Chinatown Garden

The worst Chinese food I've ever eaten, period. My wife, a vegetarian, ordered the garlic broccoli and was served Green Giant frozen broccoli that had been hanging around in a steam drawer for hours only to have some thin soy-like sauce containing some chopped garlic splashed over it. My dish of pork featured some pieces of hard pork soaking in a sauce remarkably similar to that my wife received except it was paired with the frozen Green Giant "Oriental Medley" from the adjoining steam drawer. Would be willing to bet that there are no more than 4 different steamed frozen vegetable mixes, several piles of pre-heated "meats" and less than a handful of sauces. Two dinners and two warm oil soaked egg rolls came to $31, and our waitress, conspicuously absent most of the meal, literally stood at attention about 8 ft away after delivering the check. My wife and I bantered on for some time, wearing the waitress out. I wrote "cook Chinese food" where the tip amount was supposed to go and we split. I am telling you, McDonald's chicken nuggets w/ the spicy tariyaki sauce is much better Chinese than you will get here, and yes, I know that tariyaki is Japanese meat grilled after a sweet soy marinade, still, the chicken nugs with that sauce IS better Chinese food.
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Overall rating
Food 0 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 0 | Value for money 0
Friday, June 18, 2010

I can echo most of the sentiments here. This is probably the worst Chinese restaurant I have ever been too.

The only positive thing is that they took a group of high school students at a short notice. That's where the positives ended.

The group was forced to eat from the set menu and not offered drinks. To be fair their food was ok. They were overcharged and were not brought any change having paid more than needed. Change was begrudginly produced when asked for. There was no way they were bing given an extra tip on top of the service charge (which I guess we can expect for a group).

The teachers in charge were offered a choice of the menu. The starters were appalling. The WONTON was like biting into dried leather (I think there may have been some meat in there somewhere. I sent a rib back as it poorly cooked. The crispy battered prawns must have been fried for hours they were that crispy and tasteless.

On to the mains. We ordered a spicy chicken dish. No spice at all. It was basically chicken in soy - lots of. Nice but not what was ordered and not helped by the tepid rice with it. Our other party member ordered lemon chicken expecting a fairly light dish in a nice lemon sauce. What came out (5 minutes after our dished) was one huge slab of chicken in a thick coating of batter covered in some pretty bland yellow sauce which tasted a little like lemon curd.

All in all, pretty awful. They're not even that cheap so I would suggest you steer clear.

I see another poster says they were rude and I totally concur with this. They just wanted a quick buck from us so fed us through the system at high speed with little care. It was a pretty sour experience all in all. Luckily we were able to pick our group's spirits up with an excellent ice cream round the corner at a well known ice cream cafe!
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Overall rating
Food 1 | Service 1 | Atmosphere 3 | Value for money 1
Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Our "Nightmare experience" at Chinatown Garden.

The waitress must be one of the rudest waitress on the planet. Not only was her English skill poor, but she was extremely rude to customers when she could not explain what "chicken chowmein" meant according to "Chinatown Garden".

The food was so salty and had a very funny taste as though the cook over used soy sauce, sugar, and something else which had a yucky taste at the same time, especially the Pan Fried Noodle dish.

Finally, tips of 15% was added to our bill automatically. We did not reliaze it until we got back to our hotel.

In short, if you are looking for: RUDE SERVICE, AWLFUL FOOD, AND AN AUTOMATIC TIPS OF 15% ADDED TO YOUR BILL, Chinatown Garden would be the restaurant to choose . For us "No, thank you" to Chinatown Garden even if they offer free food there.
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SUSAN
Overall rating
Food 1 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 2 | Value for money 1
Monday, August 24, 2009

This is the worst restuarant that we have ever been to. The waitress was rude and the food was disgusting. On top of that, they add a 15% tip to our bill without letting us know.

We had a wonderful trip up until the point where we dined at this AWFUL restaurant.
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Overall rating
Food 0 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 0 | Value for money 0
Sunday, August 23, 2009

my wife and i just moved to the d.c. area and were treating my mom to chinese food. our treat turned out to be a trick. the service was typical of chinese restaurants...not much of it. its the usual- quick to get you out of there for the next patron to come and spend money. well, that is okay because my tip is for the service, not the food (hence i hardly ever get the opportunity to tip at chinese restaurants). anyway, we like to eat chinese food so we tolerate the lack of service. but the food at chinatown garden was another matter. the vegetarian meat options were not tasty at all, quite rubbery to be honest. when i pointed this out to our waitress and asked her to take it away, she must have thought i wanted her to bring me another meal and not charge me for choosing a bad dish. she would not do it. well, i clearly know by now that more than just a few chinese people love money more than life itself and i was not about to ask her for a free meal. i was more than willing to pay for my culinary mistake and we ordered a regular meat dish to replace the rubber on her plate. but by now all the fun and anticipation of eating a good meal was gone. so too is my enthusiasm for chinese food in d.c. needless to say, i won't be visiting or recommending chinatown garden to anyone.
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sean
Overall rating
Food 3 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 3 | Value for money 1
Friday, March 13, 2009