Family Garden — Restaurant in Richland

After reading a large number of reviews I decided to try Family Garden for lunch. I was pleased with the bright open light from all the windows bordering the main seating area. Staff was polite and helpful in selecting different items from the menu. I started with a appetizer called the Naruto, which consisted of tuna and avocado wrapped in a roll of cucumber. The premise seemed light and fresh but the execution did not meet my expectations. The cucumber washed any flavor away and you were left with the taste of the wrap and not the sushi that was to be highlighted. Then I tried a lunch special of two rolls for $8. I wasn't expecting any fancy hand rolls and these were not. However they delivered on 8 pieces per roll of passable sushi for the price. Good value here. I finished with the General Tso combo. The egg drop soup was missing any kind of meat, pork or chicken, which I've come to expect at a restaurant of this style. Different strokes I guess. The fries rice was just steamed rice with a large amount of oil, but lacked any crisp texture or coloring of true fried rice. No meat again and it left me wanting. The General Tso was standard americanized Chinese, but while I found the crispy light texture great, the sauce it was coated was underwhelming. Restrooms are fairly clean with only a stray paper towel laying around. All in all I think they do a good job trying to be polite and helpful. The menu has flashes of trying to do innovative items, but the kitchen just can't produce the images one has from the menu. Will possibly try a dinner service and see if anything...

Update: I can now recommend the chicken with black bean sauce and hot and sour. Hot and sour had way more flavor than the egg drop soup. The chicken with black beans is made with dried peppers. The sauce is made with what tastes like fermented whole mini black beans. It has a lot of flavor and I liked it. Very different than what expected, which was a chili paste and a fermented black bean paste. I would still give it 4 stars on both of those dishes. They were good and I would order again. I am used to eating dried peppers or pepper flakes, especially when cooked with the food. In this case, to make it xx spicy, I swear there were more dried peppers than chicken on my plate. Just a word of caution, if you want to bring the heat then you might ask for a side of chili oil or chili sauce to add at the table.

Many years ago, I gave this place a 1 star review. We came back based on the advice of a friend. I ordered the spicy onion chicken. I really liked it, but will probably try something else with a broader range of flavor. Onion chicken is only 3 stars on its own. I also got the fried rice and loved it. I couldn't get the hot and sour soup because it was sold out. Good for them, bad for me. I will get it next time. The egg drop soup is a bit bland. Others had sushi and loved it. The pan fried rice noodles were a huge hit around the table. The service was outstanding. We had an amazing visit. We will...

The dinner combos serve a lot of food, you will definetely have leftovers. Very nice employees. We ordered Mongolian Beef, it was super tender & more beef than anything else, came with choice of white rice, or fried rice, crispy perfect little egg rolls, sweet & sour sauce for dipping, and soup of your choice. Also had the House Pan fried rice noodles, they dont oversalt the food, you can add a little soy sauce if you like, noodles were perfect texture. The sweet & sour chicken was good, the batter was crispy. Also had the philedelphia roll, smoked salmon , cream cheese, avocado, yum. Egg drop soup wasnt salty, so I added some. I like my salt. Cant wait to go back to try other menu items. It was pretty busy for a Sunday night, but didnt have to wait long for a table. Cute little restaurant, I have been looking for a good chinese food restarant in Tricities, finally found this little gem in the uptown richland strip mall after 5 years. Cant believe I never heard...