Excellent service and food. Highly recommend it and would come back soon. It is a very good restaurant.

WARNING: The workers here are VERY pushy. Have seen the same people working here for years. Be aware when you come here - If you aren't looking they'll probably start dropping things on your table without you asking for it. Way to make money guess but the staff needs to tone it down a notch. I wonder if they each make commission on the plates they sell. Before my friend could even sit in her seat, there was a worker literally holding out a random plate between my friend and her chair so she actually could not sit down first.... A little overkill I'd say - at least let the customer SIT first. Then I asked my group if they wanted shu mai, and as soon as I look to my right, a lady yelled "SHU MAI????" and it was already on my table. I respectfully told her "I was not speaking to you I was talking to my friends." Got to the point where we couldn't even say things out loud because we felt like someone would drop it on our heads. They really really need to settle down a bit. It was very overkill to me. Probably won't be going back because it stressed me out so much. the prices are fine and food is decent but like at what cost? Be sure you can be assertive if you ever eat here. You will get taken advantage of if not. Greatest tip is know how to SAY NO!!! or you'll be paying an arm and a leg for some random things you never asked for. 1 star for customer service. Nothing else matters when you take this business approach. $$$ read more

The grey hair man in the reception desk was mean and rude. Bad experience and don't want to be there any more.

Great delicious food at reasonable prices in a good location. 13 adults were a bit cramped together and place does not take reservations so there was a crowd waiting outside and restaurant filled up very quickly. Food was fresh but place was a bit noisy as restaurant was very popular and crowded. Service was a bit slow due to full restaurant. I had to ask for bill and flag down servers for service a free times for water, more tea and bill and to get credit card returned read more

China Garden is my go-to spot for Dim Sum in South OC. Pre-Covid they had the push carts displaying all the wonderful choices. Now you'll need to order from menus with pictures. I went to dim sum on a Sunday 2 weeks ago and they had spaced out tables way more than 6-feet apart, it was kinda sad to see the restaurant so empty. I hope they can make enough $$ to stay in business as it would be a great loss to the community if they fold because of the lack of business. I plan on getting take-out as often as I can to help them them going. I actually ordered dinner from them the other night. Got beef chow mein and bock Choy with mushrooms. Had big portions and ended up eating the food over several days. read more

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My favorite dim sum restaurant of all time. My family has been coming to this establishment for several years. The quality is always consistent. Although some of their servers don't speak much English their customer service is always excellent. The restaurant is quote big great for large family gatherings. 6/5 stars read more

China Garden - Dim Sum Near Me - Irvine, California

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This review is mainly for the patrons that come here: 1 STAR Look, I get it - this establishment is not known for having the best service, I would know I've been coming here since I was a kid. But legit stop being self absorbed and look around. This place is vastly understaffed for the number of tables and the work it takes to turnover a table. Who's fault is that? The people who own the place, not the employees working. Also for those of you complaining about the dim sum ladies pushing the carts being slow/taking forever - please for the love of God take a look at them. They're manning these carts with hot ass food with tables ordering multiple dishes asking to have extra sauce have this cut have that cut. By the time they're done with one table they have to go back to the back to get more food. Have you ever noticed the one lady who's left arm doesn't quite move the way you'd expect with a left facial droop - yeah she had a stroke a few years back. That one lady who has a limp when she walks, yeah she was in a bad car accident a while ago too. The people you are shouting at and criticizing - they're people (legit that could be your auntie, mom, or grandma). The food that is more expensive than it was before? Well that's inflation, duh. Have you looked at gas prices recently? Seriously to the lady in the sunglasses and the blue floral dress carrying your designer bag (the epitome of you can have money but not class), it was super unnecessary to cause a scene and yell at the staff running around trying to pack take out orders, check people in for their tables, and pick up the phone. Same to the guy who decided it was a good idea to chime in and yell as well while you decided it was a good idea to park yourself right at the hostess stand and watch something on your tablet at full volume. If you decide to get dim sum on a Sunday at noon and not have to wait, you're effing delusional. SMH After 3 years of being in a pandemic, you'd think people would have learned to have some empathy. Be kind to each other. That's all. read more

My mom was craving some dim sum. She always tell me "I can eat anywhere" but when I suggest a place, she would say no and guide me to what she really wants to eat. So funny. So that day, my mom wanted dim sum and I don't want to drive too far to get good dim sum. Of course, I went to Yelp and searched for dim sum and this came up. It didn't have the highest star ratings but beggars can't be choosers, especially if you're trying to avoid driving. When we got there, we had to wait in line. On a weekday? Wow! Finally, we sat down at table big enough for six people. Apparently, they literally go by the number and whatever table is available, they will put you there. We ordered the typical dim sum dishes. It was okay. Not the best and certainly, not the worst. I like the stuffed mushrooms. The sugarcane fried shrimp wasn't worth the cost. If I come back, I would order the lunch special, lobster with garlic noodles, and a few dim sum dishes. I would definitely come back. For Thinsulin fans, it's hard to find green light foods at a dim sum place. read more

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This restaurant was a complete failure on multiple levels. If I could give zero stars - I would have. We picked up $200 worth of food including multiple dishes across varieties and proteins. We are experienced eaters and always prefer genuine/real Chinese over Americanized versions. We frequented Sam Woos for years until they retired. This was possibly the worst Chinese food I have ever eaten. It's only flavor was saltiness. The proteins were not fresh and overcooked - as were the vegetables. Proteins were chewy/leathery, vegetables flaccid and flavorless and things like mushrooms were pre sliced canned versions that tasted like tin. To say this food was awful would be giving it too much credit. Here are the details: The jellyfish was underseasoned, lacking in balance with no acid and little to no soy. It was uninteresting and the worst version of this dish I have ever experienced. The roasted pork was so chewy it might as well have had Nike printed in it. Picture severely overcooked pork tenderloin. It had barely any flavor. This dish should be melt in your mouth. Needless to say it was more like pork rubber. The steamed chicken with ginger and scallions was lacking in flavor and somewhat mealy. A very mediocre version of this standard. The honey walnut shrimp was marginally okay but the shrimp were overcooked and chewy. The beef chow fun was the best dish of the meal. Still, the noodles were overcooked and the dish underseasoned. I gave it a 6/10. The shrimp with lobster sauce was an embarrassment. Cornstarchy to a fault, lacking flavor, tough chewy shrimp and those canned sliced mushrooms (not even Chinese mushrooms). The veggies (pea pods and peas) were cooked beyond recognition- limp and flavorless. The seafood combo fried noodles was an absolutely miserable dish. The noodles were oily and flavorless. The fish mixture was cornstarchy and lacking in flavor. Together they made a flavorless blob that I would not serve to my dog. And then the atrocity that was the $25 half Peking duck. It was all rib bones and neck pieces with maybe 2oz of chewy, overdone meat on the entire thing. The presentation was awful, the duck looked like someone's leftovers after they had eaten all the meat. Peking duck has always been one of my favorites. This was an abomination. The orange peel chicken was gummy, oily and lacking in chicken. It was primarily mushy breading. Another awful dish. There was no steamed rice provided and no soy sauce either. Overall for $200 it was a fleecing of epic proportions. But even if it had cost $50, it would have been a rip off - the food was absolutely terrible. I called the restaurant and told them about several of these issues - I mentioned I do not want my money back and I am not looking for them to give me free food. I take food seriously and love Chinese food. A restaurant of this poor quality needs to get its game together or get out of the game altogether. read more

Vegetable was not fresh, you can tell from the dried end on the stems, this was served at 11am, also over cooked. Everything was super super super salty, no one was interested in taking anything twice. Heavy MSG used, felt sick afterwards. read more

China Garden - Dim Sum Near Me - Irvine, California

Come early in to get some dim sum. Service was a little busy but everyone was friendly. Typical authentic Chinese restaurant ambience. When you know, you know. read more

4 stars taking into account that we're in Irvine where our options are limited... Even though it was pretty pricey, if you compare it to other Irvine dim sum joints, it's about $1 less/plate. Also, more dishes are under the A option than at Captial Seafood or Sam Woo. So for pricing, it's not as bad as it could be! You can't really compare this to dim sum in the 626 or GG/FV. Food was solid! I didn't dislike any of the dishes I got, but here's the rundown. Chicken feet were good, tripe was too soft, shu mai was too salty but still enjoyable, spare ribs with black bean sauce were delicious, and the shrimp rolls were also delicious (good sauce). Nothing was terrible in my opinion. I would return if I was really craving dim sum. The amount of gas that I would use to travel outside of Irvine would make up for how much more expensive this place is. read more

China Garden - 2 orders of shu mai, 3 orders of chicken feet, 2 orders of shrimp rolls, 2 orders of spare ribs, and 1 order of tripe = $45 - Dim Sum Near Me - Irvine, California

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The only dim sum spot in Irvine. Food isn't bad but interior needs some renovation. Always has long lines but they go pretty quick. Just went back again and try not to get the corner table. You're going to have to stand up and grab the cart lady to get any food. read more

This place will leave you saying "ehh" The food was subpar and flavors were just straight salty but for $8 a serving, you get what you pay for in terms of quality. Definitely get the shumai We tipped 15% and they quite LITERALLY chased us out of the restaurant demanding more tip. Sorry but I tip based on food quality and service. read more

China Garden - Shu Mai, Lotus wrapped sticky rice, shrimp hargow, chicken feet, spare Beef Short Ribs - Dim Sum Near Me - Irvine, California

There aren't many Dimsum places in Irvine, so they're usually more expensive than everywhere else. We ordered around around 5-6 items and the total came out to about $35 or so. We were even charged for the tea that we didn't ask for! I drank some because I didn't know so I didn't fight it, but they should have disclosed that it's not free, or serve it without telling us. Rude. Not only was the food expensive, it didn't taste good at all. Quite possibly the worst dim-sum I've ever had. Their selection was pretty limited, and only the dinner menu was available on the weekends and the prices were ridiculous. $16 for stir-fried string beans?! Rude again. If you're in the area and craving dimsum, don't come here. Treat yourself and drive out to Garden Grove or Rowland Heights for better quality at half the price. read more

Great price for the lobster special. Soup is really good too. Vegetable and fried tofu were good too. But the dishes are a bit too salty.

Looks like they might have new management since I was here last. Everything looked different inside. I've only done take out here over the last 2 years. Food was hot and delicious! Good variety of dim sum to choose from. Portions were good. Disappointed they don't have carts coming around. You order dim sum from a paper checklist and hand to a waiter. Had to ask for water and condiments like hot mustard. They automatically put oyster sauce on the side of Chinese broccoli, which my guests preferred. Everything was tasty! read more

China Garden - Various dim sum, Har gow, Siu Mai, lo bah go, cha siu Bao, dan tat, etc - Dim Sum Near Me - Irvine, California

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Pretty legit spot. The hau gau and shu mei and Don tot was all hot and fresh. The wait was only 20 mins. The parking lot can get pretty full. Service was very good. read more

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Decent food but their service was terrible. Server spilled mustard sauce all over my phone and didn't even apologize. read more

China Garden - Dim Sum Near Me - Irvine, California

Dim Sum on Monday - Friday 11:00 am - 2:45 pm. Saturday, Sunday, and Holidays 10:30 am - 2:45 pm. Prices increased to A $4.18, B $5.18, C $6.18, and D $7.18 per dish. Tea $1.50 per person. Soda $3.25 per can. Lunch specials on Monday-Friday at 11 am - 3 pm. Prices increased to A $9.95, B $10.95, C $11.95, and D $12.95 per dish. Include free steamed white rice. My family's favorite dinner dishes are: * Sautéed fish fillet and vegetables * Lamb stew hotpot with bean curd, bamboo shoot, and Chinese mushroom * Sautéed spinach with gold and silver eggs read more

Can't believe this place only has three stars? I've been coming here for dim sum for years - even before the Din Tai Fungs of the world started opening in OC. There was a time when China Garden was the only option unless you wanted to venture to Little Saigon, and there's a reason it's still here and super crowded any day you go for dim sum. The variety is awesome, the tables are roomy and the cart service is old school fun! You do have wave down a bit for additional items but they are quick to delivery anything you request. Prices are also beyond fair considering you can't help but leave stuffed from lunch here! If you don't' want to wait then come early or late (avoid 11:30-1pm) - this will also help with parking which can be challenging in this shopping center as there are a few other popular restaurants here too. read more

Called them to order take out dim sum on a Saturday. No one picked up the phone. I decided to drive there to place the order instead. Got there and the guy in the front said they only take orders for regular items from the menu but not dim sum food. He said they were too busy to take dim sum orders to go. Makes no sense if they are willing to take orders for regular items on the menu but not dim sum. Sounds like a pretty stupid reason. Definitely never bothering to order from this place again. read more

Fried rice was good, Peking duck and chow fun were great, really underrated and overhated to be honest, prices aren't bad for the proportion size and the customer service was good. read more

It is 2.5 but as Yelp fails to provide this grade. Chose 2 because it is closer to 2.5 than 3.0. We came here for Dim Sum for out of town guests who has never had Dim Sum & it is one of the few places that serve DimSum in Irvine. Food is ok but service is typical Chinese restaurant = lacking. Many servers running around, but most don't pay any attention to diners. Getting their attention required waving one's arms and almost jumping up & down. When will these Chinese restaurants not in China learn about service? Dim Sums are not pushed around in carts like with traditional Dim Sum places on weekdays, only weekends. Price is not unreasonable. read more

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We visited China Garden often We noticed that quality of dishes we ordered regularly degrades significantly Suspect the change of ownership or chefs read more

Absolutely disgusted. When we walked in with our party, I was greeted to a dirty plate that was at my girlfriends chair. No biggie I thought as I take it to my seating so she can have a clean seating. That was the first issue with cleanliness. Simply asked the waiter for a new plate and boom. We order our food and when we get it, we realize we have no soy sauce and chili. I ask the waiter and he brings it over, as I'm pooping out soy sauce, a dead fly pops into my plate. Absolutely disgusted already, my appetite is dying before my first bite of food. Half way through the meal I ask for water for the table because I want something other than tea. Some time goes by to no answer, so my other dinner guest asks again. 5 or so minutes pass and still no water, so I walk out to my vehicle to get my personal water. When I come back, to my surprise, there is water on the table! Of course I thoroughly inspect it because at this point, it's kind of a joke. My two friends sitting on either side of me start to almost giggle. When asked why, they had already inspected my water and found something floating inside and put it off to the side. Comical at this point. Overall terrible experience and I left hungry and unsatisfied. read more

China Garden - Something floating in the water - Dim Sum Near Me - Irvine, California

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Let me start by stating the obvious. This review is for dim sum on a Sunday afternoon (Thanksgiving weekend--overfed and undernourished). The wait for 8 ppl was about 20 min. The overall quality of their dim sum menu is good (3.5 stars) for some items and "decent" for others. "Har gow" and siu Mai we're good with just the right amount of dough to protein ratio. The minced pork in siu mai was surprisingly good without the funky odor of bad pork like some low quality restaurant. Their chow fun was bland but still passable. I would come back for dim sum if I'm lazy to drive to SGV/Monterey park. read more

Worst weekend lunch experience ever! We had to walk out of the restaurant after ordering just 3 Dim Sum. The service is really, really bad. I have been to many dim sum restaurant in the past but this one lower the bar even further. We got our seat about 10 mins of waiting in line, then we were seated in a small room or a hallway?? The server then asked us which tea we would like, took a min for our tea pot to arrive. Then everything went down hill fast. No menu was handed out and no guideline to help us understand how to order food. We have to ask the server then realized it is a cart dim sum service. With the seat we were assigned, GOOD LUCK on waiting for the cart to arrive at your table!! After waiting 7-10 min for the cart lady, we finally got 3 Dim sum on our table. We were waiting for the next cart, but the rude cart lady didn't even bother to ask us what we would like and skipped us to the next table!! I was like are we invisible??? I was really upset at this point that I gave no tip during checkout, the cashier guy had gut to ask us to tip. We straight up refusing to tip and told the guy how bad the service was to everybody who was waiting in the line. Remember, unless you don't mind customer service and are not hungry, then your experience may differ. Do not seat in the hallway or small room because they will ignore you!! Ask to seat in the main room, that's were all the attention is at. But I will not coming back to this restaurant ever again. read more

Their lunch special is a good deal: 3 lunch special orders and you get lobster noodles at a cheaper price. Dishes are very authentic Cantonese taste read more

China Garden - Dim Sum Near Me - Irvine, California

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We came here around 5:30pm on Chinese New Year and were pleasantly surprised that the wait was short since we did not have a reservation. We were seated in less than 10 minutes. Maybe because there was only 4 of us. When we left about an hour later, there were a lot more people and the wait was long. Anyway, here's what we ordered: 1. Tofu stuffed with shrimp paste - steamed tofu. Very good. Not heavy. 2. Rock cod with vegetables - sautéed fish with Chinese broccoli. Also very good. Texture of both the fish and vegetables was good. I liked the taste - flavorful but not too salty. 3. Sautéed pea sprouts - very good flavor. Well cooked. 4. Chicken cooked in lotus leaves - Good taste. The dish contained shiitake mushrooms and Chinese sausage in addition to the chicken. However, most of the chicken pieces were mostly bone so we didn't get much meat. Service was good for the restaurant being a busy night. Our dishes came out fast. Overall, we were satisfied with our meal. Not anything excellent but good. And service was fast. read more

We ordered sauteed rock cod filets, mixed mushroom w sliced prime rib, & assorted seafood w/bean curd to go. All 3 dishes were tasty, however, there were a lot more cheaper ingredients in two dishes, like lots of bean curds & mushroom but few meat & seafood. Overall, we liked the food and will definitely order again, read more

China Garden - Sauteed Rock Cod, Assorted Seafood with Bean Curd, Mixed Mushroom with Sliced Prime Rib (top to bottom) - Dim Sum Near Me - Irvine, California

The cashier was really rude. He tried to get more tip when I already said I was unhappy with the long wait and I didn't even mention the dry crab fried rice. read more

Been going here for 4 years now. I love it! Food is consistent and that is really important to me. Always delish!!!

Great people and food -- great place in general. The food is authentic and consistently good. A little pricey but it's Irvine, so what do you expect? Great for dim sum and great for dinner. They used to have these really good salted egg yolk buns at dim sum, but they changed the recipe. It's still good, but the old one was better. Really good steamed fish and Peking duck for dinner. Nice painted walls, nice tables and chairs, tablecloth, clean silverware and cutlery, fish tanks. Servers are nice and attentive people. Definitely recommend this place. read more

This place used to be really good place to treat family and friends. Been coming here for over 20 years. But my recent visit was a disappointment. I ordered the pei-pei tofu but what came out was mostly corn starch with tiny minced tofu. It was so gluey. I told the waiter but he just walked away not saying a word. But with my family and friends in town i don't wanna create a scene. May be it just my bad day or they should change the menu name pei-pei corn starch instead of tofu. read more

Not bad for what you get especially when there's not that many dim sum places in the OC. This place is more traditional and has a good variety of food. There are dim sum carts and they have the typical food you can expect for dim sum. They have a long line out the door before opening. The service was fine and pretty quick. The downsides were the freshness of the food. The soup dumplings didn't have any soup and were definitely not up to temperature yet despite being cooked. The turnip cake would've been a lot nicer if it came cooked on a grill since that was a little cold as well. The Chinese fried donut wrapped in a rice paper roll was a little too greasy. The siu mai and pork ribs on the other hand tasted just fine and were both warm. Even though it didn't hit all the marks, it is still one of the better dim sum places out here so I wouldn't mind coming again just to get my fix if I don't want to travel too far. read more

If there was a zero stars option, I would pick it. First time here and definitely my last. Terrible service, charging for things you did not order, and RAW pork. RAW! We got 2 orders of the pork sau mai. Both orders were slightly warmed and cooked on the outside but the inside was completely raw and cold. Cold! It was so gross and we told them, and they said they would give us 2 new orders. When the two new orders came, it was raw again! It wasn't as raw as the first batch but the inside was definitely raw, you can tell by the color and texture. Unfortunately my daughter already ate one and we took a bite and now we are worried about food poisoning for all of us. Pork is definitely one thing you cannot eat raw. Period! Also, all dim sum is made to order now and they bring the food to your table. We also ordered 3 shrimp har gaw. When they first brought out our other food items, they had our shrimp har gaw on the tray with our other food. For some reason the male employee (who acted like the boss) instructed the female employee to NOT give us our 3 shrimp har gaw and make us wait. I thought hmmm... strange, maybe there was another table waiting longer for this order. No biggie, we will just wait for our order. Well turns out they never brought us the shrimp har gaw. We sat around twiddling our thumbs waiting for it. After we were completely done eating and full and ready to go, we told the employee that we never received our 3 shrimp har gaw so can they take it off the bill please and give us the check so we can leave. He runs off and boom returns in 2 min with 3 shrimp har gaw. We told him to just take it off the bill and give the food to someone else. We get the bill and they charged us over $7 for tea, which we didn't order. People, make sure you carefully check your tab! This restaurant charges for things you did not order!!! Also, we asked for hot mustard repeatedly and they didn't bring it out until we were literally waiting for our check. So needless to say we didn't get to enjoy it with our food. To be fair, the shrimp rice sheets were good. That's about it. The spicy pork chop we ordered (basically it's salt and pepper pork chop) was very fatty. Each piece was either a slice of fat or mostly fat. It was very hard to find any actual meat to eat. The quality of pork they served was subpar. But as least it was cooked and not raw? Overall just a terrible awful experience. I wish I took a picture of the completely raw cold pork siu mai before they took it away. Unfortunately all I have is the photo of a little piece from my daughter's plate after the fact from the second batch that was warm but semi-raw in the center. I understand that this is a tough time for small business owners, especially restaurants. But as a business serving food, you can't cut corners with food safety, especially with properly cooking food to the right temperature and making sure your customers don't get sick after they eat your food. Also, charging for things not ordered is not the right way to make money. That's just below the belt and dishonest. read more

China Garden - Raw inside of the pork sui mai from the second batch. - Dim Sum Near Me - Irvine, California

This place used to be my family's go-to dim sum restaurant. They had good food for a decent price. But we did takeout during covid, and the food tasted like it was not fresh at all. In fact, the shumai meat tasted like it had gone bad. The flavor was lacking, and the price was high. The chefs must have changed because nothing tastes the same. Unfortunately it's not worth it at all anymore. read more

Wow... ate 70.00 worth for lunch. Didn't ask the server for anything except 3x hot mustard and chili oil... Left 5$ tip The server, the guy with glasses, middle aged, semi-chubby asian legit chased me and my family down when we left the restaurant and said - "You did not leave enough tip, the standard is 15%". My reaction was just flabbergasted - then he cussed me out in Cantonese.. (like I can't speak the language...) - asshole. Ya, I get the standard is 15%, but not when I didn't request for any additional service and you did not even refill our water, give us napkins, or even ask if we wanted a damn straw to drink the water for the entirety of duration of the meal. Also the tea cup was nasty AF and when mentioned, was not even replaced. Ya i left a 6% tip indicating your service sucked - you literally chased me and my family to speak to us when we left the restaurant acting like I committed a "Eat n Run". I paid and left a bit more to indicate your service sucked, that is why I gave you a small tip. I should have took that 5$ away to leave you with none for treating me and my family damn criminals that violated the most basic act of man-kind. No we do and do not eat and run, don't chase me outside to ask for more tips... that amount of given because your service was horrible. NEVER COMING HERE AGAIN. read more

I've lived in Orange County for over 18 years now and China Garden continues to be my favorite dim sum spot. I've tried dim sum in the LA area, Garden Grove area, and other prime Asian spots, but find China Garden to be the most authentic dim sum around. Their portions are just the right size and flavor on point. My favorite dishes to eat here are the har gow (the casing does not get too mushy or fall apart), chee cheong fun (the sauce included is not too salty) and their xiao long pao. My most favorite part of the meal, however, is the chili. I always have to ask for a chili to go and stock up on! Sure, the wait can get long and service is not always the best, but what else do you expect from a typical dim sum establishment! read more