First Garden Chinese Restaurant — Restaurant in Guilford

Some restaurant critics have a rule--say something positive about a family owned restaurant, but never something that would shut it down. I am not a restaurant critic, but I also do not want to see this establishment close, even if a review from me could possibly result in that. But I do want people to know that the food here is nearly vile. First Garden is not especially bad; instead, it's like most other Chinese restaurants that try to appeal to non-Chinese tastes. The food is saturated in salt, sugar, and oil. It is unimaginative, over cooked, and sits in the stomach with a force somehow greater than gravity. It was the worst meal I have had in a year. But what I really want to say, what I want its owners most to know, is what they already must know: It doesn't have to be this way. They can do much better. In fact, I would even wager that they don't cook for themselves the way they cook for the good people of Guilford who buy from them. I wish they would open their own kitchen to the rest of the world and stop turning out the sickening fast-food they now serve. A model for that is a restaurant that operates in Clinton and New Haven. Taste of China is fundamentally different in how they think about cooking. I think that the owners of Taste of China respect their clientele more than the owners of this restaurant do. So if you (reader) are thinking about going to First Garden but are rethinking based on what I have written here, wait a few weeks. Maybe the management will change things around, serve fresh ingredients rather than frozen, lighten up on the sugar-rich sauces and use other flavors, get rid of the dyes and colorings. Maybe they'll cook for us the way they cook for themselves. That's a restaurant I...

Been ordering from this place for years, generally they are the best takeout Chinese in Guilford in my opinion. Sure you get a bad meal every once in a while, but that can happen anywhere. The quality of the food is fairly good, when you pick up food the restaurant has always been clean from observation.

I only really have two gripes with the place, one is that when ordering sometimes you have to repeat yourself and the person cuts you off mid order to confirm the previous item. I'm patient, so I can deal with it, although I can see less patient people getting annoyed. The only other issue I see is not even related to the food. It's more or less that they let their kid hang around in the kitchen environment. I get it's a family ran restaurant, but that's neither sanitary or safe even if the kid knows not to touch anything and behaves. You generally shouldn't allow non staff members in the cooking area.

Other than that an overall good restaurant for some cheap Chinese food. I...

I used to love this little place but I’ve now gotten food poisoning 2 times from here on two different occasions. Once when I was younger and last night. Don’t get the pan fried wontons or make sure to check all your food to make sure you aren’t hugging the porcelain king....

In response to their response which is just nonsense-- I have ordered the szechuan pan fried wontons before and loved them until this last time. I eat plenty of spicy food and 1. eating something too spicy may cause discomfort but not food poisoning and 2. I've been sick for 2 days now so your response isn't even close to true.

I hope you take the time to thoroughly make sure ALL your food is cooked instead of blaming poor preparation on something being too spicy...

PS- I live with a family of chefs, married a chef and went to culinary school myself so I know what a food borne...