Sun Luck Garden

We’ve enjoyed Sun Luck Garden over the years when Annie owned it, so we wanted to give it a try under the new management. The menu has changed a bit, but what we most enjoyed — extremely fresh, not too saucy, creative Chinese. We had pot stickers, crab Rangoon and hot & sour soup for appetizers, all very good. For entrees, four of us shared chicken lo mein, governor’s chicken, tofu & mixed vegetables and a phenomenal clams with black bean sauce special. There was way more food than we could eat and amazingly, the entire order was $ 50. For the quality they serve, this restaurant could be charging much more. And now they’re open for lunch! We’ll definitely be regulars here again. Happy Lunar New Year!

Great service. Food? I’ve had better. We ordered takeout. Both the phone conversation and the service upon entering the restaurant to get the order was exceptional. When we got home, it was a different story. *Enter sad, disappointed face here!* Butternut soup and Hot and Sour soup were both extremely oily. To the point where all we did was taste each one make the ‘hell no’ face, and move on. For the main dishes we had a veggie fried rice dish that was tasty but unremarkable, and the same went for the sweet and sour chicken. Don’t see a return visit any time in the near future.

It’s not easy to find high quality Chinese food in Cleveland Heights. Sun Luck Garden sets themselves apart by showcasing fresh ingredients in their menu of standard Chinese fare. Service seems great, the staff are attentive. Definitely a lot of take-​out business. Sauces can be a little one-​note, but overall everyone left satisfied.

The new owners of Sun Luck are working very hard to delight the restaurant’s old customers. We’ve been there 3 times now since Annie retired, and it’s quickly becoming one of our local favorites. Last night Yuan, one of the new owners, gave us complimentary bowls of her version of butternut squash soup. It was delicious! I also had the eggplant in garlic sauce which is made from beautiful Chinese eggplant cooked perfectly. Last time I was there, I had the green beans, and they were equally fresh, and delicious. The portions are large and reasonably priced. There was a brisk take-​out business while we were there, but I was glad for the attentive and personable service that we were getting from Yuan. I highly recommend that you stop in and give it a try.

This is a very good restaurant. The won ton soup was fresh, hot and delicious. The egg rolls same. Szechuan chicken was very good but not stellar. I’ve also tried the lemon chicken which was great. Mongolean beef is outstanding. Portions are big. Service was excellent. Immaculately clean. Fresh interiors. New owner. She is very nice. She is trying hard to make it a go after Annie left. Doing great. Business was slow when I went in. Her prices are very reasonable. They have family dinner specials on the back of the menu which includes full dinner, rice, tea, eggrolls, and soup. Dinner for 2 is about 18 bucks. Can’t beat that. This is quickly becoming the best Chinese restaurant in Cleveland Heights and perhaps the east side IMO.

Amazing food! Incredible service. Love this place and it has such a wonderful dining area. Small but nicely decorated and quant. You would never think to look where it’s located, in a small strip mall off Taylor, just west of Cedar; but there it is and the food is divine. I can’t wait to go back again!

Annie Chiu no longer owns this restaurant. Sadly it has gone from very good to mediocre at best.

Let me just start by saying customer service is everything. When it comes to pleasing customers they don’t fall short a bit.
We tried the ham egg foo yung with fried rice, chicken lo mein, house fried rice, and egg rolls.
Everything was fresh and the taste was authentic.
Chinese is my favorite and I could eat it everyday. However, the Chinese in my area has been falling short. I can’t say the same about SunLuck and their NEW MANAGEMENT!
The restaurant was also very clean which is most important to me.
Also, they will be switching over to a new lower price menu in about two weeks.

I hate to be the ones to break this to the rest of you Unilocalers… But the restaurant has changed hands and has a different menu. I went in craving the butternut squash wonton soup and was shocked to see everything changed over. The food was still very very good– I will just miss Annie :/

Had the Mai pou tofu for takeout. At first the tofu was all smushed, but then took the first bite and it was great!
I wanted to add eggplant to it, willing to pay extra but the owner wouldn’t and wanted me to pay for a huge order of eggplant. Was a little rude but the food was good.

We were in the neighborhood and decided to get some carry-​out from Sun Luck, a restaurant we have enjoyed many times in the past. The young man who greeted us was friendly and helpful, and the owner, Annie, was making the rounds in the dining room… perhaps she should have been supervising the kitchen! The spring roll was fine but the ribs were swimming in sauce and shards of bone could have been lethal. The lemon chicken was bland and devoid of lemon flavor and the pasty breading gave it a strange consistency. The Kung Pao Chicken, ordered medium spicy, was also bland and although full of chopped water chestnuts, there was NOT ONE PEANUT in the dish. We always look forward to the fortune cookies, and even they were missing from our bag. I don’t think we’ll be back… too bad, this used to be a gem in Cleveland Heights.

My family has been going to Annie’s for years and I look forward to it every time I visit Cleveland. The décor is colorful and festive, the service is wonderful (not only friendly and informed, but they turn the plates so that the decoration is facing the right way and they clear the table almost silently instead of banging the dishes together,) but most important, the food is delicious. There are always specials which aren’t on the menu and are creative and flavorful, and asking for simple twists on menu staples (like extra almonds) can transform a dish into something special. Annie was a pastry chef previously and this is the only Chinese restaurant I know where you should definitely save room for dessert. The sorbets (really more granitas) are milk-​free and taste exactly like the fruits that name them, and the baked dishes are exceptional.
I do not see Asians in this restaurant as a rule, but it is usually filled with repeat customers who are enthusiastic about the food and the experience. It is an east-​side favorite among those who know about it, including a former east-​sider like me!

Not good. So many better options in the Heights.

Some of the worst Chinese food I’ve ever had. Everything was sweet. It’s like cooking a steak marinated with sugar. If you have functional taste buds do not come here!

I usually only get Chinese food for takeout or delivery. This place has a recommendation as being the best in the area. We went on Chinese New Years. Nice menu with specials. Food was prepared well. Ranged from good to excellent. Portion size was nice. Price was OK for what you received. Servers were nice, ranging from friendly to downright entertaining. So why not four stars? This has to be the most poorly organized restaurant I’ve ever been to. The food kept it from one star. If you go there when it is slow, you will have a good time. Watch out when it is busy. You will likely meet all of the servers working that night. I don’t know how they keep up with things, knowing what each table needs (answer: they don’t). Then there is the manager. She brought her toddler to work. Cute when he is asleep and she is carrying him. Not so cute when she sits down at an unoccupied table with him, gives him a bowl and a spoon to bang it with. Yes, I have kids, but I don’t go to a restaurant for this experience. Also, beware using
certificates here. The only restriction on them is that they are valid Sunday through Thursday. We were there on a Sunday and the manager told the server she would not honor it because it was a holiday. Nice way to use a promotion to lose business!

By far the best Chinese restaurant in Cleveburg.
Annie Chiu does all the traditional dishes, but it is the *dessert* that really stands out when you’re least expecting it. The orange coconut cake and fried milk (not always on the menu) are incredible.
Also get on her email list: spicy green mussels, crab and other great dishes are not on the menu and you’ll only know if you’re on the list.
Finally, she keeps a small amount of duck confit around (also not on menu) which she cooks in Chinese style.
Awesome place one of favorites in Cleveland.

So my parents are in town visiting this week and being Chinese, they prefer to eat Asian food in general. This place is right across the street from where I live, so, being new to the area as well, I suggest we try this place.
When we walk in, I immediately start to doubt my decision. Although most of the table are occupied, which is generally a good sign, they are all occupied by middle aged white American people. When we are greeted by a white college guy who is our server, I start to think of ways that we can get out of here without looking ridiculous.
Unfortunately, my dad convinces us to stay.
Oh I forgot to mention, my family is all vegetarian.
So they have quite a few vegetarian options, which is one of the reasons I wanted to go in the first place.
My dad starts with the hot and sour soup, which he says is decent.
I have a veggie eggroll, which is pretty average.
We went on the have the Vegetarian Kung Pao, Vegetarian Hawphen, and Dark Tofu with Oriental Vegetables.
I don’t even know where to begin. It’s hard to say that they weren’t authentic, because the dishes were very home style cooking. Like something you’d find in some small village where the mom doesn’t know how to cook and just throws things together. The main problem with all the food was how ridiculously sweet everything was. It all just tasted like someone accidentally spilled a whole cup of sugar in it. There was definitely lots of MSG, which I’m fine with in small quantities, but some other people aren’t.
Yeah it was like eating candy laced with MSG.
On another note, the service was quite good. The college boy was actually quite attentive, professional, and funny. An older Asian lady came out, presumably the owner or chef, and asked how everything was.
Overall, I’d come back here again if I were really desperate and lazy, because I could make the same caliber of food from here in my own kitchen. I had some good expectations because of the good reviews on here, but people’s taste buds must be off because I don’t understand how superb can be used to describe the food here and it is just sad if this is the best Chinese food some people have had :(

the fat Asian waiter there was rude. My dish was very salty and has the disgusting MSG sweet flavor that made me very thirsty! Hate the place!
And you get a clue if you don’t see any Chinese in the Chinese restaurant. Most dishes are too sweet and way overpriced!
Don’t tell me they have authentic Chinese food because they don’t!

My favorite Chinese food on the east side; probably in the city. And very vegetarian friendly; they have a vegetarian menu, and they understand what that means. (Some Chinese places put seafood in the «vegetarian» sauce.)
The recipes are unique and creative; not the usual generic fare. Service is great, and the atmosphere is nice; more modern than some (but small).
They have both «light» and «dark» tofu. Light tofu means normal soy tofu… dark tofu isn’t soy-​based but wheat-​based; basically seitan. A different, chewier texture. Both are good.
They do some neat special recipes for Chinese New Year too.
Lunch is a great deal here – very cheap. But lunch is on Wednesdays only!

In reading the other reviews on here, it’s clear that there are some people who really love this place. Not surprisingly none of them are Asian … neither am I, but my partner is and we were at Sunluck Gardens together on the eve on which this review was based.
I will say that we went there with minimal expectations, based on most other Cleveland area Chinese restaurants. We arrived at approximately 7p on a Friday evening and found the place about ¹⁄₃ full. It’s the lone bit of life in an otherwise dismal and vacant strip mall.
The first thing we noted was the lack of Asians. There were none in the dining room and none to be seen in the kitchen or wait staff. Most of the clientele were older couples over the age of 50. I can’t fault the service; they were attentive and friendly.
Upon reviewing the menu, we weren’t terribly impressed with the selection and we couldn’t help but feel that everything was $ 2 – 3 more expensive than it should be, based on other Chinese restaurants in town.
With some trepidation, we ordered the kung pao beef, the garlic spicy eggplant, and the dark tofu with vegetables.
The general tone of everything we were served was sweetness. There was way too much sugar being tossed around in that kitchen, and that was a theme I noticed from a number of the other reviews on here. I like my food a little sweeter than my partner does, but even I felt like it was all just short of being a dessert.
The Kung Pao Been was mostly diced green beans; we ordered it at a medium spice level and could barely note even a tingle on the tongue.
The Garlic Spicy Eggplant was a brown mush with no discernible eggplant pieces — imagine babaganouj loaded with teryaki and hoisin.
The Dark Tofu with Vegetables — we weren’t sure what «dark tofu» was but it was on the menu a few times and someone recommended it in a Unilocal review — was not tofu at all. It was gluten. Now there’s nothing wrong with gluten; it can be really tasty, and this may have been the best dish we ordered, but the pieces were minuscule and it was swamped with a sticky sweet brown sauce.
While we were eating, the owner — I’m guessing her name was Annie, based on other reviewers on here — came to our table and asked how we were doing. She seemed very nice and recommended that if we took home any of the eggplant, that it went well as a spread for pita. she was probably right, it would have been good on pita, but it certainly wasn’t much of a dish by itself.
She stopped by a few other tables and some of the people obviously knew her. An older couple sat down at a table next to us, and when they ordered they made a special request for some dish that wasn’t on the menu — while I don’t recall what the dish was exactly, I do remember them telling the waiter to «ask Annie if she would make her special XYZ for us.» Shortly thereafter, Annie came back out of the kitchen and they conversed for a while. It was great to see that sort of personal touch in a local restaurant, but I just wish the food was better.
While it pains me to give this place only two stars — it would have been 1 star but for the service — I just wouldn’t feel comfortable sending anyone here who had any anticipation of even Americanized Chinese food.
I wish Annie the best, but we won’t be returning.