Lee’s Garden

The food here is delicious! The first time I visited this restaurant with my family I was extremely disappointed in the servers, they never smiled. But then I started to look at the other patrons, and I realized that this establishment is authentic and in the Asian culture the servers do not smile. Eventually, after we ate here again and again, the servers began to recognize us and are friendly. The foods is still delish!

Must get: canh chua!
I’ve gone here since I was a kid and it’s just as the same, same workers, same interior, and same food which is a good thing for me because it brought back memories.
Canh Chua: amazing, probably because they use a lot of msg but the sourness, the fish and how it balances sour and salty at the same time with rice is very unique. No other place can replicate their canh chua. It’s a popular speciality soup and everyone usually gets it.
3 stars exclusively for their canh chua!

Some of the best Chinese/​Vietnamese food in the area. Their duck is really tasty. The customer service could use an upgrade and their service can be slow, but the food is worth going for.

I grew up near here so my opinion might be a bit skewed. (It is.) This place is probably not the best place ever but it is good for the price range and for the area. It isn’t going to win any fine dining awards (if that even is a thing) but that’s okay because they do Asian food and do it quite well. To be fair the service is a toss up. It really depends on who you get. Most of the waitresses and waiters are okay but there is about one or two that I would be happy to never have to deal with ever again.

Went here for the first time last night with our family around 8:30pm and they close at 10pm and the place was empty, so I was kind of nervous about eating here. But my wife ordered some fish and soup and some garlic fried lobster and wow was it delicious. They also had one of my favorite Tsing Tao beers to wash it down. Everything was so good and the all the items on the menu looks good. Definitely will be back. And we got to watch one of our favorite TV shows, American Ninja Warrior, while we ate. Great Service.

If you grew up eating here and don’t give it the stars you know it deserves, shame on you.
You need to know what to order to really enjoy this place.
It’s a great place to eat for big families. They focus on food and less of the distractions of fine dining. But you can definitely still have a formal party here.

Drive deep into the hood for some good Vietnamese food? Yes please because that’s where you’ll find some good Viet food besides what they have on Convoy, and not a phở only place.
Our adventure began with my cravings for some salted crabs (cua rang muoi) and wanted to try something else than Phuong Trang… Where to go? I remembered awhile back my coworker ordered some really good salted garlic butter wings from here and I decided to check out the Unilocal listing. To my surprise the place is not a 4 star then I read some reviews and of course they didn’t know what to order. People instead order the Americanized dishes such as the Chinese inspired dishes (orange chicken, Mongolian beef, etc). Lees is pretty Vietnamese more than Chinese because everyone here was Viet when we came in.
We ordered
–Salted crab: they made it so right! Next time we’re going to try the special House sauce! It was delicious and fresh.
–French (shaken) beef: even thought the quality of he beef wasn’t a filet mignon, the flavors were spot on.
–Crab fried rice: you can definitely taste and see chunks of the crab, they were not stingy here, and it was cheap! No price difference between chicken or beef.
The place reminded me of a traditional Vietnamese/​Chinese wedding venue. It was funny and it seems like they were setting up for a wedding with a single bottle of coke and sprite on the table. I would definitely come back for he Vietnamese items (not the Chinese ones). Reminds me of a restro in San Jose.

Yesterday I went to Lee’s Garden, and my stomach stirs, with memories of vomiting!
I gave them 1 star, but I would have given them no star, if that was allowed, everything was garbage, and there was a lot of it, because I was impressed by positive reviews and purchased:
Claims, which didn’t taste like clams, and were in a watery gravy, that looked like it was water that had washed off the gravy of old food.
Chinese broccoli, that was broken off sprigs, like the pickings from the real thing, that was passed off as food, in a watery broth.
French beef, that looked somewhat ok, but tasted suspect.
House Special Crab, an empty shell, with a few limbs on the outside, I guess they decided to keep the insides or, it may have been what was left of someone else’s crab.
Ribs, that were not ribs — it was a flat meat, like a broad piece of lamb, with a circular flat bone in the body of it, not meat wrapped around a bone, which is the construction of a rib. The waitress told me, «it’s a rib.»
Fried Lobster, the only dish I had reason to think was cooked for me, because it was presented to me raw, and took awhile to cook, but it was dry, and I believe they kept most of the tail.
Crispy duck, dry, looked like something to be thrown away.
Crispy chicken, dry, looked like something to throw away.
Seafood fried rice, looked ok, tasted ok, except for chunks of gummy imitation crab
Seafood Lo Mein, greasy, otherwise looked ok, also had gummy imitation crab
The first waitress, a female, insisted everything was correct, and when I told her I intended to go across the street to get cash, even though I was paying with a credit card, she informed me that she could not «baby sit» my senior mother, who is of sound mind. I told her my mother’s perfectly capable of ordering and eating a meal on her own. I still don’t know what that was about.
The second waiter, a man, seemed to have some remorse about the food and treatment, but didn’t admit it. He refunded the charge for the Duck and Chicken, but I still ended up paying around $ 160. I gave him a tip because it’s not his fault that he works there.
It was a total rip off, right down to what I think was the actual theft of part of my lobster and missing parts of the crab.
I couldn’t get out of there fast enough! I won’t darken their door ever again!
My stomach reacted to the food that evening and, when I tried some today, my body reacted again.

It’s cheap food.
You get what you paid for.
The food isn’t really fresh, and I don’t really crave it.
They have a lot of alcoholic beverages though.
Including one called pussy fruit.
They’re pretty quick I guess.
They have good canh chua, the spicy one.
Everything else is just okay.
There’s always a lot of parking, and they accept cards.
One time I saw a guy fighting 3 guys.
It was right in front of my table (they have big glass windows).
It was kind of awkward… I still finished my food.

Got a standard dinner for 5. Beef broccoli was the only thing we didn’t like. Sweet sour soup was great — not overly sour or acidic, fresh pineapple, tender catfish. Lobster and shrimp were tender, juicy, well flavored. Clam soup and bok choy were standard.

Can’t go wrong with the food. We often get meals for 4 or 6 depending on how many are in our party. Portions are generous, friendly service, consistently good food quality.
Quick and easy access from i8 at the i15 south connection… take Montezuma Rd and exit 54^th and go south

Pretty friggin good I come from the newyork area so I always judge the quality of the Asian food here but this place rocked. The waitresses are all very nice. They remembered me after one stop. Also the Thai yea we great. I plan on making this at least a once a week lunch stop

Beef and soup was good. The salt and peppered shrimp, however, were spoiled. They were very mushy on the inside.

First timers here. Fabulous service! Really big portions! Decent price! Not too long of a wait for take out. The honey walnut prawns was delicious. I wasnt a fan of the salt and pepper squid though, too much breading that wasnt crispy, felt kind of soggy. We also had fried rice and mongolian beef. Yum! We will be back!

My friend’s wedding took place here last night. 19 tables were arranged in an odd fashion. Four tables were segregated from the rest of the party. Service was fine, glass was missing from our table. Chinese waitresses/​waiters shouting back and forth behind the counter during the entertainment.
The reception was to start at 6, but food didn’t start coming out until 8. The food was ok, I liked the speed at which the food was brought out. From friends at the table I heard that this restaurant has been around for a long time. The food was served family style. Their taro dessert stood out as something unique. it tasted like taro with a tapioca/​cake texture drizzled with a sweet syrup. Their seafood in birds nest is a seafood stir fry served in a noodle bowl. Ive had this dish before at other restaurants. they used a thicker noodle to fry this up and took us three guests to break it.
*warning this is about to get graphic*
Early on I walked around looking for the restroom. It was tucked behind decorative fabric. A male worker told me the bathroom is flooded but don’t worry we cleaned it up. Just don’t slip. Thanks tell that to my stilettos. I just needed to wash my hands, the floor looked wet and the smell was typical of a Chinese restaurant. During the reception an announcement was made that the bathrooms were unavailable. Great, talk about a party pooper! A wedding with about 200 guests and no bathroom? I tried to not drink anything during the entire event, but holding it in for five hours is just impossible. Many guests left early, before all the food had been served, because of the predicament. I venture into their toilets after four hours even though they couldn’t flush. First I went into the men’s bathroom because it looked drier but a male guest told us to use the female one instead. My friends and I tiptoed on the completely flooded floors to the other bathroom. We were stepping in raw sewage with our open toed shoes. Yes. I did my business and washed my feet at the sink. The smell had fermented over the last few hours compounded with the addition of bodily excretions of the guests and the other restaurant patrons. What a delicious way to enjoy a meal. The bride and groom handled it with extraordinary grace and seemed to enjoy themselves despite the dire situation. When I got home I had my amazing bf carry me to the bathroom so I can decontaminate from head to toe without bringing in the grossness. I had to wash my shoes with soap in the shower.
Lee’s sewage garden if you are reading this, please do the right thing and give them a discount.

Food was just OK. Still in search of good asian food in SD. Prob not going back.

Been coming here since I was a little girl! Long ago when The Big Comfy Couch, Arthur and ZOOM was the shiznitz on KPBSkids! Long ago when Nintendo 64 was the best game system and pogs were a hit in the early 90s! Long ago when every Vietnamese wedding was taken place here at Lee’s Garden! Grew up in the hood and I guess it is in my roots to enjoy the food here!
Best family course meals ever! My family and I use to come here and order the family style course meals. YUM! And it’s so cheap too! My favorite of all time is their Honey Glazed Walnut Shrimp! Yummy!
Anyway, I hope they don’t go out of business like Quoc Te in Clairemont Mesa because it’s such a great restaurant and I would hate to see my childhood restaurant be shut down. Service here is not bad. Maybe that’s because my mom always orders in Vietnamese so they’re prolly like friends because of the language.

Horrible service. Dirty bathrooms. Smelly carpet. Totally overpriced. This place should be shut down. From the exterior to the interior, I can’t believe a place like this exist! The lady was picking leaves off the vegetables, still had her gloves on (surprised she’s even wearing gloves, probably doesn’t want to get HER hands dirty) and sat my family down holding the menus WITH the gloves ON!
The food was drenched in MSG, I can literally see the heaps of it on my dishes, as if they just sprinkled it on right as it was about to leave the kitchen. The lady with the long hair is so rude, as if she hates her job or maybe she’s the owner but who knows.
THe food in general was «tasty» but my family and I all felt sick and dizzy afterwards, we all had to go buy tonic water just to get the gas out. Aiiiyayaya, it used to be a good place to dine. Never again.

I truly dislike this place.
The first time I went there, food was a 2-​star, I got food poisoning from their food… rest of my family was fine though.
Their clams weren’t good in my opinion, very fishy tasting, and their salt and pepper shrimp was not fresh… it was mushy
Went there yesterday again with the family
We ordered:
*bo luc lac (Vietnamese shaken beef) This was super nasty, didn’t taste peppery at all, instead it just tasted like VERY buttery dry starchy steak, ehh it was just nasty
*baby bok choi cooked with garlic– this was one of the good dishes, but it’s hard to mess up stir fried veggies
*butter lobster– didn’t taste too fresh… all i tasted was butter =_​=;
*salt and pepper shrimp– again this was mushy and not fresh
*honey walnut shrimp– this one was the only yummy thing I had there.
*fish sauce wings– it was too salty AND sweet and SOAKED in oil…
Anyway, I never eat here unless someone in my family wants to, other than that no thank you.

I’ve been going here for YEARS. Seriously. my pre-​foodie days. any family birthday dinners would end up here. My parents are fairly traditional and they like to stick to what is comfortable for them. so we always go here.
As I got older, I ventured out to different cuisines. but Lee’s garden. is a place I’ll always remember. It brings me back to my childhood. hah. It is a hybrid of Chinese and Vietnamese cuisine. same thing right? kind of. The food is good and super quick. Really quick. One of my favorite dish is the sweet and sour hot shrimp soup. And their walnut shrimp also makes my tummy dance. haha. AND. the great thing about this place is that it’s affordable! The dinner special for a family of 5 is just 50 – 60 bucks. Can’t beat that! Family style! Get some!