Alvin Garden

Very yummy place.
I find it a bit pricey and prefer a bit more meat in my food but overall really good. I love the flavour and seems like they put care into it.

LEGIT HUNAN RIGHT HERE.
This is my favourite Hunan restaurant in all of Van. But be warned, their version of medium spicy is… REALLY SPICY. And I mean it. Unless you like eating with sweat beading down your face, stick with mild.
All the dishes here are really yummy! Go for their signature dishes: braised pork, beef with pickled green chilli, cauliflower, you won’t regret it!
The only gripe I have with them is that their rice is inconsistent. And dry ish. Once we got a pot of «dirty» looking rice, it had brown/​yellow spots in it!

If you enjoy spicy dishes and chilli peppers, you will love Alvin Garden.
You can ask for mild, medium and hot for the dishes, and just a heads up, mild may even be too hot for most people.
I probably come here once a month at least and the food is perfect for this Vancouver cold fall nights.
We ordered the fish in spicy broth (my chinese friend told me the actual translation of the dish is fish cooked in water), pickled green bean and ground pork, and the cauliflower with thinly sliced pork. Everything is very tasty, spicy and packs a ton of flavour. You will want to order juice to wash down the food.
Although it is known for its spicy dishes, they do have a variety of non spicy items on the menu as well. The tea smoked duck is very good as well.
I can say confidently that the food here is some of the best that I have ever eaten. It is a must try if you get the chance!
You will want to bring a group of friends or family so you can try more dishes as the portions are pretty decent.
Also, the restaurant only accepts credit or debit if the bill is over $ 50…so if you are going alone, bring cash!

Hunan spice! Medium spice was more than enough for me! Very delicious! Smoked Tea Duck is my fav!
Accepts credit/​debit!

The superb food makes up for the terrible service. Make sure you go during the lunch special days and hours for the best deal because outside of those times the menu changes and the prices get steeper.

I’ve been looking for a Hunan restaurant for a long time since my favorite one closed in Richmond.
I picked up take out for dinner this evening and it was fantastic. Spicy and flavorful! We ordered the house daily soup (pork and wild mushrooms). It was perfect for this rainy night. We also had the spicy pork & string beans, spicy cauliflower, pork and tree mushrooms. Portions were big. They ask you how spicy you prefer and we ordered hot. It’s a burn your tongue kind of hot but I loved it.
Can’t wait to visit again.

This place has been referred to me for years by my favorite and trustworthy foodie. I’m glad I finally went!
Not sure if it was our caucasian faces in the middle of an all-​asian crowd that attracted them but some other patrons visited our table and said «you must like spicy!» That scared us about how spicy things were going to be — so we ordered the Hunan dishes medium-​hot just in case. It turned out just fine.
Kung pao prawns with peanuts are deep with layers of different pepper flavour. The pork and ginger soup has a wonderful range of different flavours too for such a simple brothy soup.
The tea smoked duck is profoundly intense in its flavours. The skin and fat are super smoky and contrasts the sweet and five-​spice base in the duck.
Pleasant service.
Bring a group. The portions are big and you will want to try many dishes.

This restaurant was closed by Fraser Health for a week in July 2014 for various reasons.

Probably the only throughly authentic Hunan cuisine on the west coast. The fish head with chopped chili pepper is worth the couple hours of driving from Seattle

I’ve been coming here for years now (mostly for dinner) and I’ve never been disappointed. Unlike other Szechuan restaurants that are mostly Cantonese food with a few peppers thrown in, this place delivers when it comes to spice. Be warned, I really love hot and spicy foods but I now order all of the dishes medium; learnt from my first experience when I ordered everything hot. It was almost unedible for me.
I particually like their smoked pork dishes and the spicy cold chicken dish.

I don’t eat spicy and they made it not not spicy. Ordered the smoked tea duck, smoked pork, and cha Sui fried rice. It was okay. Next time I would order the cauliflower + pork.

I love this place
If you want authentic Hunan very spicy food then this is the place outside China to go to
I read that people complain it’s too salty or greasy on some dishes but that’s how it’s suppose to be and in China it’s exactly how it’s prepared
This Chinese food is from the human and Szcheun region where the food is extremely spicy so be prepared as it’s not the typical cantonese style food we are use to in Vancouver
If you come here you have to try the boiled fish in oil with chillies or the spicy cabbage with chilli
This is definitely very spicy so if you can not handle the spice order your dishes non spicy

The depth of flavour in the dishes is outstanding! This is the first time eating dinner here and we’re sorry that we didn’t know about this place sooner. The price is a bit high, but the quality of the food makes it worth it. The dishes we had — one of which had a chilli pepper broth — was not too spicy.
All of the dishes on the menu (which has excellent photos) look soooo yummy! And the best thing is that the food more than matches the expectations of the photos.
We will be back many times, I’m sure.
TIP: Come early for dinner. The place is not too big and you can expect a line-​up if you arrive later.

tough one to rate b/​c it’s a flat out 4 stars if you love burning hot, and 3 stars if you’re not. And the rare occasion where the restaurant doesn’t underrate its hotness, or quite conservative. If you want 3 stars medium hot, it actually is that hot!
Ordered their famous duck with beer braised, and while tasty, I didn’t particularly find it that tender. Nor was I a fan of the chef’s way of cutting this in a seemingly diagonal way b/​c it really was a lot of twisting and turning w/​the chopsticks. Btw, I liked the sushi-​style chopsticks, a lot more hygienic if you know what i mean, but i digress.
2^nd up the list was the snapper fish w/​chili sauce, all boneless and super soft, no chew or flakiness. Again lots of minced red chillis all around, and naturally, oil too so was careful to weed it out when adding to the rice.
Both dishes come with this pepper-​like caper which isn’t meant to be eaten as it does leave a discomforting after-​taste. Been told that this is the Hunan’s province’s signature ingredient.
Above average décor, in between a hole in the wall and fine dining.
Some parking in the back, where I think it’s a bit dodgy, so luckily managed to find the few spots around the corner on Nelson.
Staff friendly, useful, spoke good English.
Won some awards, though not lately.

If youve got a craving for hot spicy food, this place hits the spot. We like to order the beef dish they won an award for, and the fish in chili sauce. Amazing! The service has been friendly and the food comes out fast.

Food is good. But actually i have pretty high standard for my hometown food, i would say they are not that «local» as i expected.

I thoroughly enjoyed my visit here, though the waitresses don’t speak very good English. They were friendly and service was really fast, I couldn’t believe how popular the place was until I turned my head around and realized that within ½ hour of opening half the restaurant already filled!
The dishes we ordered were pan fried spicy chicken, which I warn you. It’s delicious but if you don’t like picking through small bones and tasting a TON of red peppers? don’t order it. Otherwise, It’s an amazing experience. Their green beans with minced pork was very good too, Be ready to wolf down a lot of rice when you order from this place because it is satisfyingly spicy! :D

@Rae K. We did try the duck… was good. Not sure why they chose an name like Alvin Garden! Xiang was a better and more marketable name!
I’d go back again.

You want spicy Hunan dishes? This restaurant serves up some pretty authentic Hunan food. The dishes are super spicy full of peppercorns and chilli peppers.
Its rare to find any Hunan restaurants in Vancouver, so this place is very busy. I have to admit that they definitely could make the place look more inviting with some renovations.
I would recommend ordering the basic dishes like shredded potato slices, cumin beef, and minced pork with green beans. Just be warn, even ordering mild could cause a burning flame sensation in your mouth. Please do order a bowl of rice and a drink to water down the spicy flavour.
Unfortunately the service could use improvement. The waitress’ needs to be more attentive to the customers. Overall, I only come here if I’m craving for really spicy Hunan food.

Feeling homesick and craving food from her home Felicia decided we should go to Alvin Garden. Alvin Garden as you may have heard is a Hunan restaurant near Metrotown. The intrinsic quality about Hunan food which I most fondly remember is pain. Mind numbingly scorching heat and watering eyes. I love it. We decided on trying out their pigs heart with five spice to start. This dish has won them a CRA. Usually I really can’t handle eating organ meat. It’s the texture that throws me off, but this dish was perfectly cooked and had many layers of flavor to it. It wasn’t rubbery or gamey either.
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