Tasty Garden

As far as I know they changed owner three times already and I tried each of them. It seems the current is better than the previous in terms of the taste of the food and the price.

This restaurant is under new ownership. Everyone, including the chef, is new. My family came here for New Year’s Eve dinner and we were surprised to see all the dishes we typically order come out different and no where near as good. It looks like they are trying to work under the reputation of the previous owners for now, but the difference in the quality of food is a dead giveaway. We ordered a walnut shrimp dish which was drenched in mayonnaise and had a rubbery coating. We also ordered a tofu dish which also was very rubbery and tasteless. A couple other dishes we ordered were not bad, but simply average. Our waitress never cleared our table. It took 10 minutes to get boxes and another 10 minutes to get the bill. This is essentially a new restaurant with staff that are just learning the job. We do not plan on coming back.

My parents discovered Tasty Garden and took me to it a couple of days ago. There were a good number of people there, including Cantonese-​speakers (always a plus when you’re looking for authentic Cantonese food). The restaurant was clean and the staff was attentive and friendly (usually not the norm for Chinese restaurants). We were quickly seated and brought tea and menus.
We ordered the stir-​fried rice noodles with beef, seafood casserole with tofu, and the chicken and salty fish with chives. The food was comfortable, not too oily but still flavorful. The noodles were fairly typical, so that oily greasy goodness that you probably want at 1 AM instead of at dinner. The shrimp and tofu in the seafood casserole were great. There was a little too much imitation crab and it was on the gooier side. There wasn’t much salty fish in the chicken and salty fish with chives, which is good because I’m not a fan of salty fish, but for the price, I expected more fish. However, I did love the flavor of the chives and the chicken was well-​cooked. All in all, we enjoyed the food.
Bonus #1: Like a good Cantonese restaurant, they gave us the sweet taro tapioca soup at the end and it was delicious. However, my parents said this was the first time they got it so unclear whether this is a permanent thing or if it was just for the holidays.
Bonus #2: The restrooms are spacious, clean, and smell nice. Hard to come by at Chinese restaurants! Also enjoyed the wall mural in front of them.
Bonus #3: The owner, an elderly gentleman, speaks fantastic English.
I would’ve given Tasty Garden 3.5 stars, but because of the bonus factors, I’m rounding it up to 4. The restaurant didn’t wow me, but for the area, it’s probably as good as it gets.

Authentic and tasty Cantonese Chinese food. I’ve always ordered for carry out and never dined in so I don’t have any service issues to share. I go in, they acknowledge me, I pick up the food, take it home and it is delicious. I was really deterred from going initially cause of all the negative reviews, I’m so glad I gave them a chance. Not going to find any better Cantonese Chinese food restaurants in northern Montgomery County…

Overall taste of food and service is ok, could be better. It used to be better when they first opened. They are starting to be inconsistent with the taste and quality of the food. I was initially very pleased with the squid with sour cabbage dish when the restaurant first opened but the last time I ordered it, it was disappointing… too sweet and needed a little more salt.

Good place to try! Food are good not the best but good enough! Nice and sweet stuffs, friendly owner!

I’m hooked! At first I thought the reviews are overrated, but alas! Looks like I found a new fave! One thing I love is that they have Fujian fried rice, this is not your usual fried rice that you typically see in other restaurants, the plus side on this establishing is that the service is great and the people are friendly, something that you don’t usually associate with chinese restaurants. The only thing that I didn’t like is the bbq pork, needs a lot of improvement.

An old co-​worker of mine mentioned this place to me, and I, of course had to come try it. Looking at the reviews, I didn’t have high hopes, but my mom wanted to try it just in case.
We ordered our two favorite dishes, beef and gai lan pan fried noodles (Cantonese style chow mein, not that American yucky stuff) and assorted meat and seafood casserole (also known as eight treasures in Chinese). My mother was so happy about the noodle dish that she immediately started talking about the next time we come here and what to try next. Well, the matriarch has spoken. Any Chinese food place that gets my mom’s approval, gets 4 stars from me. The casserole was a little bland, but there was fish in it! Not your usual mix at all and that made us both happy.
Price wise, the place was a little weird. The noodles and soups were on par with other places, but my casserole was $ 17. Can you say sticker shock? They also don’t have roast pork, the one with the crispy skin and they seem to be missing a lot of seafood dishes I’ve become accustomed to at Cantonese restaurants.
Also, service was normal for a Chinese restaurant. There were only Chinese patrons for a Thursday night, a good sign in my mind. Service always varies in places like these depending on how busy and… other cultural reasons. Oh well, what can you do for good food?

I swear I am probably the most useless person when it comes to reviewing Chinese restaurants. I don’t read the menu, I just talk to the staff or I have my family order. I’m particularly picky when it comes to Chinese food being that I’m Chinese myself. We ordered the gui fei chicken which was fresh but the bones were a little bit shattered and they were not chopped very cleanly so every bite had a lifestyle piece of bone. And they were very stingy on the ginger oil. How do you eat gui fei chicken without the ginger oil!
We also ordered the crispy beef which was over cooked and a little too sweet. I’d much prefer this dish at yu zhou which is ALWAYS perfect.
Overall it’s ok. But there are definitely much better Chinese restaurants in the area for your authentic Chinese food cravings.

Very impressive for Gaithersburg/​Germantown area. It’s not often I find authentic Chinese cuisine up here. Usually I have to go to Rockville or into VA. The on rice dishes are a heck of a deal.

I thought I gave this restaurant a try since XO Taste closed. I brought my friends and family for dinner at this place and boy I was very disappointed about some of the dishes I had.
First I tried to order Beef Chow Foon, after all their Chinese name for this restaurant means Rice Noodle Village. But they told me they were out of rice noodle! The Hong Kong Style Lobsters dish was overcooked and the meat in the shells were tough and dry. Also there were hardly any beef in the Steak with Black Pepper Sauce dish.
Another surprise I had was they charged us for few extra bowls of white rice I ordered. I have been eating most of the authentic Chinese restaurants in this area and I have never had to pay for extra white rice, especially after I ordered couple hundred dollars worth of food.
Well that was our first and last time there!

Not only was the place dirty and unsanitary (utensils and glassware had stains on them) but my food was cold in the middle. The meat seemed like it was pre cooked and someone had just microwaved it, and u throughly at that.

This used to be XO taste. They closed it down for some time and my partner and I anxiously stood on stand by. Finally the establishment opened, but under a different name and ownership. Nonetheless, we decided to give it a try.
I have actually been here on 2 separate occasions. Both times were very good.
The first time I was with my partner who loves XO taste. Our favorite is Full Kee in Wheaton but since moving to the Rockville area, we haven’t really had time to go to our favorite spots. We have looked for Hong Kong style and Cantonese for a long time now, and Rockville, Gaithersburg and Germantown have nothing good. NOTHING.
We ordered shrimp dumpling noodle soup, walnut prawns, spicy salted squid. Everything was good. But the shrimp dumpling soup was very bland. And probably not something I would get again.
The second time, I came with my Cantonese mother. We ordered steamed cod with ginger and scallions (normally we’d order the flounder but they ran out of small flounders), roasted duck and Chinese broccoli with garlic. Everything was good. You can tell they use less salt then some other places which is great. The duck is good here but not the best. It’s a little fattier than some other places.
It’s definitely the best Cantonese option for when you can’t get out to Wheaton or VA.
It seems like the beef chow fun here is a popular choice, and looks fantastic. Definitely trying it next time around!
The service is always good here. Prompt, friendly and consistent.
The prices are fair.
The restaurant is clean and an open layout.
Our go to while we are living in this area!

Wow, rarely do I ever review immediately after I eat somewhere since I like to sit back and think about my experience to make sure to right about things that were memorable.
This place was awful. First, the way they cleaned my table. They used water from someone’s drinking glass poured it on to the table and began wiping the table down. Disgusting. But because it was busy I am willing to look past that disgustingness.
We waited about 5 minutes before even getting tea or water or even being talked to. Finally when a waitress came we took our order, but still no tea. After 10 minutes, another waiter came to give us our tea. We ordered 2 lobsters cooked in dry seasonings, beef chow fun, seafood pan fried noodles, clams in black bean sauce (which we asked to be extra spicy), and crispy spicy pork chops.
The beef chow fun came to the table within 10 minutes of ordering, it was rather bland, so we tried asking for chili oil. It took my dad 5 attempts of getting a server or hosts attention. He had to get up from the table go to the host table to ask them fro the chili. No one would pay attention to us. The host and hostess were too busy talking and hanging out with each other to notice that we needed help. It was crowded, every table was taken. But that is still not an excuse. If you are a new restaurant, you need to hire more servers for that beginning rush. There was about three servers that I saw, but there was at least 6 – 9 staff around doing something or other.
After the chow fun, we got our clams. Just to know a little about my clam in black bean sauce background, this is my favorite Chinese dish. I always get this at a restaurant, it is known in my family. I was super disappointed by this. The clams were very sandy and none of the meat stayed in the shell. We got so many empty shells. I don’t feel like the meat within the sauce matched the amount of shells in the dish. The whole point of actually having the shells with the dish is for the ecstatic factor, plus you can scoop up the sauce to eat with the clam meat. The sauce had sand in it, it was not even spicy. I feel like they might have reused the shells in the sauce and added in frozen clam meat. My dad said the reason the meat would not stay in the clam was because they were overcooked. This was a disappointing dish, but sadly not the most disappointing.
We got the seafood pan-​fried noodles. There was a massive amount of noodles, but I feel like that seafood bits were very big too. It was a nice fish, but plain. My parents found it salty. I found it bland.
After those things were done, we waited a while before our lobster and pork chops to come out. My dad asked the owner about where our food was. After he asked, they both came out. The pork chops were cold. My dad took a bite and said that out loud, the waiter offered to take it back to heat it up. My dad touched it with his hand and dismissed the offer. The pork chops were not spicy or crispy. I feel like Taste Garden does not understand what spicy means. It was meh. I actually found the pork chops sweet. To me it tasted like there was cocoa powder on it, like hot chocolate powder. I had one and I didn’t want it anymore.
The lobster was something we were excited about. It also was a disappointment and a disgusting dish. There was a part of a rubber band in the dish, mixed in with the dry seasonings. The lobster was also sweet tasting and should have been hotter in temperature. It was like it was out sitting and cooling off.
I had to stop eating because I was disgusted by the rubber band and the food and the unsanitary aspects of the restaurant. They use Windex to clean the tables, I feel like they should at least use a disinfecting cleanser? My dad mentioned to the server that there was a rubber band and she apologized and explained that it was from a claw and it was a mistake. There was no offer of a discount or anything. Granted we did finish the dish, but really we found a rubber band. We just don’t like to waste food.
Already about 30 minutes after leaving the restaurant, I am not feeling well and I am worried about having stomach issues from this place.
We are not coming back here, I honestly like the last owners better than this place. My family is never returning here it sucked. I think the fact that they are new really worries me.

Personally I think this new Cantonese restaurant deserves way more than the average 3 stars rating that it currently has on Unilocal.
As the previous two owners failed to deliver consistent good quality food, we hesitated to try this new place. But we are glad we gave it a try as the new owner is definitely trying hard to improve things in every way.
The restaurant was renovated and the décor is modern and very nicely designed.
Unlike most of the traditional Chinese restaurant, We received friendly and prompt service. One of the servers (who recognized us from another restaurant) humbly asked us what we thought of the food and what they could improve.
The food we got were delicious.
beef chow foon: Can taste the «wok hey». The noodle texture is just right. Not too salty or greasy.
Salt and pepper shrimp: we asked for shrimp with no shell. They served us with jumbo shrimp with was fresh and crispy. One of the best salt pepper shrimp I have had.
roast duck and bbq pork: Roast duck got crispy skin which was yummy. Bbq pork isn’t too sweet like how some other places make it and it got the right proportion of fat and lean meat so it wasn’t too greasy or tough.
Free taro tapioca dessert: actually pretty good. Not too sweet. Could taste taro in the soup and actually has chunks of taro.
We are just happy that we finally have a decent Cantonese restaurant in the area. We hope the quality will stay consistent as we plan to go there regularly!

It’s funny of how many people gives bad review and still post it on Unilocal,When there is a 5 star then it will be take down somehow. But this is for ones that don’t know about food and expect more than what they’ve got; if you think the food is bad and over price!!! STAY home and cook your dmn self… Don’t just write whatever n think it’s ok… be fair and be honest.

Decent for the Germantown area, but still a bit below Rockville standard. We stopped by here for New Year’s Eve dinner and had a chance to try six dishes. The portion size was smaller than other Chinese/​Cantonese restaurants at the same price, but the flavor is heavy, which is good if you like to mix a lot of rice with your lunch/​dinner. Don’t be fooled by my pictures, as I zoomed in to make the portion size look much larger than they really are.
The service was forgettable, as they consistently forgot our request for hot tea, forks/​spoons, hot water, cold water, and so forth. They also wouldn’t let us sit until the entire party gets there, which is the case for certain restaurants (especially in NYC and parts of DC), but rare for a restaurant in Germantown of all places. Bizarre.
As for the food, once you get past the small portion size, there’s some hits and misses. We liked the garlic with shrimp, intestine with pickled radish, stir fry clams and the kids enjoyed the house special fried rice and beef ho fun. We didn’t care too much for their BBQ x 3 ways, or the veggie dish. I’m a bit of a beef ho fun enthusiast, and they simply cut the noodles too short, as well as the beef themselves. There are much better places in Rockville for that.
In the end, if you’re in the Germantown area and want some Chinese/​Cantonese food, it’s a decent choice. However if you’re well verse in the Rockville area, you’ll find Tasty Garden falls short a little bit in every aspect.

The service was great and the food came out promptly. We were greeted, welcomed, and offered tea and we didn’t have to wait. The first dish that came out was the beef brisket noodle soup. The soup was good but the quantity of the soup was less than other places I’ve tried and the hoi fun was all broken. I had better and I don’t think ill order this again. The cha siu and duck seemed fresh and I will be coming more in the future for rice dishes. The XO baby beef ribs and salt and pepper fried pork are to die for. Only bad things about these two dishes is the quantity and the price your getting for it. The minced beef with cilantro soup seemed bland and we needed to add white pepper to cover the blandness. Overall my experience was great especially with dessert in the end. But with the prices and the extra drive, I’d prefer Paul Kee instead. This place is good for something close and I’ll be back to try more dishes!

The best Cantonese restaurant in the area!
We went for lunch and ordered a large bowl of Seafood Congee, roast duck & BBQ Pork over rice, and Beef Chow Foon. All three dishes met (but did not exceed) expectations. If I had to criticize, Seafood congee was a bit too salty, chow foon had a little too much oil and did not have yellow chive, and BBQ pork was sliced too thin and lost the chewiness. The roast duck is the best in the area though.
Décor and service are above average Chinese restaurant standard.
Dishes we tried were authentic. All staffs speak Cantonese and English.
Can’t wait to go back and try other dishes!

I came here on Sunday. I had to wait in line for almost 10 minutes. That is understandable since it was packed. As of customer service, the waiter who served us was friendly and polite.
I ordered the Beef Chow Foon with XO sauce and I really enjoyed it. The dish was nice and large enough for my family. Also, I really recommend the Hong Kong style Wonton soup. The wonton felt like it was freshly made and tasted great with the soup.
Overall, the food was satisfying. Only downside was that it was packed at the time I went there so the wait was a little long.