China Garden in Reading - Phone Number, Reservations, Reviews

Food used to be much better before the place shut down in 2022? and reopened. On reopening, the food quality for the eat as much as you dare is now very poor and portions lacking. The mix starters taste cheap/frozen items such as prawn toast (with negligible prawn), seaweed (of an interesting shade), tough chicken satays (not much satay sauce). Our next food challenge involved rubbery duck with plum sauce and cucumber/onions ( these tasted like they had been sitting around) and between the aged cucumber and the plum sauce there was a distinct feeling that something was off. Main courses involved very small portions of meat, majority of veg entailed large hunks of normal onions (ie cheap veg), the kung po has an unpleasant lemon chicken essence with a chilli style sauce that appeared to disguise other dishes too – some of the dishes had thick strips of carrot (not peeled). Not one of the dishes had any garnishes, eg carrot, turnip, lettuce etc or was there any attempt to beautify the dishes Not once were we asked how the food was. Apparently the restaurant changed kitchen chefs over the last year (since the closure in 2022?)the food from the current chef is truly awful yet the menu prices went up in 2023. Over the last 2 years it has been cash only...definitely not worth the £25 pp + 10% service charge. Advice to management .. change your chef otherwise you will continue to loose regular customers + sort out your card machine as the broken card machine excuse does not wash . Card machines can be got for less than £25 and other options such as sum up etc if you really wanted to allow your customers to pay by card... clearly this appears a cash only business..(draw your own conclusions)

Food used to be much better before the place shut down in 2022? and reopened. On reopening, the food quality for the eat as much as you dare is now very poor and portions lacking. The mix starters taste cheap/frozen items such as prawn toast (with negligible prawn), seaweed (of an interesting shade), tough chicken satays (not much satay sauce). Our next food challenge involved rubbery duck with plum sauce and cucumber/onions ( these tasted like they had been sitting around) and between the aged cucumber and the plum sauce there was a distinct feeling that something was off. Main courses involved very small portions of meat, majority of veg entailed large hunks of normal onions (ie cheap veg), the kung po has an unpleasant lemon chicken essence with a chilli style sauce that appeared to disguise other dishes too – some of the dishes had thick strips of carrot (not peeled). Not one of the dishes had any garnishes, eg carrot, turnip, lettuce etc or was there any attempt to beautify the dishes Not once were we asked how the food was. Apparently the restaurant changed kitchen chefs over the last year (since the closure in 2022?)the food from the current chef is truly awful yet the menu prices went up in 2023. Over the last 2 years it has been cash only...definitely not worth the £25 pp + 10% service charge. Advice to management .. change your chef otherwise you will continue to loose regular customers + sort out your card machine as the broken card machine excuse does not wash . Card machines can be got for less than £25 and other options such as sum up etc if you really wanted to allow your customers to pay by card... clearly this appears a cash only business..(draw your own conclusions)

A very poor experience in every way. We had the all you can eat menu at £25/person (plus 10% service charge non negotiable) this was a big mistake. The first dish of combo starters was of very poor quality, spare ribs that had no meat on them and tasteless spring rolls. At this point in a normal menu (not all you can eat) I would have ordered no more dishes and cut my losses and run. We persevered onto a crispy duck that was served with dried cucumber and dried spring onions clearly that had been standing around a while. The duck was just awful with some uncooked fat ie not crispy and just poor quality. We then went onto to a mains of chicken and black bean sauce. One mouthful of rubbery thin tasteless chicken of extremely poor quality and I gave up. Despite all the food that we had clearly been unable to eat left on our plates we were never asked once how was the food. It was just cleared away with no questions I assume the staff knew the quality was poor and therefore no need to ask. We were also informed before the meal that the credit card machine was broken and it would be cash only. Speaking to others, I know that in March of this year the credit card machine was also broken. Running a business on cash only raises my suspicion about the whole business ethics. There was just us and another group in the restaurant for the whole evening. I cannot recommend this restaurant in any way and will not be returning.

Very disappointed at everything. From bringing out the mains before the starters, no serving spoons or plates or bowls for the mains to forgetting drinks and then saying it was cash only when the bill came. Ownership seem to have deserted shop! Training and quality control urgently required here. Sorry!

HAD A TAKEAWAY WHICH WAS MORE EXPENSIVE THAN OTHERS WE HAVE HAD AND TO MAKE IT WORSE IT WAS HORRIBLE...!!! CERTAINLY WOULD NOT RECOMMEND IT TO ANYONE

We had really great dinner here on Sunday. Fantastic service and staff were very friendly!! Seafood with crispy noodles and steamed sea bass are the best ever for me. I think they made theirselves. We want to try other food next visit, and we enjoyed spicy chicken and s stuffed peppers and tofu with black bean sauce. Fresh ingredients and not salty or oily which we loved it. We will come back soon and book in advanced to avoid a long wait, still worth it tho.

Phil the chef is lovely - nice environment, tasty food. This was an unplanned lunch - but was very enjoyable - the dish was £9.50 and very filling. Also had a pot of Jasmine tea £3.00

Tired ,dated , and very dirty ! Food tasted good the first time when collected . A week later , got a delivery . Food was luke warm, soggy chips, soggy batter, and expensive . On the phone, they were argumentative, and then when proved wrong, apologetic . Not in a hurry to use there again . 11/05/24 Tried to dine in . Cleanliness had not improved much. The place still looks looked tired,staff were surprised we wanted to eat in. Then just before we sat down we were told it is cash only. No sign on the outer door stating this. Didn't eat there . Won't be back

The Chinese stir-fries are good, such as stir-fried udon, beef brisket, and tripe soup. However, the appetizers are disappointing, especially the pot stickers, which look like deep-fried fried chicken. Tasteless.

Best Chinese restaurant in Reading. Reasonable price with great quality of food and service. This place is famous for Hong Kong style cuisine and it definitely didn’t disappoint. Limited parking space however plenty off street parking nearby! Worth trying this place out!

Very good with high quality in Hong Kong style.

Good food, good service but a bit cold in there

Very expensive with the food and service quality they provided. The Hong Kong style “special lunch” menu was below expectation. We expected “Mike Tea” was the classic HK taste but just a tea bag in water with milk and some sugar, coffee was instant, but price was over £3 each!! And foods was not in HK style, more like localised Chinese foods. We visited cause we attracted by their advertisement on fb on “HK style” but obviously we were wrong. Definitely never return again! BTW, just notice they didn’t provided the free drinks they offered in ad😡

I am a Chinese spy, nothing happened in Tiananmen, Xi Jinping is the greatest, I follow the one child policy

I have eaten here once as a dine in and another for takeaway. Mostly the food wasn’t appetizing and the staff seemed to try and ignore me most of the time. Dining in, the wine was expensive and had a taste like it at the bargain end wine of the wine list. Requests while ordering seem to be ignored or they didn’t understand me. I felt quite upset at the table by the time we finished, paid and left, I felt like I should have gone back to complain. The takeaway on another day (perhaps I thought there would be an improvement) was not nice also. Won’t return.

Great food, did feel that we were pushed to have what the waitress wanted us to have though.

All you can eat was brilliant, can tell it was very authentic. Best Chinese food I've ever had 10/10. Customer service was very good and very kind and funny.

Very nice Cantonese food! I’m from HongKong, So as the chef as I heard, and I do think it’s authentic. I definitely feel closer to Home. I would say it’s taste like home, I understand that some ingredient are not possible to get exactly the same way as in Hong Kong. So I definitely appreacite the effort ! A large selection of dishes which I am surprised. I ordered from the menu, not the buffet, since that’s not usually how we go to a Cantonese parlour, therefore food is in bigger portion, and the plating seems nicer (I guess), and you know what? It ends up being cheaper. For the whole table. Best value/quality for Cantonese Chinese food in Reading I have tried! Keep on the good work! The food is beautiful, not too oily, not overly sweet with cornstarch sauce, not overly rely on the dreaded “sweet and sour sauce” (that’s not a good representation of Chinese food) and most of all, definitely the quality is not like those take away Chinese food shops! Please try this for yourself! You get what you pay for! And actually it’s not much more expensive. It is not busy at all at most times and I think it is underrated. The atmosphere was good , it’s very neat , clean and comfortable. I was chatting with a waitress who was friendly and also come from Hong Kong. I came multiple times with my family and friends, and will definitely try other dishes.

They don't take cards. Cash only.

I had a terrible customer service experience on Friday evening, after questioning something that occurred on my last visit to the restaurant. This was around them only accepting cash yet their takeaway menu indicates that they do accept card payments. I was basically told that if I don't like it I mustn't come back........so I will not be back! The restaurant was empty when I was there so perhaps a lot of people have been told the same thing that I was told.

Had dinner with family on a Friday evening. We were surprised that though it was a Friday evening the place was almost deserted and out of those few guests one family stormed out complaining about poor customer service! We found the customer service to be rather indifferent but food was the biggest issue. Even while having the food we thought it was hit and miss with some foods served almost cold or tepid and some dishes tasting quite odd. However the most concerning part was that the next morning family member developed food poisoning which required visit to the doctors. Given the low turnout on a Friday night coupled with cold or tepid dishes being served very quickly and having food poisoning immediately after raises serious doubt about the freshness and hygiene of the food in this place. Definitely not an experience you would expect after forking out £100 for a meal!

!!!!DO NOT EAT HERE!!!!. No words can possibly explain how repulsive the food is, not to mention the price. No words can express this!!!!!!!!!!

Ordered a meal to be delivered at 16.50, 45 minutes to be delivered . At 19.00, 2 hours later, I went down there to find out what was going on. THEY WEREN’T EVEN OPEN!!!!! Don’t bother!!!!

A good place for dinner. Parking is a problem, very long walk.

The female waitress can speak Cantonese and English well. A nice dining experience.

Having ordered some foods, a bit pricy and the portions are small, the taste of all dishes were really bad, too salty or tasteless, not a traditional Chinese or Hong Kong Styles. It’s not worth trying.

At first glance the all you can eat menu seems like decent value. Starters were nice and we thought we were in for a treat but the main dishes were a let down. Crispy Chilli beef with no beef, chewy squid and sickly lemon chicken were not what we had in mind. While portions were decent everything was lack lustre. Being conscious of the 'pay for what you don't eat at full price' clause we tried our best to get through everything, but would have rather had the starters again. Drinks were very over priced and the coke was flat and questionably Coca-Cola. Add onto this 12.5% service charge and the exclamation that they only take cash and the cash point was up the road, and the meal came to over £100 for three people with soft drinks and one glass of wine. On the plus side the chow mein was good and everything came out very quickly. Maybe a case of learning what is worth eating and what isn't to get value for money.

To be honest, I did not think it was going to be as good as my normal Chinese takeaway that was closed, but it was excellent. Every dish looked clean and was very tasty. I will go back again.

It was a busy night for them and was very accommodating. Lovely food and great atmosphere

I ordered kung po chicken and chow mein. Chow mein was good but kung po was excessively sweet and had no sour and spicy flavor. It was like having chicken in sugar syrup.

I tried the All You Can Eat menu. Chilli Salt, sweet sour and crispy dishes are great. Soups are also wonderful. The variety of choices definitely meets your expectations. The quality of fried noodles needs to keep up the consistency. The first one is good but the second of the same dish is just so so.

Tuesday night very quiet .ordered a take out .wanted chicken in black bean sauce chow mein .they don't do it so had to by 2 meals? .went to pay to be told only taking cash.Got home and I was very disappointed with the meal .no taste to it chicken had a strange taste .ended up being ill in the night and having a sore tummy .

Solid Chinese food in reading. Would go again. Service was good.

Nice staff, tidy and spacious environment, some of the food are good. Fried beef noodle and sweet & sour pork are tasty

Ordered online , arrived quick and tasted ok but was missing a dish Rang to query got told they would check with chef then they hung up and we heard nothing

Found a side of moth (yes, the insect) in my bbq ribs today - took pictures for proof. Not happy with my order. Never again.

Just got home completely full loved everything we ate will definitely visit again ☺️

I must say I wasn't overly impressed, nothing was fresh.

Good Chinese takeaway. The restaurant appeared to be busy when I picked up my taka.

Soup was smelling like a wet dirty dog...could not eat it...

Wow wow wow. The very best Chinese in shinfield. Love love love. So yummy and fresh. Great service to. French kiss 😚

Excellent service and huge choice on the buffet

If you’re getting Chinese delivered, this is the only place in Reading I’d recommend. Over the years, I’ve tried them all in the area. At China Garden the quality is always consistent and they deliver in good time.

Pretty decent, the salt and chilli tofu is great. Good customer service. Thanks for saying which items are veggie on the menu!

Lots of vegetarian options. Manager and staff v helpful.

This place honestly needs shutting down. All sauces are clearly watered down. The food is dry and incredibly bland. The toilets are absolutely vile in this place. I'm really not sure how they are still open. Honestly the damp that is everywhere in this building and the cobwebs are disturbing. I am amazed that we were not ill. I would not recommend this place at all. Avoid at a costs.

Great buffet, reasonably priced.

I ordered online on Friday evening I received email confirmation at 6.25pm that my order would be delivered by 7.22pm after phoning them and getting no help the order finally came at 8.15pm Stone cold the satay chicken I ordered had no satay sauce at all just 4 skewers dry and vile I tried one the rest with the rest of the cold food ended up in the bin.Icould not get any help from 2 men I spoke to. I certainly would never order from here again

Very bad service I ordered online had a confirmation email at 6.30pm The food eventually turned up stone cold at 8.15pm. I could not get any help on the phone I was first asked if I would like to speak to a manager then I was passed to another man who said the manager was not there. Never again

Great food but lacked a bit in the service department, we did visit on a Saturday evening so they were incredibly busy with diners and takeaway orders coming in non stop. Would recommend though as the quality is great.

Was very disappointed as we only just live down the road from them and the food was cold after being recommended by family member and to end up with the food like this because of my illness I can't even reheat the food.

I can only give China Garden in Reading a 5 Star rating. This family owned, family run restaurant provided our group booking for Thames Valley Pro Taekwon-Do Xmas Meal the best experience for our end of year Xmas Meal. From the attention to detail of table setting and traditional environment to the service of delicious traditional cuisine China Garden would have to be a top recomended booking choice for any group celebration. I would not hesitate to return.

We visited China Garden with small kids for a Christmas party with friends. It was a lovely experience, cosy, homely feel. Tasty, generous food, choices for the fussier eaters too. The staff were helpful and friendly and did their best to make the party great. Would suggest the place for families or get togethers with friends or colleagues. Parking around nearby shops for free. I loved the oriental decor inside and outside, made the experience special.

Very accommodating of our recent Christmas party, friendly staff and delicious food.

very disapointed with the food quality , not as tasty as others , poor presentation , spent the whole time eating listening to the phone ringing and delivery drivers and motorcyclists coming in to the restaurant sorting out deliverys out on the floor in the restaurant while people are eating, the decor is in vey bad condition and cleanliness poor, looks like the restaurant is being run on a very low budget ,lights out, bare wires exposed, very disapointed

Chilli beef had not meat inside the batter and no chilli was dry and stone cold special chow main had no meat will just one prawn chip was stone cold only thing we liked was the chicken balls i feel we wasted £26,00 on terrible food would never use again China gardens afford at all costs there take away service and food are not good one bit worst food we ever had

Tasty food. Bit shame that some dishes were bit too salty.

Taste is fine, quantity is very less.

The service Is great and attentive. The seating are spacious and the food are delicious and authentic. We came with children and the waitress was very helpful in attending to their needs. We Had an lovely evening. Looking forward to come again.

Authentic Chinese. Lovely service and ambience!

Tasty food, good variety of dishes.

I always depend on the amazing quality of the food at China garden Reading for that special night dinner! Please do keep up the great standards !

We took the buffet option, all the food was of a reasonable standard and very fresh. All though there was a difference on the presentation between the buffet and Ala carte. Pleasant staff, not pushy al all. Good value for money will certainly go again

Best food in the area, always tastes fresh and full of flavour

Having just moved to Shinfield I needed to find a good Chinese take away and I found a great one! The food is so tasty and reasonably priced. I now want Chinese food everyday!

Good food though the duck appears to have been tasteless on this occasion ... Many visits previous have been absolutely fine .... Great staff FINALLY got to visit again .... outstanding food and service EXCELLENT 👌

Exceptional food and excellent service. We had a wonderful night out. Looking forward to our return visit .

The best chinese takeaway. Great food

Wow! I'm stuffed! Great food, hot, plenty and delivered early!

Pretty decent Chinese overall could do with a bit more of a stronger flavour on all products.

Food was great but not my taste. I need Hong Kong style of food.

My chicken curry did not taste, look or feel like chicken ?? Also chips were dry and definitely second fry

Ordered a takeaway from these guys last night and was not disappointed. The food is delicious and the price is very good. They even have an allergy list on their website which not many places do. Would I return? Yes Would I recommend? Yes

I cannot fault this place. Always great food, amazingly fast and painless ordering, and delivery consistently within 45 minutes every time. Have ordered from them for over two years now (I'm afraid I've lost count how many times that is in total!!!). If the line is busy when ordering, persevere! It's worth the wait!

Ate here on the All You Can Eat buffet menu. Great choice of dishes available for a fixed price. Food was tasty, crispy duck a highlight and very good rice too. Fairly small portions but that’s no problem for a buffet, can always order more! Nice to have room to try a wide selection of dishes! Very quiet in the restaurant but don’t let this put you off. Friendly staff too, with quick and attentive service.

Currently a 3 hour delivery, got told the car broke down. Nothing but lies. Absolutely terrible place. Avoid and order from somewhere else. The rudest person answering, other people saying the same

This was a very disappointed meal although we only pay half the price thanks to the government eat out scheme, the quality of the food did not reflect their price at all. We ordered three dishes from the À la carte menu and following are my comments: 1. Yeung Chow Fried Rice The was marginally average, a little more salty as it should be. 2. Lamb Spring Onions Soy Sauce There was no lamb in the dish, we both feel the meat tasted like beef but the waiter confirmed they were lamb. I was not convinced. The dish was too oily, basically it’s stir fry using soy sauce and dark soy cause, certainty below average. 3. Satay beef glass vermicelli hot pot This is not the way how it should be cooked. First of all, the hot pot isn’t hot :-) they should have at least cooked the food in the pot for a little while. Secondly, the satay was mostly covered by the chilli, satay should not be that spicy. Thirdly, pineapple added to the dish made the taste become a little strange, the sweet is all covered by the spice again. Lastly but not least, the dish was tasteless, you would be taste the chilli and that’s it. In conclusion, they are certainty not authentic Chinese food. I’m specially disappointed with the quality of the ingredients, for example addictive was added to the meat to make too/over tender which cause the meat losing its flavour and texture. I wouldn’t recommend this restaurant and certainty wouldn’t go back even it’s half price.

This was our first time at the restaurant and we will definitely return. They have a large menu and our decision to go with the "all you can eat" fixed-price (£19.50) dinner proved wise. The plate of mixed starters was a little disappointing, with rather dry spring rolls and spare ribs that had little meat on them but this was immediately compensated for with excellent crispy duck of ample proportions and all the traditional trimmings of pancakes, sauce, cucumber and spring onions. There followed a huge choice of traditional Chinese dishes based on lamb, beef, chicken, shrimp and pork. Each was cooked to order and served piping hot by friendly staff. The fact that this was "eating out to help out" was a bonus!

Loads to choose from food was very nice quick and efficient with bringing all dishes together very nice I have since had takeaways and recommended to family for takeaways

This used to be the best Chinese food I've had outside of London, I used to live in Hong Kong so I have a good reference. The last 3 times I have ordered, the food has been badly cooked and even the wrong dish. We always ask for no peppers in any dishes because of an allergy and the last order has peppers. We phoned the restaurant to tell them and also let them know that the food was badly cooked, the lady on the phone didn't care and was rude about it. The most recent meal was terrible and the chef should be ashamed of himself. I'll never order from them again which is a shame, I've been ordering from them for 3 years and used to love this restaurant.

I have visited this restaurant a few times now and really enjoy the quality of the food, and it is usually very quiet. The staff are polite, but do not recommend visiting in larger groups as this is the only bad experience I have had here (food was slow and felt rushed out).

The meal was my third takeaway of the lockdown so far and was pretty good. My opinion may not be amazing, as I have never been to a Chinese takeaway before but I liked it The food was good (I had sweet and sour pork Hong Kong style) the food contained lots of really nice meat. The dumplings were expensive and a bit of a let down but the prawn crackers were really good. The food was made quickly for us to collect and was still hot when we got to eat it, around 10 minutes later. It is a really nice meal and I suggest going here.

The food was peng x Following a minor mistake, went above and beyond expectations. 10/10 would recommend x

Very rude don’t even deserve one star. Please learn how to speak to your customers.

La comida era en el mejor de los casos promedio, incluso se equivocaron en el pedido, cuando se le pidió que repitiera el pedido, la señora que tomó el pedido dijo que no necesitábamos dar el número en el menú que pertenece al artículo ya que ella no parecía entender y parecía apresura la llamada telefónicaUn artículo estaba mal y tenía carnes mixtas y, como nuestra hija es pescatariana, los fideos ordenados eran vegetarianos con un plato principal de gambas.Actitud impactante, sin humildad en el simple hecho de que el error fue de su parte - para el negocio de restaurantes / comida para llevar, especialmente en el clima económico actual debido a la Pandemia, donde la mayoría de las tiendas, restaurantes y comida para llevar están cerradas - si se permite que el negocio se quede ABIERTOS necesitan ofrecer el mejor servicio, calidad y atención al cliente posibles. Parece ajeno a este lugar en todas las cuentasNo volveremos a hacer pedidos desde aquí, ¡deja la visita!Pésimo

Awesome food, good quantity and tasty, get takeout here regularly.

Decepcionado por decir lo menos ordenado a las 5. 30 pm para la entrega a las 6. Las 30 de la noche no recibían comida hasta las 8. 20 pm, aunque llamé al restaurante más de dos veces y la señora fue amable y se disculpó,Se contactó con el conductor varias veces, se le dijo que dijo que se había desviado, pero cuando me llamó fue otra historia que culpaba a su navegador de iPhone, no puso mi código postal y mi dirección y lo llevó a la misma dirección. En otro lugar, un viaje de 20 minutos en automóvil desde el restaurante que se convirtió en una hora y 50 minutos más de lo que se esperaba la primera hora, era un placer para mí y mi hija discapacitada que estábamos esperando. Después de que el conductor de disculpa le dijo que aún hacía calor, sí, lo adivinó, no tenía que calentarlo todo costó 38, el restaurante ha ofrecido un 20% de descuento la próxima vez, lo siento, no habrá una próxima vez

not great!! rice came out a good 10 minutes before the rest of the main and the mains left a lot to be desired

The food is always good to very good. Attentive staff and a nice environment.

I love Chinese food but this restaurant have a really bad service quality, when you call they hang up on you, delivery driver are not polite and 2 times we received wrong food. Really disappointed

Person answears the phone doesn't give respect to customers.last week they send me 1 item missing without ringing back to tell me they run out of crab and people delivering food doesn't want to come upstairs, they ask me to go downstairs every time I order food and the worse experience was today with driver didn't want to give me my change

Food was OK. Not great, but not bad. Had dim sum, and soup noodles and mixed met rice for lunch. Came to try as the Reading China Palace had closed. Not sure we will be back, as nothing special.

Just visited this place and found the food quality to be really quite poor - feeling a little nauseated right now to be brutally honest. Also, the blatant attempt to overcharge by £30 through nonchalantly changing some quantities from 1 to 2 and then accidentally leaving a drink at qty 1 when it should have been 2 with a hand annotation to correct it back to 2 and a little verbal apology and explanation was a clear attempted distraction to focus attention elsewhere and therefore disguise the overcharging on the food. This was really quite offensive to our intelligence and just pure silliness. I'm very rarely moved to a point where I want to leave a negative review but this time I feel it's justified.

Used to be my favourite Chinese restaurant.Before 2 years The food quality had changed from perfect to fair.

Great food and lovely friendly staff - we had a really good evening!

We had vegetarian food which was fantastic. All food ordered didn't disappoint from the description. There was 3 of us and we all thought the same.

Good food and service as usual but why was the air conditioning on when it about minus 2 outside? Most people were wearing coats whilst eating their food.

Don’t recommend by my family, chowmaine more like soup, poor food, never again...!!!!

Ate here recently, lovely food and a quick service. We opted for the buffet menu and were able to choose from a range of things. The portions are small but of course you can just order more. Price was good too!

Comimos aquí cuando el Festival de Lectura estaba en marcha y lleno de gente. El restaurante necesita un orden, los baños necesitan una limpieza. La comida estaba bien. Se nos preguntó si realmente queríamos agregar una propina a la factura al pagar, cuando el menú lo indica claramente, se agregará automáticamente un 10% de cargo por servicio. ? ? ? ! ! ! ! Definitivamente no vale la pena un doble consejo! ! ! !