Shanghai Garden

Not sure how some other reviewers would claim this is the best Chinese food… most of the stuff in their buffet isn’t even Chinese cuisine! This place pretty much solely depends on Maxwell AFB for their business. Because most people on base don’t have much time to venture far out, this place is practically an on-​base establishment due to proximity.
While the folks who work here are very nice and pleasant, their food selection is really lacking. They have such an odd assortment of food which I guess caters to the different palates of customers. For example: They have lumpia (Philippine), spring roll (I guess Vietnamese), egg rolls (Chinese) and fried shrimp in the middle section. I think they would do better to just stick with the egg rolls and then put out something like Pad Thai if they’re going to have non-​authentic food. They also have a stir fried polish sausage with bell peppers and onions tray which I have no idea why that even belongs there. I really wish they’d have more fresh vegetables to cut some of the grease from ALL the other choices. The only veggies I can find are the bean sprouts and the onions and bell peppers from that sausage thing.
Yes, most people would probably not care about the quality of the food, but this place could be so much better! Yes, it’s only like $ 7 and really fast, but I’d pay an extra $ 1 for some better quality choices. So why do I come here? Because of peer pressure and because there are only 2 other places on base worth eating at (Sakura and the O Club) for lunch. Well, then again there’s Mrs B’s Home Cooking right nearby… mmmm…soul food.

Best Chinese food in Montgomery. Hands down! The staff is always friendly, and they treat you like family. They do bring out small portions at a time, but the food is always fresh that way. It does get very busy during lunch so it’s best to go a little early or late.

Any time you go out to a buffet you’d expect there to be some food. Well, If you came to Shanghai Garden, you expected wrong.
Having only a short lunch break, I stopped by to check it out but their buffet lunch trays were pretty much all empty. I stayed anyway as there was no time to look for an alternative. The quality of the food was mediocre but wow, out of the 15 or so trays, at least half were completely EMPTY. Just plain ran out of food. The pudding tray scraped clean. A single fried scallop left in a whole tray. And what’s left in the other trays are paltry servings, like almost single entrée size servings but meant to supply many people. Most of the stuff there were just fried food. I felt uncomfortable taking anything as then, there would be none left for other people. Never in my life have my buffet plates came away so empty.
The few times they tried to refill some of the trays, they’d fill it about ¹⁄₅ full. These are not large trays either, maybe the size of a file folder. Someone would come out of the kitchen and dump a small of bowl of food into a tray to «refill» it, maybe like, 5 pieces of chicken or 3 pieces of fish. After 20 seconds and two people taking modest servings, it would be gone. It was the most awful and pathetic buffet I’ve ever been to. I felt like I was in some hunger stricken refugee camp or something. Not even in the poorest countries in Africa were the food options this dire. What is this? Some sort of sick joke?
The workers were friendly and all spoke English. Yay. One of the girls spent a lot of time just flirting with some Indian guy in a tight purple sweater. Who knows. There were at least 3 to 4 people just hanging around, one guy was working, and everyone else seemed like they were having fun but will someone please go and actually cook the damn food?
It was $ 9 including tax and tip. Price would be fair if they actually had food.
The location next to the base is convenient though and the place was packed. There’s obviously a demand here for good Asian food. Sadly, it’s not met.

A group of us came here for lunch a couple times while in town on business… We were told to look for the old Dairy Queen building and that would be the place…
Yup, they were right… Kind of small for a Chinese buffet, but for lunch it was adequate.
For lunch it had the buffet basics… about 10 – 12 different items. Nothing special but nothing too bad either.
It was convenient to the office… I would not go out of my way to make a trip here…
Like I said, adequate for lunch… no so sure about dinner because of the size of the place.