Szechwan Garden

Food is a little above average and price is very reasonable/​affordable. Good portion size, too. We usually order their noodles (beef soup noodles, Dan Dan noodle, and minced pork noodle) with little cold dishes. I’ve seen other customers who just order white rice and cold dishes, which is a good idea because it’s very affordable and fulfilling. Service is friendly and there is always seats and parking whenever we go. A good place to grab a quick yet satisfying bite without breaking your wallet.

Wow, seriously probably the worst Chinese food I’ve ever had… seriously I prefer Panda Express over this place… and we’re Asian so we know how Chinese food is supposed to taste. I don’t even think Non-​Asians would like the food. Our bill was close to $ 50, we took one bite from 2 of the dishes and just left them, we packed the chow mein but that’s only cuz my toddler loves any kind of noodles so he will eat it as leftovers. How do you mess up chow mein!!! I could tell as soon as it came out by the color of the noodles that something was wrong. The only thing we liked was the cold appetizer dish. But I’m glad I tried place, always wondered about the food, now I know to never ever go back. Also it took like 30mins for the first dish to come out which is odd since it never takes more 10min for noodle dishes. The service was nice, servers were friendly though.
My husband’s exact words «I know I ate but I don’t know what and I’m still hungry». So we just stopped by Carl’s Jr and got a western bacon cheeseburger.

The food is pretty good, but service is mediocre. If you’re gonna try it for the first time, I recommend taking a person who know Chinese food. When I asked for recommendations, he said no :/

Side dishes are the best. Yummy green onion pan fried cake. Noodle dishes are good too.

#16 (dan dan mein) and #75(twice cooked pork) is a must
one of most popular szechwan foods i believe
sooooooo good!

decent szechwan food with the spice of pepper and small dishes.
got several dishes to share for 2.
–dan dan mien: tastes different from other dan dan mien I’ve had. no peanut sauce but a spicy numbing peppery chile sauce with minced pork and shredded cucumbers. it was a little bland and noodles were a little on the soft side.
–beef roll: crispy pancakes wrapped with cold cut beef and cilantro. simple and delicious
–xiao lung bao: these pork dumplings come in 4. skin was very soft and overcooked.
overall ok. decent if you are craving szechwan food.

My favorite item on the menu: dan dan noodles!!! Get it. Your tongue might be numb from the chili oil afterward but it’s worth it. Don’t forget to get a side of their peanuts too!

We used to come here for lunch. The food wasn’t great but it was okay for the price. We called ahead to get the pan fried buns since it’s going to take longer to prepare this dish.
We got there. The waitress told us they haven’t started it yet. Due to our one hour lunch, we told her to forget it. 5 mins after we ordered the food, she stopped to tell her the buns will be ready soon. We were surprised and told her we don’t want it anymore. She was nice enough not to pursue it further.
I ordered the spicy cold noodle. It was super salty and the noodles are so firm that tastes like yesterday’s leftover. My friend’s yunan noodles were supposed to be spicy. It’s has no flavor. No wonder we stopped coming here. One may remember ones mistake!

Prompt service and low price. the one complaint is some of the cold appetizers are not that fresh. overall it’s a recommended place to go.

This is an incredible hidden gem in the Cerritos area.
I can’t believe that this place has been literally down the street from my house all this time and I never knew about it. It’s in the very back of a little strip mall (which is still slightly run down but getting better!), which is probably why I never saw it.
The restaurant itself is very small and probably only has seating for about 30 people. The good news is that I have never seen this place super crowded (which is because most people don’t know about this place).
Get their dan dan noodles. Szechwan food is definitely on the spicier side, so be warned if you’ve never had it before (or request no spice). The noodles are always fresh and service is extremely prompt. Their side dishes are excellent as well!
Be forewarned that many of the servers here speak limited English, so bring along a Mandarin speaking friend if you have more detailed questions.

The restaurant has passed hands several times.
And because time and people change, one should give the Garden another visit to see the family who runs it now. Because of your visits, one does feel like family eating at the Garden. The noodles are always prepared fresh each morning, with the soup base, noodles, veggies, meats, and amenities prepared to a tasty mix.
Even If you’re unable to sit for the visit, there is always take out so ask for a good amount to take home and with family with friends. Just like all the noodles in China has a style of their own, the style of foods available here has been tailored to your taste, just be sure to ask with a smile.
You will share the time here smiling with friends speaking a combination of Mandarin, Taiwanese, Cantonese, and of course English.

I haven’t been here in a long time, and I figured I’d stop by with family to try it out once more. Wrong decision.
The environment is clean/​good hospitality, but the commendations end here. We ordered what was highly recommended by other Unilocalers, including but not limited to: jajung noodles, pork with hot pickled mustard noodles (榨菜肉絲麵), steamed meat bread (生煎包), and hand biscuit (抓餅). First off, they gave us the wrong food, which they were kind enough to take back (they gave us an extra noodle (dan dan mian) which we didn’t order). Our order of hand biscuit never came. Among what we ordered, the prices of the noodles were as is: $ 6.25 and $ 6.85. The steamed meat bread were priced at $ 2.95 for 4 pieces. What came with the order were 8 pieces.
Sidenote: the meat in the steamed meat bread was sour, bread was stale and the bottom was burnt to a crisp (carcinogenic much?).
Granted, one would think: ooh, nice, there are more than what I ordered! However, the final bill stated otherwise. The total bill came to ~$ 27ish with the addition of tax. If you think about it, we only had 3 things (because the hand biscuit never came), and this would be nowhere near the total price of the bill. When we brought it up with the cashier, he told us, «oh, the menu is written wrong.» I asked him what the breakdown was of each item, and he wrote wrong prices ($ 7.20 for the noodle soups, and $ 9.50 for the steamed meat bread). Great. Unfortunately, the family decided to just «go with the flow» and pay the wrong amount. I was fuming. What a shady and unethical business model (no wonder the ratings went down to a B cleanliness). I will NEVER come here again. I feel duped of my money; moreover, the food itself was bad and probably old.
TL;DR: Came to try it out, left with a sour feeling of money lost and unfresh food in stomach.
Do Not Recommend. I will never come here ever again.

It’s a real hole in the wall, which I find to be the hidden treasures. I was really craving a flavorful beef noodle soup and this place definitely provided it. It’s #1 in the menu, and it was a good balance of spice and flavor I was looking for. I also ordered a «beef burrito» which is also delicious. There was a lot of parsley, but it didn’t overwhelm the flavors. The people that work there don’t know that much English, but are smiling and ready to serve.
The ambience was quiet, and most of the customers were family. Went with my mom and we shared the meal. It was filling and again I was extremely satisfied.

Sichuan pepper is the reason one goes to a Szechwan restaurant — to experience that tingling sensation around the lips, the numbness on the tongue and the aromatic flavor that it brings to the dish! Here, at Szechwan Garden, you’ll find only a few dishes seasoned with it and it’s marked with a chili pepper next to it on the menu.
If it’s your first time here and you like noodles, I highly recommend their style of dan dan noodles. It’s served with some minced meat and julienne sliced cucumbers. And, yes, it’s seasoned with Sichuan peppers! Be sure to mix well before enjoying!
What’s also cool about this place is they have the ever so famous sichuan-​style spicy roasted peanuts, spicy sliced beef stomach, spicy pig ears, smoked pig’s tongue, and seaweed seasoned with garlic. You’ll find them displayed at the glass counter top next to the cashier. You can choose 3 for $ 4.50 or order it a la carte.
The main waitress can speak some English as well and they have plenty of helpful pictures on the wall. Or you can just look at what others are having and enjoying and say I’ll have what they’re having. Kidding aside, their signature dishes are their dan dan noodles and beef noodles.
Plenty of parking in the plaza.

This is the place for real Chinese dish. Always have the cold appetizer combo and It’s only $ 4.15.
Tried their beef noodle soup (½meat & ½tendon) this time. We were surprised by the generous portion. For me, I thought the soup was a little too salty, while my friend said it was perfectly seasoned.

Came here with my friend for the first time, we wanted some spicy food. We ordered the beef burrito, Dan Dan noodles, and fish fillet and bean curd in spicy sauce.
Beef Burrito — it’s not bad, I like the crispiness. the beef filling was okay, nothing special.
Dan Dan Noodles — the noodles was cooked perfectly, there’s a right amount of heat in the sauce.
Fish Fillet and Bean Curd in Spicy Sauce — the dish was decent. the spicy sauce had a good amount of spiciness but pretty oily and the fish was cooked well. although, they used tofu instead of bean curd.
So why such low rating? there was a roach crawling by our table, so that was disgusting. Just because of that I definitely won’t be going back.

Ever since we visited Chengdu, China and tasted real Szechwan food, We’ve been on a hunt for real Chinese food. We’ve also never gone back to Panda since :)
The food here is just like it was in China. The best things to try here are Dandan Noodles, Dumplings in spicy oil, Beef noodle soup. Their Cold appetizers are very good too. There’s a decent bit of szechwan pepper in everything and it’ll tingle your mouth. The pancakes here are pretty awesome especially the thousand layer pancake.
The hosts are very warm and would start to recognize you after couple of visits. They speak just enough english to get by.
This is easily our favorite Chinese place to eat outside China!

After having sampled Szechuan style Chinese food at Sue’s Kitchen in Torrance I was on the lookout for something similar around Cerritos for my daily lunch rotation. A quick search on Unilocal threw up Szechwan Garden so I stopped by for lunch a couple of days ago. Szechwan Garden is located in the same plaza as Thailicious so I knew the location to be close to work and that parking was plentiful. At the peak lunch hour there were three occupied tables in the restaurant. Upon entering I was greeted and pointed to take any empty seat. The table looked rundown with the plastic top being held in place with scotch tape, but it was clean.
Next I was given a menu and hot tea. I got a jolt when I went through the menu — it seemed to be an exact mirror image of the menu at Sue’s Kitchen. All the dishes are the same, the prices are the same. Looking around I felt that the setup of the restaurant was also the same — some art on the walls and cold dish serving station et al. I walked over to the cold serving station and got some sea weed, peanuts and beef tongue all for a paltry sum of $ 4. Next I also asked for dan dan noodles ($ 4.95) as that was the second most popular dish at Sue’s Kitchen after the beef noodle soup which I had already had.
I was expecting dry noodles with a dipping sauce but this turned out to be noodles that were sitting on a bed of mince meat and hot oil. I tried to ask the server about the protein in the dish but could not understand the response so I just went ahead and mixed it up and ate it against my better judgment — anyway it was very good. The portion size of the dan dan noodles is huge so unless you are very hungry keep away from the cold dishes or like me you will end up with a lot of leftovers.
Service was fine considering that the lone server cum cashier could not speak any English at all. They do accept cards but there is a $ 10 or $ 15 minimum so its practically cash only. I will be back to try out some more stuff off their menu.

Come here for noodles! and some side dishes/​appetizers.
Dan Dan mien was my favorite dish. The flavor was good and the noodles were perfectly chewy.
Schezuan cold noodles were a disappointment. I love cold noodles but this dish just had way too much peanut butter in it. I was felt so gross after.
Green mustard and pork noodle soup was ok. Very light compared to the other dishes they have.
Pork chop rice … yeah stay away from this. Just order their noodles.
Hot & sour soup was alright. Not the best but not the worst. It was a little watered down but it was still spicy & sour.
Overall, I would say stick to their Schezuan and noodle dishes. But stay away from the cold noodles unless it was just on my plate that they dabbed a little too much pb.

The unpleasant smell that I apparently noticed well over two years ago is still there (!), though when we pointed it out as we were being seated, they opened the door and it seemed to dissipate (or we just built up a tolerance to it). The staff is really nice (especially the very sweet server), and don’t be alarmed if you hear lots of yelling coming from the kitchen; it’s not drama, just… very loud talking.
The mapo doufu is great and pretty ma la (numbing), so beware if you don’t like that. Luckily I do. The gan bian si ji dou (dry fried green beans) is also outstanding, though they use sliced pork instead of minced/​ground and do without the dried shrimp. The hong you chao sou (wontons in chili oil) are a highlight and the si zi tou (lion’s head meatballs) are consistently good. The guo tie (pan fried dumplings) are a little oily and less crispy than I like them, but other than that, they’re good. The cong you bing, again, I still think to be a little lacking in flavor/​saltiness. But overall, this is really great Sichuan food, and they are actually from Sichuan so they know how to do it.