TASTES LIKE CHICKEN AT THE ALL-VEGGIE GARDEN WOK IN RESEDA, YOU WON'T EVEN MISS THE MEAT.

Byline: Larry Lipson Restaurant Critic

MEATLESS MAGIC is performed daily at the new Garden Wok, a clean and comfortable Chinese vegetarian restaurant in Reseda.

I have to admit, words like tempeh and gluten on menus have been associated with faux and phony. If you can eat the real thing, why bother with weird duplicates?

But after being nudged by readers and hearing good things about this place, I decided to join the veggie crowd and see for myself.

What a surprise.

Garden Wok's kitchen makes tasty drumsticks ($4.95) that - when I shut my eyes and concentrated on the texture and taste - could easily have fooled me into believing I was actually eating chicken.

But, as the menu explains, chicken here is really a mixture of fresh mushrooms, soy bean flour and gluten, the latter described as being wheat protein.

And by gosh, it really looks like a drumstick. And almost tastes like a real one.

Pick a dish at Garden Wok like the sizzling veggie steak entree ($8.50) and those strips of ``meat'' among the vegetables on this super-smelling, dramatically hissing platter readily deceive the eyes.

Fashioned from soy protein, tofu and Chinese mushrooms, they come about as close to a beefy texture as you'd want to get. OK, so the kitchen wins the food game.

But the best thing about this and most of Garden Wok's fare: It's very tasty.

This is food that is carefully and skillfully cooked. Vegetables, so easy to overcook, never come up mushy here.

The saucing certainly helps in the gratification department.

``Chicken nuggets'' ($5.95), for example, possess welcome crunch and flavor, but become especially appetizing when dipped into the accompanying lemon sauce.

It's a spicy peanut sauce that pushes the house imperial roll ($3.95) into the delicious zone. Nothing too complex. Just bean sprouts and cilantro wrapped in bean curd skin.

It works.

But the faux smoked fish ($3.95) probably wouldn't fool you. However, the important thing is that this tofu and seaweed mixture produced in Garden Wok's kitchen is quite enjoyable whatever you want to call it.

Curried ``shrimp'' ($7.95) turns out to be as satisfying a vegetable curry as you'd want, although the ``shrimp'' that are easily identifiable from their shape have too much of a doughy texture to pass for the real thing.

But because the dish is worthy overall, you end up not minding that the shrimp-shaped things made from seaweed, soybean flour, sweet red yams and gluten couldn't delude anyone into thinking it's real shrimp.

However, in the shredded seaweed vegetable soup ($4.95) here, I tasted something in it that had a definite ham flavor and texture. Either that or my mind and palate were playing tricks on me.

Guess that's part of the fun for a suspicious, nonvegetarian person eating at a restaurant like Garden Wok.

Larry Lipson, [phone]

larry.lipson(at)dailynews.com

GARDEN WOK

Food: Three and one half stars - Service: Three stars

Where: 6117 Reseda Blvd., Reseda.

Hours: Open for lunch, dinner and snacks from 11 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays, for dinner from 4 to 9:30 p.m. Sundays.

Recommended items: Soups, chicken drumsticks, smoked veggie fish, veggie chicken nuggets, imperial roll, curry veggie shrimp, dry sauteed string beans, noodle with cucumber in brown sauce, sizzling plate with veggie steak.

How much: Starters from $2 to $8, entrees from $5.50 to $9. No alcohol. All major credit cards.

Reservations: Taken for parties of five or larger. Call [phone].

CAPTION(S):

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Photo:

(1 -- 2) Veggie ``chicken drumsticks'' are among the many meatless dishes offered by manager Mei Chiueh and chef Se-Lee Chiueh at Reseda's Garden Wok.

Phil McCarten/Staff Photographer