2433 Broad Street, Lake Charles
Peking Garden has been a Lake Charles dining pillar for more than four decades. The restaurant hasn’t been remodeled with fancy lighting, shimmering décor or QR coded menus. They’re not celebrating a grand reopening with a ceremonious ribbon-cutting and pizazz.
This is Lake Charles nostalgia and tradition, featuring a truly classic Hunan-Chinese cuisine. It is decorated in lanterns, fans and hand-carved teak murals depicting scenes of east Asia culture with splashes of red throughout, symbolizing good luck and prosperity.
All of these things are exactly why Peking Garden has been one of the top choices for that special dinner celebration.
Our son, Dayton, joined the United States Air Force a few short years ago, stationed at McChord AFB, just south of Seattle, Wash. With a little bit of regular military leave accrued (that is vacation to us civilians), he recently had a little time to come back home to spend with family and friends before going back to Washington to transition into the Air National Guard. Dayton made a little request, asking that we have dinner at Peking Garden one night.
Eager to fulfill that wish, his mother, Shyla, planned a little Saturday night family dinner.
The restaurant has a split dining schedule. Lunch is served from 11 am to 2 pm, after which the staff breaks for prep. They begin dinner service at 5 pm.
We arrived merely minutes after 5 pm, and we weren’t prepared to see the lobby full of diners waiting to be seated. A nod from the hostess confirmed it was our turn to be seated.
The menu here offers a wide variety of classic Chinese dishes. But, outside of the initial name of the dish and a picture of a chili pepper to suggest a dish is spicy, there is a lack of description of the dishes and their ingredients. So, you’d better know what you’re about to order or Google it. Or you can just wing it and hope for the best.
After a few cozy minutes, our server, Suki, stepped to the table with notepad in hand. She wasted little time between greeting us and taking our order. The floor was bustling with activity as she took our drink orders, hinting we should go ahead and give her our food orders at this opportune moment.
Suki penned our requests on her pad in what I can only imagine resembled a physician’s script — indecipherable to anyone but themselves.
Hot sake arrived, with an emphasis on HOT. I can only describe it as somewhere between Earth’s core and a pottery kiln. It required quite a bit of time to cool down before we could pour it. The kitchen was quick to fulfill our orders, and the table was soon occupied with puffy wedges of shrimp toast with an abundance of garlic within; gyoza; and their famous award-winning egg rolls. The sheer size of these rolls has earned notoriety. They’re stuffed with fresh vegetables, bamboo shoots and shredded pork, all wrapped and perfectly fried to a crisp.
While most people opt for the soy sauce, the brave won’t hesitate to incorporate the diabolical, sinus cleansing hot mustard. I caution you to use this mustard sparingly until you understand it’s potential, unlike Dayton, who discovered its full capability the hard way.
A few more moments passed before a plastic cart was wheeled from the kitchen to our table, the porcelain dishes clanking with each little bump in the floor.
For Shyla, there was a simple beef and broccoli classic, gently tossed in a hot wok with savory soy and oyster sauce and enhanced with garlic, fresh ginger and a touch of sweetness. 
Dayton ordered the chicken curry family dinner. Strips of chicken and fresh vegetables were sizzled and smothered in a sauce with curry and turmeric, forming a robust and complex flavor.
I had the Peking Garden one-of-a-kind dish — the Bob McHale’s shrimp noodles.
The dish is rumored to have been created for and named after Robert, a frequent “regular” here at Peking Garden. This fantastic dish is a take on shrimp mai fun, but it incorporates the slightly thicker lo mein noodle, spicy red pepper, and an abundance of large shrimp in a smooth garlic sauce. And there’s always plenty to take home.
Getting lost in quality conversation, Shyla didn’t realize until we were back in the car that she hadn’t received her favorite side dish, the one that draws her to Peking Garden. The hot and sour soup had been missing. The car stopped briefly as Shyla and I sat, contemplating whether to go back inside for a small cup. Instead, we compromised, giving ourselves a reason to go back sooner than later for the soup and other tasty dishes.
Until then, it’s off to other restaurants and cuisine for the short time we have Dayton here with us.
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