Irvine China Garden
- Hours:
Mon 11:00 a.m.-12:00 a.m.
Sat 10:00 a.m.-12:00 a.m. - Price Range: $$
- Accepts Credit Cards: Yes
- Parking: Private Lot
- Attire: Casual
- Good for Groups: Yes
- Good for Kids: Yes
- Takes Reservations: Yes
- Delivers: No
- Take-out: Yes
- Waiter Service: Yes
- Wheelchair Accessible: Yes
- Outdoor Seating: No
- Good for: Lunch
- Alcohol: Full Bar
68 Reviews for Irvine China Garden
This place is the dim sum devil.
It just so happens that every fucking dish is absolutely amazing and leaves you with an insatiable want for more. And you figure that at $2-$7 bucks a dish..just one more won't push the bill overboard..That's at least what you'll tell yourself. Until you find yourself ordering one more on top of the supposed last one. And it's just a vicious freaking cycle that never ends.
The shumai is bomb...like TNT, explosive, dynamite kinda bomb. Don't forget the pork buns either...they're magical.
This is the only place in Irvine that I am aware of that serves dim sum on carts. Other restaurants have dim sum but they are menu items. If you want the experience of getting your chair hit by a cart and the hecticity often associated with a Chinese restaurant go here.
I am not a dim sum expert, but from what I have eaten here, I like this place =)
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Traditional Cantonese food done very well.
In general this place is reliable and consistent. Top of the line Cantonese food, served hot (even using heavy serving dishes to keep them that way). Everything is fresh and tasty. Service is excellent (in Chinese restaurant standards).
The common Cantonese vegetables, watercress, pea shoots, bok choi are great of course. Seafood is fresh. Fried foods are crisp (salt pepper pork chop). The boiled/salted chicken is as good as it was meant to be. Crab and lobster are oily and steamy in whatever style you order....
Even their non-main ingredients stand out. In our clams in oyster sauce, the pickled/preserved common mushrooms were...good! Salty and a little briny...a non-factor ingredient made me take notice. This kind of thing makes a difference, I had no idea. (Something I usually just discard to the side of my plate.)
In general, for traditional "nice" Cantonese food...this is probably one of the best in Orange County if not Southern California period.
Oh, and prices are reasonable as well. Most entrees running from $11.99 and up depending on the ingredients (i.e. seafood). Lunch plates are very good. Dim Sum...well I'd say above average...great for Orange County.
Note: Not on par with Cantonese "fine" dining (i.e. Koi Palace) however, but it's up there...
Note2: All of you MSG avoiders might want to stay away, try requesting NO MSG. (Personally, I don't mind too much...but you'll be very thirsty afterward.)
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i that Irvine China Garden is pretty good. I like that it's in Irvine, close to work, so I can fill dim sum cravings during the week!
However, I think that they must have better selection during the weekend right? There were no potstickers or gailan and that was sad...In fact there were only 3 carts rolling around, so that was kind of dissappointing.
Everything I had there was yummy though, so if they had more selection, I'm sure I could give them more stars.
I would still choose to go to my other dim sum staples (see reviews), but am glad that there is a place in Irvine that is not named Sam Woo's BBQ or whatever that place is called.
My first time eating Dim Sum... after many years of waiting I have lost yet another virginity. I must say the food was very tasty however, I can't really compare it to any other Dim Sum restaurant but I sure liked it. Especially all the sweet goodies.
The wait was not so bad but we did arrive early around 10:30AM. The wait was horrendous when we were leaving.
The service is mediocre, just a whole bunch of servers rushing about busily, carts being pushed with lots of yummy food on them. Kind of a long wait between the different carts but not so bad... the upside of that is my belly settles and I can fit more Dim Sum in it.
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If I could give them 4 stars for food quality and 1-2 stars for service quality, I'd do that. The service seems to be better if you speak to them in Chinese. If you are not a Chinese person, I'd strongly suggest going with a Chinese friend.
In addition to dim sum and their regular menu, they have good late-night deals. There's a special late-night menu with a pretty wide selection and reasonable prices. I'm a fan of the scrambled egg with BBQ pork.
the dim sum is mediocre here. i wouldnt wait for an hour in line. However, the menu items especially the seafood is delicious. I went couple nights ago and got chinese watercress. walnut shrimp and peking duck. everything was piping hot when ordered and the duck was super tender. I use to come here when i was younger with my family and theyd always order a bunch of seafood which never ceased to dissapoint.
Plus, theyre doing a seafood special now buy one pound get one free 2 pounds of geoduck for $12.99? AWESOME!
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Not a Dim Sum Review: We went for dinner. I'd describe the menu as "classic Chinese" - it's not greasy take-out, but it's fairly familiar dishes for the non-Chinese diner (at least, what we ordered fell pretty much into this category). We had steamed sauteed pea shoots and garlic and a hot sweet eggplant dish (with jalepenos in it!!) and a steamed fish with ginger and green onions.
All of these were very fresh, cooked to perfection (delicate fish, soft succulent but not overdone veggies) and nicely flavorful. And the portions were so big we lived on the leftovers for days. Good deal.
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I'm addicted to their dim sum!! Right when you sit down you can get food! They push the carts around and you pick whatever you want. I eat almost every dim sum dish with their chili sauce! Here are a few of my favorite things:
Salty Dumpling (a literal translation): it's a fried dough ball that's sweet on the outside and filled with ground meat and mushrooms on the inside (it's on the cart with the egg tarts, egg rolls, etc)
BBQ Pork Honey-Glazed Pastry: I loveee bbq pork and the flaky pastry is just perfect
Shrimp wrapped in noodle thing w/ sauce:I always get this!
Pork ribs with Black Bean
Chicken Feet: some may think this is gross but growing up I've always had chicken feet so this is one of my favorite dishes!!
Shumai
Tofu skin wrap w/ meat and mushrooms
These are just a few of my favorite dim sum dishes there :) If you go on weekends there's more of a selection. Go with a large group of people so you can order many different things!
Review for their dim sum only.
There are so many self proclaimed dim sum experts.
The dim sum here is not worthy and especially not for the long wait.
There's not enough restaurants in Irvine that serves dim sum,therefore,the selection are few and far for people to choose from.
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I'm not crazy about chinese food, so if the overall experience was not very good I can get picky. Which is what happened here. The place is sort of old and dampy feelly. Not sure if it was just day of week, but the fresh seafood selection was unimpressive - waiter keep bringing over crabs with only one claw. I was really hungry, but even so the food just did not satisfy my palet. This Food was too oily - we had deep fried crab, peking duck, hot and sour soup, and stir fry veggie plate ( i forget the kind).
I kept thinking about Sam Woo on at corner of Culver and Irvine Ctr. Road, which has really fresh seafood selection from their tanks, much newer, cleaner atmosphere, excellent service, etc.
My friends ravs about this place's Dim Sum and I often see a line. I will give this place another review next time around and hopefully it will be better.
I'm definitely not a dim sum expert but I do many quite a bit of experience on trying different dim sum restaurants - Vancouver, SF, NYC & LA chinatowns, Taiwan, Bolsa/Westminster now this place. The food was ok - not great. Nothing really stood out for me. Chicken feet was little bit spicier than other places, I didn't see any fried dumplings, tried the BBQ duck and fried and salted whole shrimp which were ok...... Pretty average for me but at least this is an alternative to driving to Bolsa/Westminster for dim sum.
Cheers
Ok, I think I'd rather go to Sam Woo. This is why.
You can order dim sum thru your server, instead of cranning your neck each time a cart comes rolling thru your section of the restaurant. As you hold your breath for shu mai, you get disappointed almost every time. No, I do NOT want soup when it's 80+ degrees outside, thankyouverymuch.
They are not hurting for business one bit, as the hoards of Irvinites corral around the host stand by a quarter after ten. Maybe they just need more carts. Maybe I just need to drive down to Culver/Irvine Center Drive? Maybe I'll just shut up and walk to Yorgurtland for 30 cents an ounce? (sigh)
And yeah, charging for tea is not cool.
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Haven't come here in a while since my last visit. Maybe longer.
Not a fan of their dim sum. It's good, but yet, I've had better... which requires driving to LA County. This is probably one of the better places behind the Orange Curtain.
I want to talk about the regular food. I haven't been here for dinner in quite some time. Not sure what I was waiting for, but the food was better than past trips. Not sure why. We ordered the deep fried squid in spicy salt isn't the same as some of the other places I've had in the past. I think it's because maybe it's deep fried longer and they use a different batter. We also ordered a pound of steamed shrimp. Very fresh and tasty, unlike some places where the food tastes old.
We also ordered a spicy beef sizzling hotplate, and a vegetarian hot pot. Also tasty, but not memorable.
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do you have to be so rude? when asked if we can get another table (there was CLEARLY another table) the seating hostess girl acted like she couldn't understand what we wanted. when the dim sum ladies came around, we would ask if like.."is there pork in that?" and they would just try to put the food down. i thought oh well...at least the food isn't THAT bad. but it certainly has gone down in quality. the size of seafood is WAAAAY smaller and not much variety. i just wanted to hurry up and eat and get out of there.
oh! it was time for the check and the seating hostess had no problem understanding or speaking to us in ENGLISH! wow wow wow.
Good food, open late, affordable.
Order the scrambled eggs and bbq pork. My favorite dish they make. Service is kind of slow, but when you place your order the food arrives quickly.
I am notoriously -not- a fan of East Asian foods, but occasionally if a Chinese place doesn't look too sketchy, I'll give it a try. My family called in a reservation for a table of 10, which they gave to us no problem! The place (other than the bathroom!) was clean, the table was large enough to accommodate all of us and still have plenty of room, and the wait staff was really patient with our token picky vegan.
We each ordered a dish, forgetting about the sharing aspect of such meals, and when the meal arrived, it completely filled the lazy susan in the middle of the table. The food, even to someone as skeptical as I am about Chinese food, was actually pretty good!
The manager came by often and would joke around with us, which made everyone feel very comfortable in an otherwise foreign environment. (We were the only non-Asian party in the restaurant.) Everyone had a lovely experience, eating and sharing, and when we couldn't finish the dishes, the manager came by and ask who would like to take what home. He cleared the table and within minutes came back with little care-packages for those that wanted to take the leftovers. Some places you have to fight for a doggy bag; here, the staff practically forced us to take things home.
We continued happily chatting at our cleared table, when another lovely dish came to us- orange slices! Albeit a tradition, we're so used to American restaurants where you have to order everything individually, we didn't expect this little treat. Not only was it a pleasant surprise, but the oranges were delicious!
The food was great, and the atmosphere and service was wonderful. I know these statements don't exactly go along with everyone else's reviews.. maybe because we were a large party we got special treatment? Parking in that lot is TERRIBLE, so make sure that you arrive early to find a spot. Other than this- well, the bathroom- I have nothing but praise for the place.
My mom loves this place. It's awesome. People come here for the dim sum, I come here for the late night menu after 10pm. They have most of their dishes for under 10 bucks. The waiters all walk around with their cell phones, but the food rocks, servers are nice for a Chinese joint. Crowds get nasty, it's one of the places in the Irvine area that has dim sum. They have this almond puff pastry, that takes 25 mins to make it. Order it before your meal it's over. It's pretty tasty and HOTTT!
Why can't there be more closer dim sum joints around here? Why can't they make more shu mai? They always run out of shu mai, duh make more. Why can't the dim sum lady see me? Hello, I want a freaking bbq pork bun. For the 3rd time, no I don't want congee. More hot sauce please? What, you charge for tea?! Get better fish for your desolate fish tank. Bah, I'll see you next week.
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2.5 stars. Back before this place was known as just China Garden, I would have given this place 4 stars. It was much better before part of the restaurant burned and was closed for about a year or more.
They don't have enough waiters to go around during lunch time. I ended up having to wait 15 minutes on a weekday just to order some dishes because they only had 3 waiters with a busy lunch crowd. I had to wave down the waiter myself. I guess it's difficult when they serve dim sum everyday because they have no idea whether you want the lunch specials or dim sum. The service sucks here now and that is that.
As for the food, like I said before it used to be good. Dishes used to be consistent. Until one day when I decided to order my favorite pan-fried string beans and they came out wilted and cold and tasted a little funky, but not funky enough for me to not want to eat them. We told the waiter that the beans were cold and he took them back. 5 minutes later the same plate comes back out and it isn't much warmer than it was before. He probably threw them in the microwave for 30 seconds and let them sit for the other 4 and a half minutes. Haha. The only upside is their dim sum which is actually very tasty, but take note that they have more varieties during rush-hour lunch time and of course on weekends. Their dim sum thankfully doesn't contain a ton of fat like other places I have been to. I absolutely cannot stand the texture of fat in my mouth so I'll spit any little piece out. Go here only for the dim sum.
Service sucks, dishes are inconsistent, and dim sum is the only thing preventing me from giving my favorite restaurant once upon a time 0 stars.
Lovin It Live! Went here last night with some homies after 10 PM, I think it's open till 12 PM. I'm pretty stoked about finding some places in Irvine/Tustin that are open late.
As Trent says, This place is so money baby! I had my favorite dish, Pan Fried Chow Mein, but we also had shrimp scrambled eggs, and an excellent Pan Friend String Beans, it was seasoned perfectly.
I really liked this place overall because it didn't have the crazy environment like Sam Woos, the service was good, and it had nice Flat Screen TVs. Positive experience for me all the way. I've also had the dim sum, and it was solid as well.
This is going down as one of my OC favorite Chinese establishments.
I'm really confused about the people who say the food is better at Sam Woo. Are we eating at the same restuarants? Is there some super secret delicious sam woo that I don't know about?
China Garden loses a star for service, but frankly getting really good service in a non-westernized restuarant is not all that common. I go here for lunch on weekdays and generally have a good experience with the food.
Get the salt and pepper fish, its always a big hit with whoever we bring. I also really love the dim sum that's like big flat rice noodles wrapped around tasty numnums. Also, the beef stew is really delicious, fatty and tender. Nothing is very HEALTHY, but at least its delicious. The shumai are okay - I'm not a big fan of shumai in any case but they are acceptably tasty. I actually don't LIKE most chinese food, but I like China Garden. I will say that we tried two of their dishes which are commonly eaten in america (it was a big company group so we had to order a variety of things) including orange chicken and kung pao chicken. Oh and we ordered chicken fried rice. None of these things were all that great -- not BAD but not great. Our usual dishes - the salt and pepper fish or squid, the beef stew, beef soup, etc. My friend loves the chicken feet which I haven't eaten (And never will) so I can't speak to those. We've also had frog and jellyfish here (again, things I won't eat). I am guessing from reading some of these reviews that they may be a little weaker on the 'regular' chinese food, but all the more unusual items that my friends order are awesome.
Today when we went I was a little disappointed in the dim sum selection, there's normally more variety. Also be warned that if you go during peak hours the wait is INSANE, and the parking situation is kinda not good -- expect to drive around back and walk a bit.
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This place is a joint that offers standard dim sum. They don't serve anything beyond the ordinary (compared to spots up in the SGV). But despite the fact that they're "average"... be prepared for a crowd. If you don't arrive right when they open (10 on the weekends) be prepared to wait 15-30 minutes which isn't bad considering how many people are waiting.
My biggest issue is that they don't serve sriracha hot sauce. Yes, I know that sriracha isn't chinese but it's so much better than the standard hot oil that most chinese joints have. I'm tempted to bring my own bottle of sriracha.
The biggest plus for me is that they're close and consistent.
This place never gets off their wait list!
Unless you go really early late, or during off hours, the wait here can suck. Yes their dimsum is good, and are most dinner entrees, but I'd rather search elsewhere.
They don't recognize frequent diners. I'd rather spend my money where it's appreciated.....
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Hardly phenomenal dim sum, but they have all the usual stuff, and the parking is tolerable. The bad parts are the wait to be seated and the lack of condiments.
When seating is sparse (i.e. on weekends), the front desk hands out numbered tickets, so here's an idea--while you wait outside for half an hour for your ticket number to be called, entertain yourself by listening to what the "maitre'd" yells over the intercom and see which person in your group can figure out just what the hell number he said. He announces the numbers in three languages (English, Mandarin, and Cantonese, I believe), but most of the time there's so much mic distortion that I can't even tell which part is English, and other people I know can't even tell what he yells in Chinese! (I know, shame on us, but it is kinda funny.)
Ok, so my other gripe is about the condiments. Yeah, ok, so I really like that red 'n' greasy garlic chili oil funk sauce almost as much as I dig the spicy mustard stuff. In fact, I even mix 'em both up with a little bit 'o' soy sauce to make a *real* zinger of a dipping sauce. (Yeah, yeah, bad guay-lo for being so gross with the sauces all the time.) But I swear, it's like pulling teeth over there to get them to fork over more than a teaspoon of any of it. Why so stingy with the sauces, people? If it weren't for that, I'd have gone four stars on this one.
So another chapter in the search of proper Chinese food in Irvine. Now as many of you already know I'm very picky with my Chinese food so here we go...
It's finals week, the dishes are stack up in the kitchen. There has been no running water in our apartment for the past 5 hours since I woke up (12pm) due to the improper handling of the plumbing situation at my apartment complex. I am hungry and recuperating from the final exams that ensued just last night to kick me in the balls.
After searching through Yelp.Com, for about a good 15 minutes, I come across this spot and it got a fair amount of reviews. The kicker was that, many people loved the dim sum and if you know me, well I love it too. So hey, what the hell let's go get some Chinese food again. Looking at the crucifix, fixated around my neck I prayed to God this is not another bad trip to a Chinese restaurant.
The small traffic did not help contain the hunger, for which my stomach grumbled along the way. I finally approached the somewhat hidden spot, without realizing it is in the same vicinity as Yogurtland. I park and go in, preparing myself for what ever disappointments may occur. The host gave a stern look at me, then a look at the somewhat empty restaurant, attended to someone and finally came back to the front to ask for my order.
My order was simple:
1 Shrimp Fried Rice
1 Creamy Honey Walnut Shrimp
After inquiring about the dim sum, the host said they ran out. Now I don't know if it was for the day or for good, but I was slightly disappointed. After completing the transaction the host said it would take 15 minutes. So like my previous visits to other Chinese establishments, I awaited patiently for my food. Made a couple of calls in the process, and observed my surroundings.
Set up is the usual, always has to be an aquarium at the entrance or somewhere in the restaurant (something I notice frequently), many tables and chairs in the main area, with the kitchen in the back. The decor is simple, and they do have a bar adjacent to the entrance.
Overall, this place is so much better than Sam Woo, I highly recommend it. The service needs work, and I don't need to be "mean-mugged" for providing business, so I'll leave it at that.
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China Garden is a pretty decent Chinese all around. Yes the dim sum is very good. The wait is super long, but really what good place doesn't have a crazy wait on Sunday? The selection is pretty good and while I have been seated in the side room, the carts came around pretty often. I came here with my parents and the bill was only $26. We were all really full.
But being a typical college student, usually I sleep in on Sunday. Mostly I come to China Garden during their late night menu. 10-12pm they have a special menu with cheaper items on it. I believe everything is under $10 and are under different headings by price. I always have leftovers.
The one complaint that I do have is that sometimes the service is a little lacking and the air conditioner runs extremely cold at times. But the good food and reasonable prices (plus late hours) will always bring me back.
i'm really glad there is a casual dimsum place in irvine!
- the food is good & FRESH. they have chicken feet, duck, crab, steamed stuff, you name it!
- the service is good: surprisingly attentive despite the fact we were in the edge of the room (the 2 of us) around 11am on a wednesday.
- it does get crowded sometimes. i was lucky.
- it's not a cash-only place, thank god!!
but most of all, i like this place b/c i dont have to drive all the way to chinatown or monterypark to get some dimsum early in the morning.
Another Dim Sum'r reviewing... I'm vietnamese and only like Chinese style dim sum. So if you're Chinese and/or only like Chinese tasting dim sum, this is hands down the best place in Orange County. Otherwise you got to drive your way onto Roland/Montery Park for NBC, Ocean, and 888. If you can't tell Chinese tasting dim sum from the "more Americanized counterparts" than I would recommend Seafood World or Seafood Paradise in the Vietnamese area. Stay away from popular enemies like S&W and Phoenix...
Dim Sum is about three things: 1) Variety 2) Freshness and 3) Service... If you go on weekends, it ALWAYS gets crowded here... crowded = fresher food but less service. The variety here is very good. All the typical Chinese dishes without the Americanized fluff the restaurants make up for the virgin Dim Sumers. I've been here on several occasions and have gotten very good service (considering the amount of people they're serving). Prices are decent being that it's in Irvine.
Last note of advice: Be prepared to wait on average 30 min. on weekends. The host ALWAYS over-estimates and bring earplugs if you don't want to listen to the loud speaker. Maybe a lawn chair and a good book while you wait on the grass? :)
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You've read the reviews -- it is all true.
The wait is ridiculous. If you are going during the week you have to BE THERE at 11:30 AM to have a fighting chance. The parking is terrible. The Dim Sum is the best I have had since leaving Hong Kong.
Service aside, this is one of the better Chinese restaurants to frequent in Irvine. If you're coming here for dim sum in the morning, be prepared to get there early if you don't want to wait. If you're not there at opening, you're waiting. In my opinion, this is the only quality place to have dim sum in Irvine. I've never had it elsewhere in the OC, and I can't say it's close to the quality you get as you dine closer to Monterey Park/San Gabriel/Chinatown but China Garden is pretty good.
General Rule: It's a tradeoff when it comes to Chinese restaurants, the better the food, the worse the service. So if you're eating at a Chinese restaurant and it takes 15 minutes to get ice water, bet on a good meal!
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This is where my hubby and I go to get our dim sum fix when we're too tired to drive very far.
The lines are always long, which is a good thing, and the food is very satiating (and instant gratification, of course). They have a decent amount of variety and the items are fresh.
It doesn't compare to the places up north, but for Orange County, it is one of the best.
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Apparently, this is the place to go for dim sum in south county? I'm reading reviews all over the net about the dim sum here. Alas, I've never been during the day, only at night.
I love this place. After my last adventure in sampling Chinese food in Irvine (http://www.yelp.com/bi...), I was afraid to eat anything resembling ethnic food. I didn't want an encore of S&W's aftermath.
To my relief (pun intended), the food here is very clean and freshly prepared. Walking in, I immediately know that this is a real Chinese joint. Open floor. Scattered tables. Little to no attention to detail. Noisy kitchen. Bright lights. Fish tanks. Seemingly rude service and hardly a word of English. Ah yes. I can settle my nerves now.
My absolute must have when I come here may be a surprise to anyone who knows me even remotely well - Baby bok choy.
Yeah. No meat. Vegetable. I adore this dish. Fresh. Clean. Very flavourful and you can taste the sweet flavours of the bok choy, not bitter like the adult version. The sautee is light and the flavours are mostly salt, ginger, garlic, all blended together in the natural water that comes out of the bok choy during cooking.
Everything else I order here is good, but I have to have the baby bok choy.
The lobster in black bean sauce is also good. Not as heavy as other places in Cerritos. The sauce is used sparingly and you can really taste the meat.
Chef Special noodle. A simple dish. Dry, thin noodles sauteed with some green onions and other stuff. No meat. Just a light and tasty dish.
Fried Prawns with salt and pepper are good. I honestly prefer the ones at Ten Ten on Pioneer, but these are also pretty decent.
Hot and Sour soup is SPICY. Be careful. It'll warm you up though on a cold night. Definitely worth it since this place is kept just above freezing for some reason. Always cold when I walk in.
The flat noodles and beef are good too.
Nothing here that I've ordered so far is very heavy. You leave satisfied and not weighed down like most Chinese restaurants. I look forward to coming here once every month or so when I'm out and about in south county and have an appetite. I'm glad Irvine has a decent Chinese restaurant planted nearby. I'll definitely try to make it in for the dim sum at some point.
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I came here today for lunch and as usual it's pretty busy. However, I did notice one thing wrong with the picture today; there was no food on the tables. The carts came by and I grabbed a few of the usual items that i like to eat, such as the bbq pork buns and turnip cake. But after 20 mintues of waiting around and seeing same carts come to your table with the same items over and over again, I said to myself, "What is the management thinking. It's prime time for lunch at noon and there's no food on the tables". All of the popular dim sum items were no where to be found.
Finally after what seems like an eternity, a new cart emerges piled high with all the fixings. But that's just the problem, it's only 1 new cart for the whole restaurant. So my friends and I had to wait even longer for the cart to come around our table and by that time most of the good stuff was gone.
If there was any other decent Dim Sum place in Irvine besides China Garden, I would go there instead. It's not the quality of the food, but more the lack of it. If you have to wait over 20 mintues for a new cart to come by your table, that's a problem.
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Arrived here around Sunday at 11:15am. The wait for a table was around half an hour. It was extremely crowded so there was always fresh, hot dim sum - you can see the steam rising from the push carts.
They had a wide variety - all the staples plus some stuff of their own twists. I always like to get my staples - shrimp balls, radish cake, pork bun, shrimp rice noodle rolls, Chinese broccoli, and sweet silken tofu. I'll just comment on my staples.
Shrimp balls: Lots of shrimp. This one had a twist to it - there was cilantro inside with the chunks of shrimp. It was almost twice the size of a normal shrimp ball. Yum!
Radish cake: A bit disappointing. They don't fry it in front of you, so by the time the cart came around, it was cold and you don't have the crispy outside layer. This could have also been more flavorful. I was disappointed.
Pork bun: I got the one with the sweet pineapple crust, not the normal steamed buns. This has a sweet bun and a savory pork center. Needed a microscope to see the pork pieces. The bun had a good crust to it.
Shrimp rice noodle roll: They must have been making these very hastily. The shrimps were not even inside the rice noodle! The shrimp was slightly overcooked and tough.
Chinese broccoli: Had to harass a random waiter to get us some. Was cooked a minute too long. Still very tasty since it's hard to mess this one up. Adds great color to the table.
Sweet silken tofu: Eat it as soon as it comes to the table when it's slightly warm - it tastes silkier then. If you let it sit for a minute, it becomes grittier. I wish it was more smooth. I'm also just being extremely picky at this point.
English friendly. Typical Chinese restaurant service. Parking lot.
Irvine sure has changed a lot since its Stepford Wives days. The very fact that it boasts not one but TWO 99 Ranch markets and TWO Sam Woos should say something about how the demographics have changed. Of course, not to be outdone, the remaining whites can now proudly say that Irvine now also has three Costcos, four Targets and a Whole Foods.
But with such a large Chinese/Chinese American population in Irvine, how is it that there is only one real dim sum joint in the whole city? Sure, Sam Woo has some dim sum, as does that joke of a restaurant Crystal Jade, but China Garden is the only place that serves it up loud, hot, and rude just like they do in the old country ... or like they do in Monterey Park -- same same!
So what if the service sucks. This is not the Peninsula Hotel in Hong Kong. And so what if they don't always have what you are looking for. China Garden is the best I' m-recovering-from-a-hangover-so-I-can-only-e at-food-in-small-bites place in town. Just be sure to get here early (if sober) or later (if not) in order to avoid the "holy sh*t!" lines.
Now if they would only improve that PA system so I can actually understand what number they are calling, I would be a much happier camper.
3 1/2 stars
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Out of all the Dim Sum places in OC, China Garden's food is amazing. Yes the line is long, but that's a sign of a good restaurant. If the line was short, I would think twice.
I go to China Garden on a regular basis on the weekend for their dim sum. Many people who's used to being catered to their every whim won't be used to the flag-down-a-cart for your food style of service. But that's what dim sum is and I personally find it fun. I enjoy being able to see the freshness of the food before pointing at it and ordering it. Sometimes it's annoying when the carts run out of my favorite food, but that only happens when I arrive late to dim sum.
I've been to China Garden at night and that's where the service is amazing! I get waited on and serviced BEFORE I even realize I need service. I love to eat their clams in black bean sauce at China Garden. Unfortunately with clams, there's lots of clam shells everywhere. But my plates are changed constantly so that I don't run of space to work on my food. I also enjoy the free dessert I receive at the end of my meal.
I also enjoy my teapot always being refilled without having to ask for a refill. Of course, this only happens at night because there's less people.
3.5 stars.
yes the wait is long. weekday hours open at 11am, weekend hours they open at 10am. if you don't want to wait an hour, then go before 11:30am on the weekend. (shit, should i have told you ppl?) oh well. it's probably the best dim sum in irvine and the most reasonably priced.
it's big, there is plenty of choices. they taste good. only con really about this place is the long wait AND a mean dim sum nazi manager/waiter. i don't know his name but ppl who go often, i'm sure you'll know who i'm talking about. he wears glasses and has chipmunk cheeks. omg, first time, he yelled at me sorta. i'm sure it was miscommunication but still he didn't have to raise his tone of voice. second time, he lied and said there was no more hot mustard. wtf? how can they run out of hot mustard? you crazy? so my cousin asked another person and lo and behold...he comes back with a small bowl of hot mustard. uh huh...mr. chipmunk...take that!
oh and i forgot to mention that their hot sauce is hella good. it's not hella spicy but it's suuuuure tasty. ask for a bigger bowl of it. pour the top layer of oil out first. it's really good. mmm.
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Dim sum dim sum dim sum.
That's the only reason why I give this place 4 stars. Not to mention the bussing staff just throws the plates and cups out when setting up.
Don't expect ANY sort of service here. This is chinese food from China, where customer satisfaction is far from guaranteed. Their main job here is to get food in you and get you out.
But that food... dim sum turns to omg yummy.
Daikon squares, roasted pig, yumness to the umpth degree that one cannot describe in spoken words of other than "more please"
Dinner here is good as well, but again, the service is lacking and the line out the door can seem intense. Never mind that, focus on the food (and not the aquarium along the back wall) and you'll be fine.
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I was totally disappointed with this place. I was hoping it would surpass Seafood World in Westminster because of all the rave reviews, but boyy was I wrong. My bf and I came early on a Sat. morning and it was so frigging packed! We had to wait 45 mins for a small table in the corner. The dim sum cart ppl. barely passed by and if they did, it was the same cart over and over. They didn't have the chili sauce (a must have when eating dim sum) and it was expensive! The bill was $30 for two and we barely ate anything. Won't come here again.