East Garden — Restaurant in Charlottesville

Wow, people are really loose with those 5 stars...do they not know that means perfection?

I had been a longtime fan and patron of East Garden before the plandemic and the fire they had. It was the best deal in town for sushi. I would always get some sushi, then go to the steam tables for some samplings of the dishes. The food was mostly pretty decent and flavorful.

Times are tough for restaurants, and its no different for East Garden. Their actual sushi (raw fish on a log of shaped rice...Maki rolls are not sushi) has been reduced to the size of my pinky to the second knuckle. Hilarious and pathetic at the same time. If they cant afford the sushi anymore on the buffet, they should make it a separate purchase, but dont insult me with what I saw.

So I moved on to the steam tables. I have to say, the food looked fantastic and most of what I tasted was cooked pretty well as far as doneness, etc.. Sad thing is it appears they quit seasoning the food. I sampled 9 different proteins (seven of them are shown in the picture I attached). All, except what was a lightly battered deep fried fish in a creamy sauce were bland (upper right in the picture, I purposely didn't take much sauce because I was just sampling, I did go back for more of that). This is a theme I have been finding in many restaurants. Only thing I can think of is people are complaining about detecting any salt whatsoever in their food, or any spice...like even just black pepper.

My wife sampled several things too and had the same opinion, "mediocre". Even stuff like the pot-sticker dumpling sauce and cocktail sauce had some weirdness to it. Both used to taste great back in the day.

We sampled all these proteins in small amounts because we wanted to take-out meals for the evening later at home. We didn't think the fish dish I mentioned earlier would hold up well storing and reheating and nothing else we tasted was anything we actually wanted to eat. It's all looks great, it just doesn't taste "great". Just blah.

We hadn't been here in some years due to the plandemic period, the fire they had and we dont find ourselves in Pantops a lot, and usually eat lunch when in town convenient to where we are. We came this time because we bought half price vouchers they were offering in a promotion and needed to use them by spring or they expire. We'll probably give our unused voucher to someone else, I dont even want to come back at half price...I'd rather pay full price somewhere with better tasting food.

At the time we arrived and ate, around noon; back in the day, this place would have been hopping. I was struck by the lack of that foot traffic they used to have. Maybe thats why they were selling discount vouchers. Maybe other people feel the same as me about the food.

The price has been raised for the buffet. Cant blame them for that, everything is more expensive, but the taste of the food (and the size of the sushi) has gone down.

If you just want a pile of food for $12 and you arent concerned about good seasoning, it's worth it. There was nothing offensive, it's all perfectly edible. But we dont eat out a lot...when I do, I want it to be very good food, not "mediocre". I hardly ever mess up and make mediocre...

Save your money, honey. This ain’t the place for good Chinese food.

Given the array of delicious Chinese restaurants in C’ville, I had high hopes for trying out this one. I ordered Kung Pao chicken, orange chicken, steamed dumplings, and chow mein. I expected a flavorful explosion of a combination of different dishes to mix and match. I ended up just being upset that I even ordered from here, it did not taste good at all.

It was as if they only used salt to season the food. The Kung Pao chicken was not spicy at all, nor was it flavorful. The dumplings were incredibly salty, but of all the things I got, that was probably marginally my fave. The orange chicken lacked the sweet, tangy flavor I was expecting. I even asked for Chilli sauce on the side to add spice - and even that wasn’t spicy at all. Spice aside, I would have been okay if it at least tasted like the flavor combinations I was expecting - none of the dishes came close the hitting the mark.

After all that, I was mostly upset because this food is not inexpensive, so I was even more disappointed that this is the place I chose to venture and spend my money. Also, I should mention that their chow mein is not noodles - get the lo mein if you want noodles. The chicken chow mein only came with chicken and vegetables. I would not recommend this place and I won’t be back. But do...

My 2nd review since East Garden re-opened. Thankfully, their fried rice is back to how it used to be before they closed: absolutely delicious and perfect! Shrimp Chow Mein was tasty and very satisfying with an abundance of shrimp. Unfortunately, beef dishes the last 3 times I ordered take-out were not good. The beef continues to be rubbery and tasteless. On previous visits I had ordered Hunan Beef and Mongolian Beef. This time I ordered Beef with Vegetables. In addition to rubbery beef, this dish lacked any taste. I was determined to eat so I re-cooked the beef and sauce at home, to which I added some orange zest, sauteed garlic, sesame oil and stir fry sauce. After searing the beef and simmering it in the sauce, it was very edible -- and proved to myself that somebody at East Garden just doesn't know how to cook beef. No chef wants advice from a customer, however, just simmering that beef a little longer might help. Still my favorite Asian restaurant -- especially for the fried rice. I will continue to patiently patron this establishment in hopes they will fix the beef dishes as they...