Xiao Guan Garden

So I often eat late at night and this was one of many places available when I was in Chinatown that opened late into the AM. I’ve never been here before and trusted the ratings on Unilocal for this one. So I came in with my boyfriend and saw a bunch of guys sitting at the table. They looked like a mixture of workers, owner and his friends. Beside that table we were the only customers there. And so you would think we get all the attention. But nope, service was slow and they seem to not care too much about us. Also the waiter didn’t seem to understand us. He was busy drinking and mingling. We get our food much later, while people who came in later joining that other table got their things first, which was fine I guess if they ordered before us.
But later on another couple came in. They know the people there and started talking to the worker there. They got their soup right away while we waited. When we were eating, my plate didn’t get change. The plate itself had finger prints and seem not clean. Our water was empty, no one care to fill it. The food were unevenly cut such as the mushrooms, garlic and onions. It looks like they rushed our order and didn’t care to cut it properly. Onions were stuck together and mushrooms some were small, some were big. The rice was hard and dry. The presentation of our dumplings was bad, it looks weirdly sized and was not hot. Our sizzling chicken dish came out on this old looking pan thingy. Everything was so unappetizing.
At the end, they gave us this dessert soup. The taste of their food is not bad, but the overall presentation, preparation and service was not good. This all happened around 10:45 PM. Shouldn’t matter what time it is. The service should always be consistent.

A diamond in the sky yet to burn so bright.
These guys are putting on a wide ranging seafood-​heavy Chinese menu in the middle of the night. And there is something about X.G. Garden especially delightful upon which I cannot quick put my finger, ah yes, booze.
The interior is nothing special; white table cloths shielded with glass toppers, weird 80’s swingers-​basement-​bar kiosky area surrounding the register up front, and a bunch of Chinese dudes getting rowdy over a few heinee’s at 2 in the morning.
My level of intoxication piqued my first and only visit but may mitigate my memory to some extent, as far as I recall we enjoyed our seafood soup and scallops. The soup had a clean slightly sweet broth and the scallops were filing and tasted fresh. My only real reservation pertains to the use of cornstarch, yet most Chinese joints use it so my gripe, it would seem, is with a higher power.
Their hours are on point for the adventurous late-​night reveler within.
Next time I’m in the area I may be so inclined to put the 2 a.m. prohibition on alcoholic beverages to the test at XIao Guan Garden.
But I digress…

My first impression of the place was not great. Granted, we were there at 1 AM on a Friday night, so it was completely empty. It was a little disheveled with some boxes and bread trays around, but I am VERY happy that we decided to stay and give it a shot.
This was a great meal and I don’t know if I can ever go back to eating Americanized take-​out Chinese food anymore! We started out with Spring Rolls (my fave) and Won Ton soup. The soup was SO GOOD! A little heavy on the pepper, but I loved the unique taste! The wontons were stuffed with pork and shrimp and the broth was the most flavorful I’ve ever had in wonton soup. I can’t forget to mention that the soup is served in a bowl as big as your head!
They had the the usual dishes… we had Chicken Lo Mein, Chicken with Veggies and Rice Noodles and Curry Chicken… but they were unlike anything I’ve ever had before. I could not get enough of the sauce on the Lo Mein and Rice Noodles. The Curry Chicken was WAY too spicy for me, but my boyfriend loved it. He said it was the spiciest curry chicken he’s ever had, but he loves that kind of stuff.
We racked up a pretty hefty bill, but the prices are reasonable and the portions are HUGE. Everyone working there was very nice also. This would be a great place for a large party and lots of sharing!

This is our go-​to family-​dinner spot in Chinatown. Crab, lobster, fish, shrimp, and clams are among our usual dishes and I wouldn’t have it any. other. way.
TVB shows on the flat screen TV? Hell yeah! It’s like having dinner at home with a whole bunch of people that you don’t know in a dining room with ten freaking tables. Bonus: you don’t have to do the dishes. Downside: you can’t roll straight to the couch to indulge in a little food coma (but you CAN unbutton your pants if you’re so inclined).
Start your meal with peanuts and beer, finish with orange wedges (for the love of God, skip the sweet dessert that tastes like mildly sweet water).

New ownership and management, a complete make over for the restaurant for the worst. Everything is super salty, or very blended. It’s a seafood restaurant but their seafood are not fresh anymore. Their quails went from best in china town to worst. What you are basically getting is a burnt chicken. It’s not all bad though, their salty chicken is actually tasteful but probably because the dish was meant to be salty.
Recommendation — salty chicken
Do not recommend to get — everything else.

My friends and I had been coming here quite religiously for dinner. I have to say, the food is pretty good and cheap. I mean we usually come here as a 7 – 8 people party and we usually pay around $ 15 each with a generous tip included. With the meal, we get a free bowl of soup and a free bowl of dessert, and 8 delicious dishes. Always makes us full to the rim when we leave and isn’t that what dinner is all about?
The free bowl of soup is always something homey and delicious. I don’t really know how they do it but it makes me want to make more soups like that at home and the dessert is also always on point. Well, everything here is always on point with little exceptions. My favorite dish had to be the Hong Kong Harbor fried clams, bits of chili, garlic, and pork stir-​fried with clams, it’s really great to have with rice. Garlic shoots with conch is also excellent. Salted eggs and thousands year old eggs with peat shoots are yummy if you’re into thousand year old eggs (preserved duck eggs) which I’m a huge fan of. You can’t go wrong with any hot clay pots with simmering meats or fish. I’m far less overwhelmed with meat dishes but things like sweet and sour pork chops or pepper ribs are still very good choices. I would avoid to order a plate of roast chicken, they tend to be drier and blander.
The staff here, especially the female owner, are usually very friendly. The décor is not much to look at but with the food being high in quality and low in price, everything else can be overlooked. Try to avoid them when they look busy. This place is better when your party is large, so you can order multiple things to share.

WOW! These people do NOT know how to run a restaurant or how to treat their customers! Our party had made reservations here for dinner. My sister and I had arrived early and gave them our name and told they we had reservations. The host asked us what the name was, we told them the person on the phone never asked us for a name. He kept asking for a name and started to raise his voice. We tried to politely tell him that the person on the phone didn’t ask us for a name and that the reservation was for our church. He lost his patience and started to throw plates and seats around as he was «setting up» the table next to us. He finally told us to sit. However, at this point we were ready to leave the restaurant because we were so heated with this rude attitude towards us. We’ve been there many time and the waitress didn’t even say anything. When our parents and friends arrived, the waitress pretended nothing happened and seated us. My siblings and I told my parents what had happened and we left to go eat elsewhere. Later that evening, our mother told us that the waitress had apologized for their behavior earlier. Too late, I vow to never go back there again. They don’t deserve to be in business as they don’t know how to treat their customers.

This small place is always hustling and bustling. The waiters are barely at your table for 2 minutes to grab your order. Then you see them zooming by with plates of great smelling food and fresh seafood they take out of the tank outside.
My family loves coming here for family dinners. There are a lot of us!!! It beats cleaning up afterwards!

I love XGG I been eating there since they first opened in 2005 food is fresh and high quality yet the pricing is very low. Everyone that I take there loves it!

Based on a lazy, unscientific Unilocal lit review of Chinese restaurants in Philly, I have learned they tend to maintain two sets of menus: one for Chinese people and one for Sweet and Sour Gringos like myself.
As my Chinese is limited to a speaking vocabulary of zero words I found myself at a distinct disadvantage upon entering Xiao Guan Garden. I arrived proudly clutching a scrap of paper with transliterated names of the dishes other Unilocalers said were must-​dos, knowing full well the foibles of such a plan, i.e., that no matter what, I might end up with a plate of nuked Orange chicken.
Fortunately, I did a bit better than that.
I was seated solo (a nervy request in a place filled with large round tables for family-​style dining) and was immediately handed:
(a) The Gringo Menu
(b) A fork
My server was an excellent sport. She did everything in her power to try and understand my sorry scrap of paper with transliterated Cantonese. I’m sure my complicated bubble handwriting didn’t help matters. (It never fails to leap straight from the pen whenever I write in an earnest hand.)
No matter, I ended up with two tasty dishes that may or may not have been from the gringo menu, both of which I recommend. One was a giant stack of fried pork chops coated in cornstarch and salt, then dressed in a fiery mix of jalapeños and ginger. The other was a clay pot of eggplant and beef ribs.
I especially enjoyed the clay pot for the thrilling aroma, though I was not a huge fan of the gross-​to-​beef ratio on the ribs. I.e., bites with gobs of stuff you have to lugey right back out because there’s no ingesting it. I guess that’s the foundation of great flavor. I’m really on the fence about this topic. Maybe it’s just the way Cantonese food is supposed to be. (What do I know; I was raised squarely in the School of Schezuan.) P. S., More research required.
Two somewhat unsurprising Chinatown notes, but they bear mentioning. Number one is my tablecloth: it hadn’t been washed since Tiananmen Square. And two, the seafood tank: filthy. Layer upon layer of immobile crabs in a filmy tank whose filter is open to accepting a scrub and change.
Overlook those details and you have yourself a more than serviceable meal out at a very reasonable price. Better still, they’re open crazy-​late. Can’t complain about that!

Ok, so I don’t know how to read the Chinese menu but I know how to order by watching the servers pass by and ask the lady who takes our order that I want what was just served at the other table. That’s how I learned to eat well when I lived in China! It works well here too in those authentic Chinese restaurants!
The Eggplant in Garlic Sauce is a personal favorite. The Jelly Fish Salad is great (with or without meat). The Clay Pot was wonderful! Just like the way I remember.
Have also tried the steamed fish with scallions, it was great as you get to choose the fish from the fish tank. You have got to get over seeing the head. It really is delicious!

I think my friend and I are set on trying beef pan-​fried noodles at every restaurant in Chinatown.
The noodles here were not so good — too much sauce made the noodles soggy and not crunchy. Also, the beef had this weird roast pork taste, like it had been cured or flavored.
The hot and sour soup was very tasty! And our dessert (which is apparently free) was delicious — red bean, mung bean, and taro tapioca soup. Or whatever that’s called, it’s warm and yummy.
My other friend (see Abby I. below) swears by this place so maybe I should go back with her and see what really goes down. Watch for updates!

Xiao Guan Garden for me is like church. I come here religiously. No lie.
Their seafood is very fresh and as the previous reviewer has mentioned, like all Chinese restaurants in Chinatown, the real deal is written in Chinese in the special Chinese menu. Yes, this is why you come with family. But of course I’m sure you could ask the super friendly waitstaff to assist you. The steamed crab is delicious over sticky rice and you can also get shrimp over e-​mein noodles (or ho fun if you please). The waitstaff is very accommodating is it’s quite the popular destination for major holidays. And by major holidays I mean Mother’s Day and Chinese New Year’s.
The chef really is superb. I don’t think I’ve ever really had anything at Xiao Guan Garden I didn’t really like. Oh and if you’re not facing the TV, you will soon notice that you feel the whole world is staring at you. Not true. There is most likely a TV behind your head. Typical but that’s what’s so wonderful about it! OH I MIGHT ADD. I’ve also celebrated birthdays at Xiao Guan Garden and the TV monitor will change to Happy Birthday for karaōke. Just doesn’t get any better!

This is a pretty above-​average standard Cantonese seafood restaurant and certainly my favorite not-​cheap Chinese place in Philly. The dinner menu here is pretty good, except of course the real menu is only in Chinese. I usually come here with my family whenever I visit them and we always order some or all of the soft shell crab, the fried frog or the steamed crab over sticky rice. All those are special items only available on the Chinese menu so you’ll have to special order them from the waitstaff. I love their food although if you get seafood be prepared for a $ 15 to $ 20 per person bill, which is worth it. The waitstaff is pretty friendly and they play Chinese TV on mute in the back if you want to watch it.

I’ve been to Xiao Guan Garden twice for dinner: once in February, and just last night. I enjoyed both times!
Both times we had a party of 10+ people (the second time, we jammed about 15 people around a table). We ordered quite a few courses family style. Unfortunately I didn’t do the ordering so I don’t know the names of the dishes we had (except for the peking duck, which is tasty). One of my favorite dishes was a tender red pork dish. The crispy fish wasn’t too shabby either! Also, like many Chinese restaurants, it won’t put a dent in your wallet. Recommended!
The restaurant has quick and friendly service (proves that Chinese restaurants do not equate to bad service). Ken (the manager/​owner?) worked hard to make sure we were having a good time.