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Name Of Establishment	China Garden Restaurant
Address:	829 W. Pacheco Blvd. Los Banos, CA 93635
Phone Number:	(209) 827-3789
Website:	Unknown
Prices:	Low to Moderate
Date Of Review:	August 2006
Check out the Official Merced County Health Inspection of this Restaurant - If that link isn't working try this link (note: these links are slow to load)
Our Overall Numeric Rating
Summation Opinion: Works if you're in the mood for Chinese and want some variety.

In August 2006, we made our second visit to China Garden Restaurant. Our first visit hadn't been very memorable so, in truth, we weren't looking forward to having do our review. However, this time around we actually left quite pleased. I guess we must have hit them on a "bad" day the first time, but they certainly made a much better showing this time around.

We entered the restaurant and were quickly seated at a booth in a far corner. The place looks like it was a "steak house" at one time or something similar. The decor didn't strike me as very fancy or especially attractive, but did at least appear to be clean. We were served our sodas and given time to look over the menu.

China Garden has a variety of typical of a Chinese restaurant choices. We decided on a combination dinner for a very reasonable $5.75 per person. Our meal included soup, fried shrimp, BBQ pork fried rice, chicken chow mein and sweet & sour pork. We also decided to try some of China Garden's appetizers. We ordered a combination plate of egg rolls, "crab meat cheese" (a sort of deep fried dumpling with crabmeat and cheese filling) and chicken wings.

We didn't have to wait long before our appetizers arrived. These were just outstanding. In fact the appetizers turned out to be one of the most memorable and delicious parts of the meal! I think I could go back and just order a plate of the fried dumplings with cream cheese and crab and eat nothing else! Seriously though, the appetizers were done just right. The egg roll wrapper was crisp but delicate and flaky, the dumplings' filling was a wonderful contrast to their deep fried outsides and the chicken was very flavorful. I was pleased that nothing was too greasy as deep fried items can sometimes be.

Before we finished off our appetizers we were served soup. Frankly, the soup wasn't my personal favorite. It was just your typical "Chinese" restaurant kind of soup with interesting (*ahem*) floating things such as egg and bits of celery or vegetable. My husband finished mine off.

After our appetizers and soup it was time for the main course. There was a small wait in between these but nothing interminable. The main course portions that were brought out were pretty big and we dug right in.

Both of use enjoyed the rice, chow mein, shrimp and pork. Just like the appetizers, the shrimp was cooked just right and not overly greasy. The breading on each prawn was crispy and textured. The sweet and sour pork wasn't too sweet and had the "bright" red color Americans expect such a dish to have. I'm sure it's not that way in China, but hey, it looks right to me.

We were actually quite pleased with the quality of the food. It's not the "best" Chinese we've ever had by far, but it was pretty good and the quantity was enough so that we ended up taking some home. We would have done so even if we hadn't eaten any appetizers. That in my book is a pretty good deal. We remain appreciative of the very reasonable prices.

The service we received throughout our visit was pretty good. Our sodas were usually filled up promptly and our server was attentive but not obtrusive. The staff seemed friendly and was helpful throughout our visit. We had to wait a little bit to long for our bill, but it wasn't so long that it was too much of an inconvenience.

All in all, I can say we had a very pleasant dinner at China Garden. We were happy that they have greatly improved since our first visit. Although China Garden probably won't be on our list for "special" days like anniversaries or birthdays, it will certainly hit the spot when we are in the mood for Chinese and want some variety. It's also a decent place to take the kids as it has a kind of "family" feel and isn't "pretentious". We hope future visits for us are consistent with this last visit, rather than the first, and hope the same for you too!

Specific Opinions By Reviewer One
Overall Rating :
Food:
Service:
Decor:
Price/Value:
Bathroom Cleanliness:
Romance Factor:
Family Friendliness:

Specific Opinions By Reviewer Two
Overall Rating :
Food:	Great appetizers!
	Main Course
Service:
Decor:	Nothing fancy, but clean.
Price/Value:
Bathroom Cleanliness:		Not Observed
Romance Factor:
Family Friendliness:

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Reviews in this section are simply personal opinions. We are sharing these, our experiences and opinions as a means to further discussion in our Los Banos Forums section not to promote or discommend any particular business. In fact we absolutely encourage our readers to make a personal visit to each of the restaurants we review and form your own opinion which (if it is respectful and honest) you are encouraged to post on the Los Banos Bulletin Boards where you are also welcome to discus OUR reviews.

More About Our Los Banos Restaurant Reviews

In this section, the staff of Our Los Banos .com shares our personal opinions on the restaurants that we patronize in the City of Los Banos. We would like to stress that we are not professional reviewers, that we have had little or no training in the food arts, and that we are simply expressing our own personal views and opinions on particular visits that we made to the establishments under consideration.

Subjectivity. We make no pretense of the fact that we are not objective. As with art, food is a subjective experience subject to personal opinion and even whim. Some people love a particular artist's work while others can not stand what is put on canvas. Picasso comes to mind. Similarly people's appreciation for a particular chef's abilities are uniquely their own. While our tastes are very eclectic and we enjoy a tremendous variety of different types of food, we do not expect our readers will agree with all of our opinions and views. We DO encourage our readers to try each of the places that we have reviewed and then you can discuss (politely and in a positive fashion) your experiences and opinion of our review in the Los Banos Forum section.

Merced County Health Food Facility Inspections Site

Finally, we strongly encourage our readers to make use of a truly wonderful online resource we discovered last year. Merced County has put together a very cool Food Facility Inspection website which discloses the results of the County Health Department's last few inspections of each restaurant. The results are sometimes quite fascinating and are always interesting. Beware however you may not want to eat at certain places once you read some of the more dramatic entries. We at Our Los Banos .com very much appreciate and support the county of Merced putting these Department of Health food facility inspections online for the public to see.

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