Delight Garden

Disclaimer I am from LA so I’ve been to a bunch of cheap and good dim sum places. Some of the dishes are hit and miss. For example, I didn’t like the chicken feet but I liked the BBQ pork ribs.
Go here if you live close by and are craving dim sum. The wait for pretty crazy bc I went on Chinese new years
Things to get:
BBQ ribs
Hai Gao
Siu Mao
Noodle rolls with shrimp

Not as good as people I know raved it to be. There was once a tiny bug in the fried rice. Perhaps it just flew in as things can happen. Another time I went, there was lobster that seemed to be bad/​not fresh or maybe not cooked well. The fish was not very good either.
On the other hand, the shrimp dumplings, walnut shrimp and others dishes I can’t think of right now were not bad. Maybe the ones that weren’t good were the wrong dishes. It is a fairly reasonable price place and is good for big groups although it can be crammed leading to a long wait time.

Shopping at Joann’s. Got hungry, looked across the parking lot, the sign beckoning me to come over. Walked in, seated right away. Very efficient, 2 waiters brought over a high chair and2 brought over plastic utensils for my kid. We happily marked everything we wanted on the menu. Food began flying out of the kitchen and onto my table. The shrimp crêpe roll were good but shrimp a lot smaller than Koi Palace but I’m not paying KP prices. Most of our dishes were hot with the exception of the buns. Pretty standard fair, I think the best thing I had were the spare ribs over rice rolls. The rice rolls were very soft and slippery (chinese people like that texture), it means the chef knows what they are doing… I guess not sure but that’s how my elders always talk about the crêpe rolls. All in all, a great place for dim sum with some really great prices.

Not sure why the restaurant has such bad rating. I love their food. I always go there for dinner. There service isn’t the best but it not the worse. I don’t remember having really bad service there before.

Food is great but the servers are not. Someone demanded a 15% tip because that person claimed it’s in the law to tip 15%. We did not do it but instead we gave a smaller tip. And then the server threw our change in our table and he/​she was so mad. I’ve never had a bad experience before with Chinese restaurants. Nevertheless, they have great food.

Oh snap! Delight Garden is mounting a comeback of Justin Bieber proportions. The dim sum chefs have truly revamped their techniques and flavors. I vowed I’ll never return for dim sum after my initial visit a few years ago. However, my parents have been slowly chipping away my aversion by constantly touting the food here.
Finally, I gave in and decided to pay a visit after my parents brought back some Malaysia steamed cake (Mah Lai Goh) from one of their lunches. This fluffy cake bears resemblance to the sponge cake. Mah Lai Goh gets its tenderness from steaming instead of baking. It’s made with light brown sugar for its sweetness. Mah Lai Goh has a distinct airy texture (the little holes you see all over the cake). I haven’t found a restaurant that can make these very well but Delight Garden nails it. Although on my visit, the cake was not as light and airy as the ones my parents brought me. It was still good though.
In addition to the cake, we ordered the deep fried pork dumplings, baked durian puffs, and the beef brisket with rice noodle rolls.
— The fried pork dumplings were crunchy with a generous meat filling. The crust had the right amount of sweetness but the center was too salty.
— The durian puffs were excellent with authentic durian flavor and I could actually taste small chunks of the fruit. I would have preferred an even more pungent flavor but I’m an extreme durian aficionado. The creamy custard filling had a great consistency as well, not too runny or thick. The puffs were also fresh and very hot. I almost burned my lip!
— Lastly, the beef brisket rice noodle rolls are my mom’s personal favorite, and very popular here. Large chunks of brisket, with just the right amount of fat, slowly braised in Chinese spices until tender. The brisket is then piled in a bowl of chewy rice noodle rolls. The brisket and noodles are soaked in a savory sauce with intense flavors developed from the use of star anise. When we ordered this, my mom thought the beef was not as excellent compared to the ones she’s had before. However, I thought it was solid (but she’s the real expert).
There is also high demand for the Pineapple Liu Sa Bao (pineapple buns with salted egg yolk custard filling). These baked buns have a pineapple crust topping and a rich salted egg yolk center that spews out like lava when you take a bite.
Delight Garden gets it right with authentic flavors and affordable prices – definitely worthy of four stars. The service, on the other hand, is terrible. I normally don’t expect grand treatment at a Chinese restaurant but this was truly sub-​par service. This restaurant has become notoriously busy. They open at 10:30 but it’s packed by 11 (on weekDAYS) and the wait/​crowds can be dreadful. As a result, the employees do everything they can to hurry you out so they can seat other customers. Hence, if you’re expecting a nice meal and tea, good luck with that. We had unfinished dishes on our table and the waiter asked us if all of our dim sum had arrived. We answered yes and he brought us the bill. We weren’t even done eating! And how rude to bring us the check when we didn’t ask for it! It’s not like we’ve been there for hours either. Delight Garden almost had me converted to a Belieber – I mean believer. But I guess like The Biebs, the content is pretty decent, yet the character still needs work.

People who work there don’t enjoy their jobs. Whenever you work at a chinese restaurant, you are always going to be bombarded with questions about wait time. The person working at front desk seem so frustrated. I’ve definitely had better tasting dim sum, but this is probably the only one that I know of in San Leandro that’s why theres so many people all the time! The food tastes allllrighhhht. parking is convenient though as there is a parking lot!

Food are ok. Many people smoke outside every time I go there. IT’S SO DISGUSTING!!! I don’t know how can they do that.

This is my family’s go-​to dim sum restaurant because we live very close to this place. The restaurant is constantly busy and packed with people on a typical weekend or holiday during their lunch hours. The dim sum is ordered through their menu, rather than a circulation of carts running through the restaurant.
Food: The dim sum is decent and reasonably priced. Occasionally, the food can be a bit under-​prepared, such as the fried squid or the braised pig (which can be very chewy). Notably, some of the food is also over or under-​seasoned (again, the fried squid). Some of the plates and bowls in which the food is served are cracked, and this certainly made my grandparents upset.
Service: The employees here are always in a rush, and I notice that they give special attention to people they know. This goes as far as bypassing the people waiting in line or giving complimentary dim sum items.
Ambiance: The restaurant is very loud and crowded (typical of most dim sum restaurants). Something that can irk some people is that there are typically smokers outside, and the smoke can waft into the restaurant or while you are waiting outside.
Overall, this restaurant is good for a casual dim sum experience.

What a horrible experience. From the terrible service, the long wait for my food, and the inedible sweet and sour pork, I wish I could give a negative star.

I came here with my mom and sister the day after Christmas. I’m not sure if that was why they had poor customer service or not. Perhaps it’s because they just want your business and don’t care how they treat you. The place hasn’t been there that long (I dunno, I never saw this place before). But inside it looks like it has been there for 60+ years, yeah, run down and not very clean.
The food was okay, but I have had better at the place across town near Oakland. The only thing I really liked was their char siu bow (barbecue pork bun) and don taat (custard tart). They must have a decent baker, but the food just so-​so.

This place seems like it’s going down hill. First they took out the special menu where you can choose 3 items for $ 22.99 and now I just found a bug in my soup. I only come here with family and not by choice. Be warned when you eat here. I question how sanitary this restaurant really is.

Only came here because my parents chose this spot, otherwise I wouldn’t come here.
Came here for dinner and the food was okay.
The salt and pepper pork chop — there was barely any meat. I felt like I was just eating the fat.
We also ordered this soy sauce frog dish which was majority onions. But the weird thing about it was that we ordered a second order of that dish because my cousin came late to dinner and the second order was twice the size of the first order, and on a bigger plate. Um did they try to cheat us with the first order or something?
We noticed that a lot of the dishes were a lot smaller than what we saw in the picture. Most of the dishes had way more vegetable than meat. Ended up having to order more.
It’s also always super cramped and not a lot of room.

From my last visit the quality and quantity of the food has definitely went down a couple notches. Fried rice was bland, veggies were lacking in presentation. However, the staff is still friendly and accommodating. Perhaps they changed head chef?

I’ve been sort of depressed about Chinese spots on this trip. And sadly, I hate to say it but the Chinese spot that I’ve been going to for the past couple of years sort of has trumped the food here. I can’t say for all Chinese Bay Area food, but this place in particular wouldn’t be on my list next time to come back. I didn’t choose this spot, my family took me here so I sort of just went along with it.
What we had wasn’t quite dim sum. Let’s just say it was an assortment of Chinese dishes. It was alright, nothing too special. And damn, the wait for it was complete chaos. Let’s just say, what I’ve heard was if you know the restaurant and had connections, you would get a table before anyone else. Yeah, restaurant definitely accepts bribes.
Overall, the food, the atmosphere, just the spacing between seats, I’ve had better. If you’re looking for orderly restaurant, this isn’t it. I don’t mind the disorderly, but when you have to navigate to get in and out between chairs and tables, that’s too much. You know that saying on how the atmosphere affects the food? That’s what happened here.
So my advice: Looking for a dim sum spot? Move along, I’m sure there’s a lot better places elsewhere.

— THE FOOD
Ordered a bunch of dim sum pastries and didn’t like a single one. The ha gao (shrimp dumpling) was mushy. The lau sa bao (salted egg custard bun) filling was not satisfactory and was clumpy instead of liquidy. The wu gok (deep fried taro pastry) was COLD and didn’t taste like taro. The herbal chicken feet was clearly made from a package as it did not taste anything like the natural herbs used for the broth.
— THE SERVICE
Everyone who worked here looked like they didn’t want to be here. When our food arrived, they just plopped it on our table without saying anything. When we asked for extra napkins or for boxes, we had to ask multiple times until we got what we wanted.
— THE ENVIRONMENT
For a dim sum place, the size of the restaurant is way too small. For 3 people on a Sunday morning, we had to wait almost 45 minutes. The tables are cramped together to fit as many people in as possible. The carpeted floors were all grimy and filled with dirt. Teacups, bowls, and plates were clearly hastily washed as you could see stains and gunk still stuck onto them.

I’ve been here many times since the first time and today was a great day to go. All the food was terrific and we ordered 11 dishes for $ 45. The price can’t be beat.
For dim sum, just get what you like or what looks good to you. You can’t go wrong. My favorite today was the beef stew mixture (tripe, tendon, intestines, etc.) because every piece was incredibly tender and not overly chewy. For sweet/​dessert dim sum, get the Malaysia cake (you’ll see it at every table) or the Salty Egg Custard bun. Make sure you eat all of the Malaysia cake there because the texture changes unpleasantly overnight.
Usually dim sum places decline in quality over time but I’m glad to see this one increase in quality!

Complete and total failure. We dropped by for an early dinner. There was a hand written sign on a paper placemat that said in Chinese and English that their credit card machine was out of order, cash only.
We entered and were greeted immediately. Our party of two were seated at the back wall. Menus were presented and tea served by a waitress?
After we had sat for a couple of minutes, the hostess came over and apologized that she had forgotten to tell us that the credit card machine was out of order.
From that point on, we were ignored. No one came to take our order or check on us. We waited for ten minutes as various employees talked to each other, greeted new diners and talked on the phone. Our menus we’re sitting on the table so it couldn’t have been that they thought we weren’t ready to order.
We finally came to the conclusion that our business was not wanted and we left. Needless to say, we’ll NEVER be back.

Had a craving for dim sum and finally decided to check out Delight Garden. Located at the Greenhouse Marketplace, parking was not an issue. Got here at 2:30pm and the restaurant was about a third full so getting seating was no problem. Upon seating, the waiter took our tea order and stated that we should order as quickly as possible as dim sum service ends at 3pm. Here, there’s no dim-​sum carts, but rather you order off a nice color multi-​fold order sheet. We started checking off items so that we could get our order in.
The food we got:
Shrimp dumpling (ha gow) — four to an order. The dumpling wrappers were thin and the dumplings were very good.
Steamed Shrimp crepes — nice size shrimp used for the crêpe, but the crêpe was a little on the mushy side.
Steam BBQ Pork Buns — three to an order. Tasty filing, but felt there should have been a little more filling in the bun.
Sticky Rice & Chicken in Lotus Leaf — two to an order. Very tasty.
Minced Chicken Chow Mein — well prepared but there should have been more chicken.
Wanted to get some Layered Cake and Malaysia Cake, but they were sold out.
Overall, the food is pretty good, but will come earlier next time so that I can try more of their dim sum offerings.

Updated review for Dinner. Our group of six came for an early dinner ~530pm. It was about 25% full but then got to close to completely full by the time we left around 630pm. Compared to the last time I ate here, I think the food items we ordered were decent and the service was pretty good.
We ordered the following:
Braised pork belly with preserved veggies: seasoning was great and the belly was tender. Wish it was melt-​in-​your-​mouth tender but not quite. Good effort though.
Eggplant clay pot with seafood: Excellent dish — eggplant still had some shape and firmness, while the squid was super soft and barely needed much chewing.
Five-​Spice Duck: Another solid dish — very juicy and seasoned duck meat and the skin soaked up some serious flavor too.
Garlic Choy Sum: Greens cooked well — has a nice light broth and I always like munching on cooked garlic.
Salt and Pepper Pork Chops: This dish looked weird — a bit like tempura battered pork. I actually liked it — definite strong salt and pepper (Jalepeno and red chili pepper flakes too). Meat required some chew to detach from the bone, but it was pounded thin so very flavorful.
They threw in a free appetizer soup (lotus root) and dessert (tapioca). A decent place in San Leandro for casual dinners and I think the kitchen is capable of cranking out some nice dishes. Very good prices too.