A Gourmet Chinese Cuisine — Restaurant in Orlando

While you can almost always find me in the Mills 50 area of Orlando, it took me a while to get around to trying Chuan Lu Garden. I frequented this spot when it was Ginza before, as it was a good place to meet up with friends and grab some hibachi or sushi, so when a friend said it was now serving up Szechuan I decided to give it a try.

The restaurant itself is pretty easy to spot from the road, with it's main street location and large, well lit sign, but unless you'd been there before, you probably wouldn't know that there's parking in the rear until you see the printed sign on the door. The decor doesn't seem to have changed much from the previous Ginza layout, featuring the same bronze statue and koi pond in the foyer when you enter.

During my first visit, when I met up with the friend who recommended the place, I was disappointed in the cleanliness of the restaurant. The table had to be wiped down after we were seated, and I realized a few minutes later that my feet were firmly planted in a noodle dish that the table's previous occupants had generously spilled on the floor. On my first trip the server was inattentive and rarely checked in on us, while during my second visit the server was at our table what felt like every five minutes to see if we needed anything. The one plus to Chuan Lu Garden was that everything was brought out quickly and as it was ready, so you could share and sample all of the dishes as they came out.

The food itself was underwhelming, partly because my friend hyped it too much, but also in part because I've eaten at most of the restaurants in this area that serve the same dishes, only better.

Asian food is somewhat of a staple in my household, and when we eat out we definitely judge a book by it's three covers: pork belly, duck and dumplings. The pork belly appetizer here is served boiled and cold, thin sliced and topped with hot chili oil; none of this is really dictated on the menu, as there was no description of the dish outside of the fact that it was indeed pork belly, so I was a bit disappointed when I expected hot, braised pork belly and instead was served cold, boiled pork.

While the duck was flavored well, it lacked what is essentially the best thing about duck: the crispy skin. It was served as a whole quarter of a duck, so it was also not de-boned, but the meat itself was tender. We ended up dunking it in the accompanying hoisin sauce and calling it a day, resigning to get duck from one of our other favorite restaurants in the neighborhood next time we were out.

And lastly, what I thought would be the shining star of Chuan Lu Garden's menu, since they have a part of their menu specifically dedicated to them: the dumplings. This was definitely the most lackluster part of the meal, as the dumplings we ordered were bland and lacked any flavor, and the sauce tasted so much like vinegar and had no real depth that we couldn't really even eat it. For a place that has a specific dumpling menu, I expected a far better showing.

On both visits to Chuan Lu Garden I was underwhelmed by the food, but had vastly different experiences with the cleanliness of the restaurant and the attentiveness of the staff. I don't see myself coming back here again unless they work on making the experience a...

I considered not writing this post but after careful consideration I needed to warn the public. I have always loved the food until just recently (we have been eating here for many many years). Starting this year I noticed every time I would eat here I would get very sick, I assumed maybe it was the spicy ness of food bothered my stomach. Just recently I suffered the worst food poisoning I’ve ever had (two weeks of medications and the worst stomach and intestinal cramping, to the point eating or drinking anything including water was torture). On 5/1/22 my husband picked up our usual and favorite twice cooked pork (we usually order 4 orders to have for next day and I also order braised lamb belly), immediately I fell ill and things just got worst in the days that followed. I eventually went to ER after a week of stomach pains and was giving medications to take for next 6 weeks, on 5/12/22 I finally started feeling better not knowing I had suffered food poisoning from Chuan Lu and because I had not had any fevers and not gone to ER immediately after eating food, could not determine Chuan Lu was the culprit, but after learning the concerning reports on 5/12/22, I knew Chuan Lu was responsible, I had not eaten out at any restaurants prior to this and was in normal health over previous weeks. I decided to stop by for lunch on 5/12 (I started feeling better this day and thought I could hold down food) after almost two weeks of illness, when upon entering doors we noticed a big yellow sign posted by the health department that the restaurant was closed due to endangering the public among other things, so I did some research (all public records if want to read in detail) it was hard to read. I wish I never read it because it was so disgusting I almost threw up, I went to the Florida health department website when I learned of numerous closings this year alone due to rodent activity and droppings in and around food among other very disturbing things (shame on the owner, employees, and cooks for not following food safety procedures). I understand area is old, but clean up!! Having black/green mold on cutting boards, cutting utensils, refrigeration and in drink surfaces is beyond gross, having rodents and rodent droppings in and around food, cockroaches in rice bins is absolutely disgusting and you should not serve customers until your kitchen is spotless and you and all of your employees are trained properly, SHAME on you! I worked in the food service industry for over a decade and I always stressed to my people, “if you can’t eat it, don’t serve it!!!” The fact that you’ve continue to run operations after being shut down before for the same violations says to me that you are not even trying to fix issues as the same violations continue to occur. I will never eat here again, you SHOULD NOT serve customers 🤢🤢🤮🤮 at all!!

Message to the owners and staff: clean your kitchen, train yourself and your staff on food safety procedures, follow through, and get an exterminator and pest control monthly to get rid of the rats and cockroaches, this is absolutely disgusting and...

As Felix from the band Stray Kids once said, “Cooking like a chef, I’m a 5 star Michelin.” A better sentence could not be constructed to describe this restaurant. One year ago, I travelled here with my merry band of friends to eat dinner on the first night of our [very eventful] trip to Universal Studios. That dinner quickly became an experience I and my taste buds could never forget. Luckily, 8 hours is never too far to travel for great food, so when the opportunity came for us to leave Georgia and come indulge in Chuan Lu Garden cuisine I hopped on it faster than the Millennium Falcon can jump to light speed. (Was this trip intended for Disney? Yes. Did I consider returning to this restaurant far more important? Also yes.) Let me just say, the soup dumplings were just as sublime as I remembered. Last time we graced the doorstep of this fine establishment I described them as the sort of food that’ll “tuck you in and leave a little kiss on your forehead”*, and I would like to add that this time around they threw in a bedtime story and a massage for good measure. My stomach is pleasantly full and my heart has never been happier. We brought a different friend here for the first time and when those dry fried green beans came out she was a goner. She turned into a bean eating speed machine and has not shut up about them since. The food we ordered was so perfect that we had to sit in silence for a little bit to reflect on all the life decisions that led us back to this heavenly kitchen. Our waiter seemed surprised that I managed to down an entire pot of green tea by myself but I challenge any of y’all to taste tea that good and not immediately swallow all of it. (Though, perhaps I am a bit biased towards hot tea.) 10/10 service; it was apparently our waiter’s first day working but bro did so well. (If you’re out there reading this, we were the table of 3 that downed 5 portions of food in about 20 minutes and then laughed ourselves silly. Also you were lowkey really cute HSBKSNS. Keep up the good work! 💪😮‍💨💯👊🔥🦅) Much like we stuck forks into our soup dumplings to cool us down, if you stuck a fork into us now you would similarly find us full of soup. If you could somehow see heaven without dying, we’ve certainly glimpsed it inside that bamboo steamer. Keep cheffing it up in there; y’all’s food is bussin’ and we will definitely find another way to get down here again. Highly recommend this place to people who are tired after a long day and just need some comfort food. Order the soup dumplings and green beans for our sake, and we shall live vicariously through y’all from a state away. 🫡

*Apparently you can’t leave 2 reviews for the same place with the same Google account, so if you see a review from Azumon from a year ago that...