Chuong Garden

My wife and I are living in Grinnell this academic year while she has an appt. to the college. We live in Chicago and have access to no limit of excellent Asian restaurants representing a wide range of cuisines. Nonetheless, we have found that Chuong Gardens offers superb food. We have not eaten in (only take out) so we will not comment on the in-​restaurant ambiance. We do offer the following caveats: 1) the food is a bit overpriced for a small town; 2) the regular orders of steamed rice that come with most orders are small, necessitating getting an extra large order of steamed rice; 3) more care needs to be taken in packaging messy orders (such as braised shrimp, my wife’s favorite) to avoid spillage for take out. Aside from that, highly recommended.

Recommendation: Chuong Garden really isn’t too bad, especially considering its location in the middle of Grinnell. Some of my favorites are the Shrimp with Lobster Sauce and any of the Pan Fried Noodles. The Bubble Tea also gives CA boba shops a run for their money!
TIP: Chuong doesn’t take Discover or Amex, last I checked. Mastercard and Visa are the only options!
Food:
From time to time, the vegetables can be a little underwhelming, but on most occasions they’re pretty fresh and delicious. The prices are reasonable with regard to the food quality and portion size, and on most occasions we have enough leftovers for another half a meal. Take-​out is available too, so you can call ahead and usually have an order ready to go in under 20 minutes. Chuong Garden also caters in the form of providing 12×18 inch party platters of some of their dishes. However, these platters run upwards of $ 45 – 50 and for the price, the food is good but in little quantity. After ordering from here for group meals in the past, I’d recommend looking elsewhere if you’re trying to get the most bang for your buck.
Service: The restaurant is primarily run by the owners and is bussed by college students. The college students are typically adequate at their jobs with regard to filling drinks, cycling the tables, and providing a positive diner experience. There can be lapses though when the amount of seated diners is large, but I’d expect as much from non-​professionals. You’ll definitely see better wait staff in other cities or nicer restaurants, but there are no weird vibes or anything thankfully.
Atmosphere: This is probably the biggest pain point of the restaurant. The booths are a little on the run-​down side, with wall paint starting to come off and tables and seats showing signs of wear. The restaurant is dimly lit by ordinary incandescent lights and there is not a huge amount of décor. There is no music playing in the background, meaning the space can be very quiet at times.
Conclusion: All in all, I’d still go back. The food is good enough to overlook the decent service and lacking atmosphere, and the prices (at least for single dishes) is entirely reasonable on a college budget.

Among the best American Chinese food I’ve had… and what a surprise from a tiny town in the middle of Iowa!
Every dish came out promptly and hot. The egg rolls were crunchy on the outside, truly crisp not somewhat soggy. The filling was made up of a nice savory vegetable mix and the sweet and sour sauce paired very well with it. Same story with the crab Rangoon – hot, crispy, fresh, delicious. The beef and broccoli was nicely sauced, not too dry or too saucy. The broccoli was perfectly steamed and the meat was tender. The fried rice was excellent! Not greasy or mealy, just a deep almost nutty flavor.
At a restaurant that serves mostly cuisine staples, name of the game is execution and Chuong definitely delivered. Everything was perfectly cooked, seasoned, and delivered with a smile.
The only drawback was the state of the restaurant itself. The booths and walls definitely need updating.

Who knew? Little Grinnell, IA is home to the best Chinese food anywhere (and I grew up in Montréal and NY). The Garlic Tofu Broccoli is the stuff of dreams. Heading there soon and can’t wait!

Always a stop for us whenever we go to Grinnell! Quick service with great menu.

Great food! Whenever we travel to Des Moines, we make it a point to stop in Grinnell for Chuong Garden. Better than anything that I’ve found in Des Moines. Great lunch specials too. Give it a try.

I am working in the area this week and was checking out Unilocal to see what I should treat myself to for lunch on Friday. I miss the good ‘ol Chinese restaurant as they are really hard to come by anymore. I recall my childhood experiences of sit down Chinese restaurants where I felt (albeit a child) that the food was far superior than what we experience these days and that the owners were very proud of providing you with a pleasant dining experience. Nowadays, most options are take out and they all taste the same to me. They don’t taste homemade (i.e., Sesame Chicken in my hometown was, now it’s just lumps/​chunks of fried meat drowned in some sauce that is interchangeable for lots of dishes).
Anyway, so, reading the reviews on here, I was intrigued to give it a shot. I went with the lunch special of Shrimp Fried Rice and crab rangoon side. I didn’t think it was amazing by any means, but I did feel it was above par compared to the area choices. It definitely had more substance and flavor than the typical rice, meat, soy sauce and gobs of onion. They actually put egg in theirs with diced carrots, peas and green onion. The portion was more than enough and I could have used more shrimp. The crab rangoon was fine as well, but not rave worthy as I had anticipated from the other reviews. Not trying to be a debbie downer on this. The experience was better than your standard take out and bonus, it is a sit down restaurant, of which, I may just come back and try something else. The place was clean inside and service was friendly, so overall a positive experience, just not Woo Hoo knock my socks off, bring back my childhood again.

Just stopped in for lunch. Very good food and service! Cashew chicken, egg drop soup w/​egg roll. Highly recommend!

We ended up here because everything else in town was closed. It’s not easy to find food on a Sunday night in Grinnell. The service was great everything was quick. I ordered Mushu pork and thought it was just okay. My husband tried to special order a meal with no sauce ginger and garlic but it came full of sauce. Even though the price was reasonable we felt that we had overpaid for the quality.

Solid reliable Chinese food. This place is packed when students are in town, and with good reason. In particular the hot and sour soup is good, and you must try the broccoli and tofu. I like the pan fried noodles myself –they get a nice char on the outside — but really check it out for yourself.!!

Honestly I don’t like Chinese food that much but Choung Garden is AMAZING! They have amazing egg rolls and the prices are surprisingly good!

Holy cow, if I ever make it back to Grinnell the first place I want to go is to Chuong Garden.
BEST lunch special ever! Pick any item on the menu and it is delicious! Crab rangoon is so good, I haven’t found a better one anywhere.
One of my friends always gets the shrimp fried rice and it was great. Not some measly little shrimp, big old things in tasty fried rice.
One of my favorite things is that their orange chicken is slightly crunchy. I have yet to find a place that does this, and it is amazing!

5 Star review streak continues with me.
Egg Drop Soup-​Tasty soup with very good flavor.
Egg Roll– Good eggrolls, crunch and filling done just right.
Steamed Dumpling– Did a great job with them.
Fried Rice-​Good fried rice that does stand out from basic fried rice.
Orange Chicken-​Little spicy, right amount of orange flavor, great cut of chicken used to cook, has right crispiness, and great sauce.
One of the best in Chinese restaurants in Iowa, there is one in Knoxville, IA and one in Des Moines, IA that round out top three that I have had here. They are a sit down place with no buffet which is great since every Iowa town has one. Nice to have a change in that trend.

We went there all the time in college. Their crab rangoon is one-​of-​a-​kind.

Hands down best Chinese food I’ve EVER HAD! The crab rangoon really is amazing. And I ordered the shrimp fried rice spicy and it was PERFECT. I want to move to Grinnell. :) Very quick and friendly service.

Good prices, great portions, and quick service.
I see that its already been said, but I’ll toss this out: Awesome crab rangoon! I don’t know what crab rangoon IS, by traditional standards. But this is deeelicious.

I have one thing to say: Best Crab Rangoon EVER!
No, seriously, my fiancé and I order crab rangoon at every place we go that offers it, and no where else measures up.
The rest of the menu is great too. Their lunch specials are a really great deal and service is prompt. I have moved away now due to graduation from the college, and I miss this place so much.

Great food! You get a lot of food for your dollar. Prices are reasonable. Service is very quick.