You enter China Garden restaurant by descending a wide and winding staircase and are greeted by an aquarium – once reading the newspaper articles on the wall you’ll appreciate the symbolism of this to the owner. After overcoming our waitresses slight “no soup for you” personality (think Seinfeld), we enjoyed our plum wine and sake and generous portions of good food. I highly recommend the sizzling rice soup. It was a bit like ordering fajitas with table side sizzle – fun and delicious.

Being located in the lower level of an old strip mall on the South side of South Bend wouldn’t seem to make for good ambience but it was surprisingly quaint. With no windows and its downstairs location, cell phones don’t even work. The restaurant is decorated with a great Asian flair: lots of red, china dolls, ornate paper mache lamps and chandeliers and Chinese symbols. It accommodates intimate booths for couples and larger round tables for family style dinners. Expect dinner entrées to cost between $7 and $10 and lunches under $6. The growth of the South side is materializing at last but this older gem is still worth a visit.

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3 Responses

  1. Tracey, What a surprise to see your review of China Garden. I just took my family there to dinner this past Saturday. The Kung Pau (sp) Chicken was good (be carefull of the red peppers – they are lethal!) Mary had a shrimp dish and we ordered chicken and broccoli for our grand daughter. The service and food was good. China Garden is definately a good bet for South Side Chinese

  2. I was excited to see your review, my family has gone to China Garden for over 15 years. This is our “go to” place for Chinese. The fried rice is the best and the egg rolls are the best around!!!

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