Lotus Garden

We tried to go there for and early dinner and we were not greeted at all. Took FOREVER for a server to come to our table. Then when she did finally come and we asked for the egg drop soup for the sushi, she said it didn’t come with anymore… Since when? And she was rude. We decided to leave and she CHASED US OUTSIDE!!! She was telling us to stay and she would just give us the soup and followed us to our vehicles. I can’t even believe it. This is the second time in a row the service has been crap. I’m done.

Great food, would have given a 5 but I don’t appreciate staff working their ***** off. Great service and I will be returning that is for sure.

Very run-​of-​the-​mill Chinese restaurant. In addition to the usual American-​Chinese fare (broccoli beef, sweet and sour pork, fried rice, etc), the lunch buffet includes sushi rolls and a dessert table with pudding, fruit, and ice cream. Reasonably priced.

From out of town (PHX, AZ) — Stayed in Pinetop for a couple days with a friend and we went to Lotus Garden on our first night there. I ordered the General Tso’s chicken along with a cup of Hot and Sour soup — I have to say the soup was kind of bleh/​meh and it wasn’t as spicy as I was hoping for. The General Tso’s chicken on the otherhand was absolutely amazing and I may go out of my way if headed in this general direction to get it again (but again it wasn’t spicy either).
The exterior seems like it’s a bit old and rundown and the interior kind of feels the same such as that it is old and rundown a bit. The interior looked like it needs a major renovation to keep it up to date. The price range was a bit higher than expected compared to similar Chinese food restuarants in the valley (If my memory is correct it was $ 1.85 for a cup of soup/​$ 10.50 for General Tso’s chicken). Then again they did have some really cheap brews for $ 1.50/12oz and Saki for only $ 1 which is pretty cheap. On one ending note, it came with a free scoop of ice cream after the meal which was pretty interesting but good all in all.

Great meal for myself and my parents the service was amazing the buffet was very good

Best service of any of the restaurants iwe went to n Pinetop over the 4^th of July weekend. Had the Mongolian beef and sweet and sour shrimp both were great and large portions.

Was recommended by the hotel front desk.
Ordered pu pu tray. Meat was still raw. The flame kept going out. And it took about 10 minutes each time for someone to relight the flame. Finally finished with the flame at the end of dinner!
Ordered mu shu pork and it was less than mediocre. It was my mother’s favorite dish. Also had beef love mein. Usually my child devours the plate but it was not the case. I finally tasted everything. And I understand why he barely ate the lo mein.
All in all we should’ve went to Panda Express!

Surprised to see this restaurant here in a small pinetop community found it through recommendation list of holiday inn in show low .
Felt very welcoming, promptly described all dishes took us through the buffet menu.
We settled for a vegetarian dish in addition to the buffet since wife is vegetarian.
Family friendly
7.95 for a full buffet including sushi 5 entrees and desert menu. Very good
Strongly recommend

Really good hand rolls! I’ll be back here soon! Extensive menu but I came to try the sushi. Small bar but it works for a comfort and relaxation. Service as expected, small town and friendly.

Lotus Garden was definitely on their game today! I was suprised to see there are so many negative reviews. The food was perfect, exactly what I want out of broccoli beef and cream cheese puffs. The servers were all really friendly and tentative. Love the small town feel of the place. Will definitely be back next time we’re in Pinetop!

I’m not sure why there are negative reviews here. I was hesitant to try it because of them but it’s across the street from my cabin. We really did have excellent service and very delicious soup. Our server was very polite and attentive as well as the other staff. We had Mongolian beef, sesame chicken and sizzling rice chicken soup. They refilled our rice three times! Highly recommend!

Lotus Garden seems to have had their ups and downs over the years, but for the most part I have really enjoyed them and usually prefer them over most valley oriental restaurants. Shoot, back in the day their sushi was top notch, this time, not so much. We had a party of 8 and each had several dishes and some sushi.
We order general tso chicken, a couple types of fried rice, house lo-​mein, mongolian beef, yui shan chicken, sweet pork, sesame chicken, philadelphia roll, an eel roll, another roll I don’t recall the name of that was spicy and oh yeah, grand ma threw in an order of their chicken wings.
The general tso chicken was not very good, at all, will not get here again. The fried rice, as usual, was great. The lo-​mein was good as well, not as good as the fried rice so if it came down to it and I could only get one, fried rice it would be. Everyone but me, loved the mongolian beef. It was a bit spicy, which I like, but was not a fan, like I said, everyone else loved it. The yui shan chicken was about right, nothing too great. The sweet pork was great, really good and as was the sesame chicken.
I was not a huge fan of the rolls, they didn’t seem as fresh as they usually do, I would be reluctant to order sushi here again, in large quantities anyways.
Grandma loved the chicken wings so I would recommend getting them.
The service was great, as it always is. We will be back for sure because there is no better oriental restaurant up here.

If I could give no stars I would. Awful. Just awful. My boyfriend, 2year old son and I ate here last night. First of all, we sat down to dirty and wet water glasses with food in it and lipstick on the rim PLACED UPSIDE DOWN as though they were clean. Disgusting. If they let the front of the house look like that, God knows with the kitchen looks like.
My boyfriend swore that the last time he was here the place was great, so I fought every instinct in me to not get up and leave right then and there.
We sat about 10 minutes before a waitress even came over to offer us drinks. The tables are so uncomfortably close it was awkward to get up and down to go to the restroom. By «uncomfortably close» I mean that the girls at the next table had to scoot over so we could get up. The restrooms are extremely small and the women’s stalls were locked with no one in them. I had to take my son across the restaurant so he wouldn’t have an accident. My boyfriend went to take him in the men’s stall and it was so small he and my two year old couldn’t fit in there together.
We were seated with a lovely view of the closed buffet, which was being used as a storage table for a few different bags of takeout boxes, dirty dishes and the clean plates that the wait staff were taking to tables throughout our visit there. Unsanitary.
So finally we place our order for cashew chicken, sweet and sour chicken, and plain lo mein noodles. We had to ask for sushi menu because it was not offered to us in the first place. We ordered the Arizona roll about 5minutes after placing our food order. The food came out quick but as expected the sushi was going to take a bit longer, being that we put it in after a food order.
The sweet and sour chicken was under cooked and soggy and I do not know how you can get sweet and sour sauce wrong, but it was not sour and overly sweet. The cashew chicken was way too salty and was sitting in a soup like consistency. You usually expect some sauce the bottom but with this much, it should have been in a bowl. The plain low mein noodles were cold.
By the time we were done picking at that food (all we really were there for was the sushi, the chicken and noodles were mainly for my 2 year old) the waitress told us just two more minutes until its done about 4 times. It never came.
After sitting there for god knows how long waiting for the check, I finally flag down the hostess and asked her to just cancel our sushi order and bring the check. The hostess found our waitress, and she apologizes and says she’ll bring us the check, unless we wanted to wait another 10 minutes for the roll to be done. No thanks.
She then asked if we’d like three take out boxes, and when I said no thank you she looked annoyed and asked «well wasn’t the food good?» I was so fed up with the experience and knowing I wouldn’t stop myself from going too far if I answered her, my boyfriend answered for me saying «no thank you we don’t want takeout boxes, can we have the check please?» and she was a bit huffy and rolled her eyes as she walked away.
We then waited another 10 minutes for her to finally bring the check and bring our debit card back.
I wish we had gone to Panda Express, to be blunt. You couldn’t pay me enough to go back to that type of service and food ever again.

Average Chinese food.
We had orange chicken and had to purchase white rice seperately.
Chicken Lo-​mein was ok.
Sweet and sour chicken was ok.
The soup (free for the wait) was ok as well.
Prices are as they should be for the average food.
$ 26 for 3 dishes and the side of rice.
I will go back but Panda is down the road a ways… hmmm

Being in this area — there’s not a lot of variety of Asian restaurants.
Lotus Garden has authentic flavors in their dishes especially when you order the sizzling plates. The food is almost comparable to asian food in the bay area (the bay area has lots of wonderful, delicious asian food!!) The dishes are large, enough to feed a family of 4 – 5. I didn’t try the buffet so I am not sure how the quality is but I feel like Chinese buffets aren’t that exciting or good to begin with…
Their white rice is mixed with brown rice but there’s not much brown rice in it to begin with.
It’s relatively cheap. Although dishes are close to $ 10 or a little above, it can last more than one meal.
I like the food a lot. I like the variety of different options for the Chinese food. It’s not overly salty and they don’t cheat you out of your meats and seafood when you’re ordering the dishes.
The wait staff is extremely nice as well. They checked in with us a few times to make sure we’re doing okay.
If you want real Chinese food, this is the closest place to it in if you’re in Pinetop, AZ.

01/​08/​2011
One of our team was commenting on her lunch here last week. She eats Chinese frequently wherever she travels. She’s been all over the USA. I’m sure internationally too. She says this is some of the best she’s eaten anywhere.
30/​07/​2011
Five people ate from the family dinner choices on the back of the menu, the sixth ordered sizzling noodle veggies. Beef, chicken, fish, pork and veggie platters plus rice, hot & sour or egg drop soup, spring rolls and won ton chicken were delivered to the table. We ordered just before the evening rush. Service was attentive when possible.
None of it was bad. The sweet and sour pork and Szechuan fish were excellent, the sizzling noodles ran marvelously on all five senses. I didn’t eat much Kung Pao chicken, and don’t remember much heat. The hot/​sour soup was Greenwich 0 east and west on the mild side. The veggie plate was a veggie plate.
This was the second trip in five days for four of us. I’d go back for lunch in the flash of hot oil in a wok.
We were seated next to a very large aquarium, undersized for two very large, decrepit Amazon River fish looking like geriatric piranha. One of them kept swimming to the tank corner and eyeballing Jim. This led to the philosophical question, «Would you rather live a decades-​long life in a cramped aquarium surrounded by humans eating your cousins, or live in the Amazon River with a high percentage chance of becoming something elses meal early in life?
I’m not saying what the consensus was. I’m leaving the tank now. Thanks for your patience.

When I go for Chinese, I have a couple basic requirements. The first such requirement is that it tastes like Chinese food. And lotus garden does not make the cut. Now in their defense we ate the buffet, so maybe… possibly… Hopefully for them, the flavor of the off menu items may taste better. But the buffet was crappy even by buffet standards. My kids didn’t like anything, the wife and I didn’t like anything. My dog didn’t like anything. Don’t spend your money here unless all you want is ice cream and fortune cookies. The sakura buffet was far better. Did I mention the food sucks?