Spring Garden — Restaurant in Barrington

I was hoping for a good local American-Chinese place when we moved to town. Coming from dover and having the consistency of Oriental D this place is pretty shockingly low effort. Fried rice is dry and flavorless. The Mapo tofu is just tofu and a dusting of pork in brown sauce they cook everything else in. Don't even put that on the menu if it's going to be that much of a lie. Crab Rangoon are mostly crumbly wonton with very little cream cheese. Lo-mein tastes like it's seasoned with only soy sauce. The spring rolls seem like frozen pre-made. They have the equipment in the kitchen to create flavorful dishes but probably assume that people in Barrington don't know any better. After paying for my order at the back alley slot window they still have I waited for it to be done. No mention of the order being completed to find out it had been sitting behind the glass security channel out of reach for a bit. I have given this place a number of chances but not sure I'd waste any more money. I'd rather take a detour home from work and stop in Dover to get my American-Chinese food fix...

The food is good, staff is very nice and the restaurant is clean and pleasant. Very small inside so take out is easiest. (Was 4stars not now). Read till end for recent up date please.

Fast forward to June 2022

The cost has skyrocketed, the quality plummeted. The terriaky steak was okay, not great but tolerable. Width was scrawny compared to normal, chicken wings, all you can taste is the grease they use to fry it, chicken fingers have flavor other than grease if you teach it to swim in duck sauce. Even the rice and other items were far from flavorful. Think a BRAT diet, you know nothing with any flavor...The food here if only based on taste would be perfect for it.

Sadly they have seen the last of us. Its been a good stretch but time to move on. I wish them luck going forward.

Hopefully its just been a bad day for them.

2024 January update. Very pleased we tried again.

Full flavor, reasonably priced, normal sized portions. Chicken fingers were excellent.

Not sure what prompted the changes but very happy it has morphed into this...

I went to pick up my lunch plate today, as we sometimes order with the company I work for.I walked in, to have the counter womans back to me..as she turned around, she had my luncheon plate(mine was the only order) in her hand with it open and she was eating my rice with her bare hands out of my order. She never heard me come in, and when she realized I was standing watching, I think she realized what she was doing was so wrong in so many ways. I said to her " that better not be mine" as I see all the other items in the same container that I ordered. she exclaimed..oh nononono..and grabbed the container that she had since set down on the counter next to the bag she was about to put it in and took the container in the back at that point. They then made another plate, all while laughing and talking amongst themselves. I have worked in food business for many years, and never experienced something like that. I will not be back, which is too bad..they used to be my favorite place around for Chinese food....