Chinese Gardens

Chinese Gardens and Lounge is located at 5207 E Trent Ave. This is another one of those restaurants we pass by and wonder about. Now we know...

It was very interesting to go here, a lot different than I expected. First of all, there were a lot of cars in the parking lot. It sure seemed to be a popular place.Once inside, we were quickly greeted and given a table. The people around us were all quite happy, eating, laughing and it was apparent that people like it here. It felt like one of those places where the clientele knew the patrons and had a bit of a rapport. There were several families and at one table it was a man who was taking his dad to dinner... it was not a very fancy place, rather down to earth, and it was very welcoming. They even had a little trinket shop.

The food was good. Geo had Mapo Tofu, which on their menu is called "Granny's" Tofu. He liked it a lot. I ordered a combination plate of Kung Pao Chicken and Chow Mein that came with white rice and we had hot tea too. It was cold and rainy outside and hot tea just sounded good.

I have to say that to me it was not a very interesting menu. It seemed like limited choices making it hard to choose what I wanted to order. I have to say too, that I struggle with understanding why it is that you cannot get the dishes you like together on a combination plate in Chinese food places as opposed to say, a Mexican Food restaurant where you can pick your items in a combo. Also, we thought the prices were high.

It was rather expensive too, at least in my opinion. An average dish or appetizer was $10.00 to $12.oo. Even the daily "special", was $9.95, which in my opinion is expensive. I did see that they have some kind of senior discount, but I do not remember what it was. Geo saw it and reminded me that it would not be too long before we qualified for that!

It took a long time for our order to arrive, but to their credit, food was tasty, I will complain though my food arrived cold and that was a little disappointing for me. I almost asked the waitress if they had a microwave, but I didn't. as I was afraid they would offer instead to make me a new dish and then I would be there a longer time waiting without food or something. (That has happened to me before.) Geo's was not cold though and he thought it was excellent in flavor.

Over all, this is just a place to stop for some Chinese food, nothing outstanding or really special, unless of course you are hungry and in the neighborhood. Geo is of a slightly different opinion though due to the fact that he really, really liked the "Granny" dish.