Grace Garden — Restaurant in Odenton

Update: June 2024

As others have noted, the management has changed once again. Sadly, now the restaurant is not nearly what it used to be. Gone is the authentic Chinese menu that drew us and so many others to this hole in the wall spot. That is to be expected as owners and chefs come and go. I wish the former well in their retirement.

Unfortunately, the food offerings are now just the typical Americanized Chinese dishes common to any other take-out. But the prices remain what they used to be before the change. Imagine my son's surprise when he paid twice the average for a General Tso's Chicken expecting a generous helping of big tender pieces of chicken in a tasty house-made glaze, and instead finding a meager portion of overly breaded chicken bits drenched in a thick syrup pre-made sauce.

It's almost a crime that they have kept the name, and on the wall the accolades and newspaper clippings earned by the original owners. Nothing here is deserving of that now. A complete name change and makeover would have been more appropriate, and maybe even appreciated by the former patrons who are quickly making their feelings known.

I wish the new owners the best of luck in their new business model, but they have big shoes to fill and a long way to go to get me to return again.

This has been our go-to Chinese restaurant in the Odenton area for many years. You can find them reviewed in many forums, including Zagat, and they do not disappoint. Recently, the owners have changed and with them so has the menu and food.

There are still two menus, the typical American Chinese which now also features sushi, and the authentic Chinese menu which is unfortunately now a lot smaller. The food quality is still overall good, but not all dishes remain the same. For examples, the Schezuan Pork Belly still has the same salty spicy flavor, but is not as crisp or smokey and the Yang Chow Fried Rice is drier and uses the typical roasted pork instead of a nice salty ham.

The interior is still the same small space, but the new owners have spruced it up with nicer table settings.

The new staff themselves are friendly enough, and seem optimistic and energetic about their business. Although the food is not the same, it is still good and the special Chinese menu still has many items worth trying. I still recommend them over most of the usual take-out only establishment s, so...

The best Chinese restaurant in the East coast so far in my opinion.

If you ask whether it's authentic Chinese restaurant, you are asking the wrong question. Grace Garden talks about originality and next level cooking. The mastery of the chef combines his understanding of ingredients, highly complicated processes and the technique of putting things together into the food they provide. It's true to say that some of the dishes gear towards American eaters, but if you know what to ask, this place offers a whole lot more hidden items than the menu tells you.

The chef worked in a famous restaurant in Hong Kong back in the days where they were required to fusion Western influenced food into the Chinese context or vice versa. A lot of creative inventions happened and the technicality of the process requires lots of skills to handle them perfectly. One example would be to make thin egg wrapping, then put silky tofu, wonton meat(?) and side ingredients to make a "bag", then toss them into chicken broth to cook. For it to stay unbroken requires skills to mix everything well. Another tea-leaves duck is to put certain type of tea leaves into the gutted duck and smoke the duck with the tea flavor. Then roast it to perfection. But you will need to call 2 days in advance to reserve these wonderful entree.

Note 1: When you go, do not expect too much service. They sell specialty food, they are not known for service and good seats. That will set your expectation correctly and enjoy the food more than anything else and not be distracted by details.

Note 2: Don't go to this place and treat it like any other take-out stores. It's not! If you just want a Lo-mein or Broccoli Chicken and expect they will tailor to whatever request you may have, expect to be turned down or being charged extra. To exaggerate a little, you are basically asking Jamie Oliver to make french fries to-go.

I am surprised to see it's not Zagat rated. Probably staying low-key is good for...

Today, I had carry out from the Grace Garden Traditional Chinese menu, like I have once a month for years. For me it’s a 20-25 minute drive each way since I live in Columbia, so it takes some effort. I pass several Chinese Restaurants on the way to get there. The food was delicious, as usual! However, they informed me they were changing the menu to focus on Americanized Chinese and Sushi. Nooooo! That is an absolutely TERRIBLE idea. Their traditional Menu is the source of their notoriety, and it appears it’s going away. All my favorite food pictures have been taken down from the wall, but the hooks or holes In the wall are still conspicuous. It adds to the poor decor! If you aren’t continuing the Traditional menu I’ll go to some place closer. If the Owners are having business challenges, I strongly recommend spending a week cleaning the restaurant, the floors are terribly sticky and greasy, then investing in painting the restaurant, new ceiling, new carpet, new tables and chairs. To be clear, I would NEVER order sushi from your restaurant. Sushi is all about the cleanliness of everything, EVERYTHING! Currently your restaurant is not! If you don’t believe me, please visit the best rated Sushi Restaurants in Howard County: Sushi Sono and Sushi King;...