Rose Garden

The best Chinese food I’ve had in Gainesville and Alachua County. Service is great very tasty food great atmosphere buffet is on point. I recommend it to anyone who really loves some good tasting Chinese food

We were so very happy that we found a nice Chinese restaurant in our area with delicious food and with such a nice staff – and now we are so very disappointed. We ate in the Rose Garden twice in the last week. The first time, we dined in. We ordered three dinners from the a la carte menu (including extra soups, spring rolls, and egg rolls). On the second visit dining in, we ordered two dinners from the menu with orders of soups and egg rolls. Then, near the end of this second visit, we ordered four more dinners and four soups to take home. All of the meals on both visits that were ordered to be eaten in the restaurant were delicious (fresh, well-​cooked, perfectly seasoned). Of the four take-​out dinner orders, only one order was acceptable. The other meals were over-​cooked, with few vegetables (even for one vegetarian option), and very nearly inedible. The food was so bad, and so unlike the dinners that we were served in the restaurant (and took home for leftovers in a doggy bag), that we have begun to wonder if we might have been been sold food to take home that was just unsold food that had been served at some earlier buffet in the restaurant. Other than the «doggy bag food» which we ate, the rest of the food is being taken to the road for garbage pick-​up right now. We were so disgusted that we did not even open the containers of take-​out soups. The dine-​in soups were delicious, and the take-​out soups might have been just as good, but we did not want to risk finding out. This restaurant has too much potential to allow this sort of thing to happen with their take-​out food. I hope that this is an isolated incident and the restaurant owners make certain that in the future they take as much care with their take-​out food as they do with their excellent dining in options.

I ordered a Shrimp Fried rice and it ended up being rice with some shrimp and it didn’t taste good at all, it didn’t have any vegetables like a normal shrimp fried rice would and the shrimp were not deveined. We ate it because we were hungry and in in a road trip. I also ordered spring rolls and ended up getting rolls with vegetables and pork, and the crab Rangoon were just cream cheese inside without any hints of crab. When I got the order I was looking in my bag for utensils and she said that they were inside the bag and walked off, when I looked, there were only 2 spoons and no forks, so since she walked away, I saw a box with plastic forks and I reached in to grab two so I could leave, and she was bothered by the fact that I was reaching in. Then she walked off again and there were no napkins, so she tells me with a bit of an attitude, «what else do you need!» I told her that I needed napkins and she handed them to me and I walked away. I do not recommend this restaurant to anyone. Terrible food and terrible service!

excellent food. great service. smaller buffet but the food is great. reasonably priced. Best asian restaurant in Alachua

I have never had dinner, but lunch is consistently good. The buffet is small, and the selection somewhat limited, but it is always fresh. They put out small quantities, and refill them frequently.
They only have a limited number of items on the bar, but there is always a vegetarian option, and always at least one beef, one pork, and one chicken, plus standbys like General Tsos chicken, egg rolls, and egg drop soup. There is also a modest salad bar and dessert bar.
The prices are very reasonable, and you can get a to-​go buffet, paying by the pound.
Service is good, though sometimes the single server gets overwhelmed during a rush.
Décor is minimal, the dining room is small and utilitarian, but it is clean and the owners are kind and friendly.
My only criticisms are that they don’t vary the buffet options very often, it’s almost always the same items, and there are not enough non-​fried options.
All in all, a great place for an inexpensive and quick lunch.

What a great value. They have a very small buffet but it has a really good selection and is fresh. It only costs $ 8.95 for dinner. Wow. Bargain.
Did I mention fresh? Yes, no stale it’s been under a heat lamp for two hours food. Fresh.
There was Chinese BBQ ribs, generals chicken, moo goo gai pan, international beef, sweet and sour chicken, egg drop soup, sweet and sour pork, crab rangoon, regular rice, fried rice, noodles, sweet and sour shrimp, and arguably some of the best chicken wings I’ve ever had. Seriously the wings are great. They are lightly coated in oriental spices and deep fried to a crispy perfection.
There was also a micro salad bar with some fruit. I can’t remember three or four more entrees that were on the buffet. It’s hell getting old.
The owners/​staff are very friendly, courteous, and pleasant. Seating is quick, your dirty plates disappear fast, and your bill comes to the table promptly.
We also ordered some orange chicken to bring home for my daughter who wasn’t up for going out. It was also very good. She particularly liked it because it wasn’t spicy.
The décor is plain and simple but the tables are kept and the silverware is clean.
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Love this place. Never had a bad meal from here. Owners very nice and personable. Prices are great and food is made fast.

The other reviews are spot on. This place was a great rest stop lunch for us on our adventure from Tampa to Ginnie Springs. We ordered the vegetable fried rice, broccoli stir fry, and tofu stir fry. All were awesome and came out fresh. On top of that, the sweet server we had was beyond wonderful. She was so kind and observant without being too intrusive. Our next trip to Ginnie we will most definitely stop here!

The food and price are both good, very good deal.

I’ve tried items from their take out and even buffet. They have not failed me in taste.
I love this family-​owned restaurant for their: 1 — Amazing egg drop soup (the hot and sour is also great!) by far, one the best tasting I have had. It’s thick, well seasoned and doesn’t leave a weird oily after taste like most places’ soup does. 2 — The service, very nice and attentive people. The owner is such a sweet lady.

Yummy! Sorry it took me so long to try this restaurant. They are super nice and will let me order a spicy entrée with less heat/​spice.

The family owned and operated Rose Garden moved into the old Maui Teriyaki space this past fall, and it’s a welcome addition to Alachua’s food options. They made the interior look so much better and cleaner compared to Maui Teriyaki. It doesn’t look or feel like the old space at all. With the closing of some of the better restaurants in town, it’s nice to have a reliably good place to eat at. At my first visit, I was so excited to see that this is a sit-​down Chinese restaurant. It seems like the majority of Chinese restaurants to pop up around central Florida are the take-​out variety with identical menus.
You can always order off the menu, but at peak times they operate a condensed buffet. The smaller buffet allows them to focus on quality as opposed to quantity. The options on their buffet are Chinese restaurant staples you would expect to see. I think it would be great for them to highlight one house specialty on their buffet each day, that way they could introduce their guests to their other menu options, while still allowing everyone to have something they know about. Generally they are not slammed, and their service if fast. How places like Brown’s Country Buffet can be packed while much higher quality food is down the street is beyond me. What they do is reliable, fast, and affordable.
I would like to see them focus on preparing some «fine» dinning options. You can tell the chef has the standards down pat, but seeing a focus on house specialties would be icing on the cake. Given the location and potential audience, though, that kind of idea might not take off. Sadly, some people just want buffet action by the pound.