Guangzhou Garden Restaurant — Restaurant in North Cowichan

We just moved to Duncan and we wanted to find our new go-to Chinese restaurant. We arrived at the restaurant and were greeted by the friendly waitress. She sat us and brought us water immediately. We ordered 6 dishes for take out: Curried Beef, Ginger Fried Beef, Lemon Chicken, House Special Foo Young, Special Chow Mein, House Special Chop Suey. Our order came to $131 and change, so we left $135.00. We were starving and couldn't wait to get home and dig in!

When we unwrapped everything, we were immediately disappointed and as we sat down to eat, we immediately knew... THIS WOULD NOT BE OUR NEW CHINESE RESTAURANT!

The Fried Ginger Beef (which the waitress told us was crispy) was anything but! It was limp and hard to chew through.

The Lemon Chicken (which is supposed to comes with a lemon sauce, hence "lemon" chicken) came with a distinctive red sauce which when tasted, was a sweet and sour sauce. When my husband called the restaurant to let them know they gave us a sweet and sour sauce for our Lemon Chicken instead of a Lemon sauce, he was apologized to and told to head down right away... which he did. When he got to the restaurant, the chinese women, said "no... that's lemon sauce." She argued with him that the red sauce he was holding in his hand, which had NO taste of lemons in it, was Lemon Sauce. She kept repeating "no... that's lemon sauce". Then "thank-you" and sent him on his way.

The House Special Foo Young comes with a side of gravy. Let's just say, that side of gravy had absolutely no flavor.

The Special Chow Mein, which costed $3- $6 more than any other Chow Mein... came with Chow Mein noodles and a few, and I mean a few, slivers of pork and chicken. Definitely doesn't deserve the title "Special".

The House Chop Suey had a nice mix of Vegetables, shrimp and meats but was tasteless.

The Curried Beef also had a nice mix of vegetables and beef, but the sauce was watery and lacked the aromatic fullness and distinctive...

Guangzhou Garden (Duncan, BC): A Cautionary Tale in Takeout

Ordered takeout because locals said this was their go-to Chinese spot. If that’s true, I have questions. Big ones.

I’m not above the occasional Canadianized Chinese food craving — bring on the sweet sauces and deep-fried dreams! But this was something else entirely. The bag smelled like it had been deep-fried in regrets and reused oil. Not a great start.

Let’s break it down:

🥡 Chicken Fried Rice & Chow Mein: Pale, sad, and naked. No sauce, no flavour, no joy...and there is no hope that the fried rice ever met a hot pan. The chicken? Some kind of weird, cubed-up, processed mystery meat. I didn’t know poultry came in Lego form.

🥢 Dry Garlic Spare Ribs: Dry? Yes. Garlic? Barely. Saucy? Nope. They were breaded. WHERE was the glossy garlic sauce I was promised in my dreams?

🍚 Sweet & Sour Chicken Balls: Shockingly decent. Crispy, hot, and didn’t taste like betrayal. We love a low-bar win.

🐷 Sweet & Sour Pork: Meh. Edible. Wouldn't write home about it. Did write here about it though.

🥟 Egg Rolls: I’m still confused. These things were the size and shape of a calzone. Giant sheets of egg roll wrapper folded around a tablespoon of cabbage and a lone strip of pressed chicken. Half the inner layers were raw. I wanted crunch, not confusion.

In summary: Disappointing. If this is Duncan’s top spot for Chinese food, we may need to form a support group for mid-Island takeout trauma.

At $128 for enough food for 4 people, I guess my expectations were too high. Still hopeful though — onwards and upwards. The quest for decent Chinese...

I am not a picky eater, but we decided to throw out 80% of the order due to the low quality of the ingredients, and frankly, disgusting artificial sauces.

We ordered a meal for four. Upon pick up we were amazed by the HEFT of the order. The bags were surprisingly heavy for the order. We opened the bags at home to realize that everything we ordered was literally floating in giant piles of neon sauce.

The sauce had cooled slightly, and turned into a jello-like consistency, which, upon reheating the pork and chicken dishes, the sauces turned into a solid brick of neon gunk.

The chicken in our rice was some sort of chicken loaf thing I wouldn't even feed a dog. The spring rolls and chicken balls were clearly deep-fried at too low of a temperature and were saturated with unfresh-smelling grease.

I love trashy "American-style" chinese food, but this was just ... Inedible.

You will get A LOT of food, but A LOT of it will end up...