Lucky Garden — Restaurant in Hallowell

The reviews for this place ranged from great to terrible, and I wanted to give it a shot—

Well, I wish I hadn’t! The space was quite cozy with a nice river view, but the service was awkward and the food was so, so bad.

When we arrived the hostess brought the two of us to our table and wordlessly tossed a single menu down at the table. When the waiter came over with tea and water, he spilled a large amount across the table and didn’t apologize or even acknowledge that it happened. I also watched him do the same at another table. It was very strange.

The food: I got the ‘spicy Szechuan tofu’, which wasn’t spicy at all and was comprised of chunks of raw tofu and frozen peas floating in a translucent, gelatinous corn syrup sauce that didn’t taste like… anything, really. My partner got the general tsos chicken, which you’d think would be a safe bet, but he said it was leathery and overcooked like it had been fried, sat out, and fried again. The scallion pancakes were hot, fresh, and pleasantly crispy but ultimately bland, and the accompanying sauce was cloyingly salty and pungent with ginger. Even the white rice was bad.

And not that it matters much, but on top of it all the fortune cookies were stale— soft and pliable. All these little details really add up and demonstrate to me a lack of care.

When I moved here everyone told me that Chinese food in Maine was bad, but now I get it.

I really don’t like to bash a local business, but this meal was...

I truly don't understand how people like this place.

I heard their all you can eat buffet was delicious so I decided to give it a try.

The buffet is $16.99. With a soda or tea that goes up to roughly $20, yikes. The buffet was disgusting. There were 11 options on the buffet: a few chicken dishes, some horribly disgusting egg rolls, some nasty rice and some "fried bread." It was extremely tiny for such a large price.

The chicken dishes were your classics like teriyaki, lemon pepper, general Tao. They were decent but cold.

Most of the dishes like the egg rolls and rice had a mystery meat in them that appeared to be imitation crab. They were disgusting. The rice also had the mystery meat, also disgusting. They were also cold.

My husband ordered a side of, "spicy wontons." They were horrible. They came out cold with a mystery meat in them. When I asked the waitress what the meat was she said, "uh.. it's a sausage type mixture."

She had no clue.

Do not get the buffet here. It's cold, limited and nasty. Maybe if you order specific dishes they will be better.

The workers were friendly. But it appeared an entire family lived and or worked at this restaurant. There were numerous small children running around, yelling.

The place itself looks seedy. You park on the side, walk to the back of the building, and then down a long narrow, dimly lit hallway.

For just my husband and I it was $50, $50 for horrible food.

Man, just...

I walked in as one employee was cleaning the did bar, with his back to me. When he turned around, he didn't greet me or say anything. He walked to the back. Two other employees came to the check out area with plates of food, did not me or say anything at all.. They got something from behind the counter. The female walked to a table behind me to put her food down. I said hello so she asked me if I was picking up an order and my name. She proceeded back behind the counter to grab a bag of food. Mind you, I called in my order of General Tso's chicken with vegetable fried rice, not just plain white rice, a spring roll and half an order of crab Rangoon. As she brought the bag, I also asked for a passion fruit jasmine tea with light ice. She prepared it in front of me with a metal cup full of a really thick syrup, mixed it then started pouring in ice. I had to say, light ice and she stopped... My order came to $48.81. Why?? I ate the spring roll and some crab Rangoon as I drove home. I couldn't wait to open my chicken with all of the amazing broccoli. Before taking the lid off, I asked myself why there was a red sauce on the chicken. I took off the lid and there's a breaded, fried chicken in a red sauce, no broccoli 🥦 at all. Is this how General Tso's chicken is made in Maine?? If so, I don't ever want any more.. Last trip to this...