China Garden Restaurant — Restaurant in Dexter

This place was my comfort food while dealing with a number of stressful situations when I was young.

It ended up becoming a go to place for me, so much so that the cashier used to call me the dumpling man.

The last two times I've ordered the dumplings were completely different. I know it sounds comical but I convinced my grandfather, relatives and numerous friends to try their steamed/pork fried dumplings.

I usually get the orange chicken or general tso but sometimes I'd buy two boxes of just dumplings.

Ever since covid I've noticed local Maine Chinese restaurants have taken a hit. Some even closing down indefinitely so I'm not to upset.

I just thought it was weird/sad that one of my favorite foods on the menu went from being the absolute very best around even in the greater Bangor area. To being worse than a bag of frozen pot stickers from a convenience store.

Overall the orange chicken they make is probably the most fresh and good tasting I've had.

But the dumplings always stuck to me because everywhere else either makes them too small or they don't taste nearly as well as china gardens used to. Overall the family is very pleasant, and the food is usually the...

Looking at the menu we saw what looked like actual chowmein noodles, so I tried the pork chowmein, and we tried the chicken chowmein, and Cashew Chicken and crab rangoons and eggrolls. There were no noodles in the chowmein like it was pictured... it was cabbage in delicious broth essentially and the thin strips of pork were sweet and tender but it was not chowmein. The chicken version the same except chicken chunks. The Crab Rangoon was really good. The egg rolls were okay and the cashew chicken was a little aldente but the flavor was good. Also the fried rice was not fried rice. It was Rice-A-Roni which is rice shaped pasta fried with soy sauce and something sweet, perhaps tahini. It was odd yet it grew on me. The people there were nice, but distracted taking our order... perhaps dreaming of making...

New to area, family has always loved Chinese and usually buys it regularly. Since we got here we have ordered 4 different times and have always gotten the same thing. Pu PU platters, from 1-6 in portions depending what the event. Every-time we have ordered fried rice is always 1 large container no matter the portion, none of the items are even quantities matching what is being purchased. tonight we got pu pu for 4 and wouldn’t you know it 1 large rice, same as we got when we ordered a pu pu for 2 also some other items different quantities that made no sense like 6 crag Rangoon, 5 chicken legs, 6 fried chicken, 3 shrimp. Have tried speaking to the company and the answer I got is I got the right stuff. So we won’t be back and I hope others have caught on...