrimp was crunchy. the shrimp was salty and had a pepperish heat that you would expect from the name of the dish. overall, i wasn't thrilled by the quality of the shrimp since it was too chewy (i love fresh shrimp but i know this is pretty rare in restaurants unless you're willing to pay the price) but the overall touch of spices, jalapeno, use of green onions and cucumber was surprising and tasty.



but my favorite of the evening was the "lamb dough slice chow mein" -- the dish was cooked in chow mein style -- but the noodles was very different from your typical shanghai/udon noodle. the noodles were thick -- chewy like not-so-fresh boba. or, as oo puts it, it's very "dough-y." aside from the noodle, the chow mein was excellent. it was not too greasy, there was a good balance of taste -- not too salty and not too bland. there was enough minced vegetables and lamb meat to complement the noodles. the lamb meat was also tasty, oo commented that it almost tasted like beef and definitely did not have the strong taste that usually turns people like him off from eating lamb. i loved this noodle, and ate off every little bit i could find on the plate. i would definitely come back here just for the noodles.

overally, i am really impressed because it is not only a good chinese restaurant, but the muslim influence definitely helps to keep chinese food interesting for me. there are many dishes that i wanted to try -- including the sesame bread, which the folks on the neighboring table ordered, the lamb stew and the sizzling rice soup. (can you tell that i live for carbs??) and i fully intend to come back here to try more dishes!

Jamillah Garden
4681 Convoy St., #C
San Diego CA 92111