Hunan Garden Chinese Restaurant

This Chinese place is the best in Toms River, hands down I’m not just saying it I know good Chinese food when I see it. try it out for yourself. The food is better when you eat there, and the lunch menu is great and the prices are also great.

Great food, owner John very personable and accommodating. They makes some very nice different dishes. Would recommend.

Best Chinese food I’ve had anywhere. Always consistently great food and good service. Highly recommend.

Best local take out forever for my Chinese food hungry munch. Eggplant with string beans and tofu done with a spicy brown sauce with peanuts. It’s not on the menu try it. And yes they have brown rice.

The food here is excellent. When tired of the traditional take out places close to home we come here for a sit down meal. Staff is great and courteous. The offer items that are not offered in other places, which I like. Nice sized portions

Take out or eat in, Hunan Garden is consistently solid eats.
It has all of the predictable, comforting Chinese/​American food dishes that you know and love: pork fried rice, General Tso chicken, wonton soup, and boneless spare ribs to name a few.
There are a bunch of Chinese food places in Toms River but I found Hunan Garden to be the best. The prices are cheap, the food is fresh, and I don’t recall ever having an incorrect order.
* note — Cute teen girls answer the phones and wait tables. *

Been ordering from this place for years… like any other food places it has good days and bad days… but this place out ways the bad big time… food is always fresh and hot… the taste never dissapoints… friendly staff… there’s been two maybe 3 times where it wasn’t it’s best but in 5 yrs of eating here its not a bad ratio. One of the best Chinese food places I’ve ever been, and I’m a huge Chinese food guy… will I be back??? Always… prices are normal too…

So going off the glowing reviews that were previously written about this restauraunt i decided to deviate from my favorite number 1 china. Bad idea. They delivered the wrong food– got an attitude when i called to ask them to bring the right food, and then it came cold with halfcooked shrimp and an attitude. I WILL NEVER ORDER FROM HERE AGAIN… i took thst disgusting food right back and got my money back!

I’ve been a loyal customer to Golden Dragon Kitchen on 37 West for over eight years, yesterday my mother wanted to take me out to eat, so she wanted to try Hunan Garden because her old lady friend told her it was good, I was like whatever, no Chinese restaurant is better then GD, well, damn, this place is GREAT, sorry to say, liked the food more then GD, we had the PU PU PLATTER FOR TWO, GENERAL TSO SHRIMP, AND SHRIMP WITH BROCCOLI lunch specials… I will most likely travel eight miles down 37 on Friday for takeout, I really like this place!

I have been coming here for years and I am never disappointed. The portion sizes are huge, and it is very cheap. The service is quick, and they are always so nice. Me and my fiancé love coming here.

I placed a order at 1:15 p. m it is now passed 2:45 and I still have not received my food I was told 30 minutes. I was ordering lunch but it’s almost dinner now. I also called and was told it would be here in a few minutes that was 35 minutes ago. Never will order from here again.
I called back again it is now 2:55 and the guy repeated what he said before did not offer any thing to compensate for the inconvenience. All I know is the food better be hot.

After getting delivered the wrong food and then another 45 minute wait, the food was very sub par. General Tsao white meat had very large pieces. That just meant that the piece was mainly coating and not much chicken. The lo mein was decent.

Absolutely awesome. Best chinese food in ocean county. Go there and have them recommend something. Anything. It’s all good.

Been eating here for years, it’s always very good. My favorite is the beef or chicken with string beans (cooked nicely and the beans area crispy with a little kick). The lunch menu is very inexpensive as well as delicious. The pork & cabbage soup is so fresh and light with a touch of spicy flavor. I have yet to find this soup anywhere else, it’s amazing. The dumplings are below average, they can be better but all in all if you’re looking for good Chinese in Toms River than Hunan is the place. Takeout is good but you can’t beat the freshness like at the restaurant, especially for those cripsy recipes such as General Tso chicken and Crispy Shrimp with Walnuts straight from the pan. The menu on here is incorrect, not sure whose menu it is.

Take out is very good but the restaurant itself is very dirty and smells like mold and mildew

Hunan Garden was the first Chinese restaurant — indeed, the first restaurant — that my wife and I tried when we moved to the neighborhood about twelve years ago. We weren’t impressed, and we didn’t go back. I couldn’t tell you why; I’m sure it just fell under the heading «Food Sucks», and we moved on.
Fast forward, and what we have determined is the great universal truth of Chinese take-​out: it’s hit or miss at best. So we have made the loop, and are back at square one. Square one being Hunan Garden.
My wife is still not a fan. Too bad. This is my profile, and she barely likes anything. I, on the other hand, was quite pleased and impressed. I have ordered from here twice over the past four days, and almost everything I sampled ranged from good to great.
Please allow me to point out that the menu linked to this page, which is the same as the ones you will come across during a general internet search, does not belong to this restaurant. It is close, but there are disparities. I have brought this to the attention of the moderators, but it hasn’t been rectified as of today. There is little more embarrassing than trying to order dishes from a restaurant that aren’t actually on offer. Here’s to hoping they get that sorted out.
On night one, we ordered Fried Dumplings, Chicken Fried Rice, Pork Lo Mein, Sweet and Sour Chicken, and Mongolian Beef. I also got Chicken Rice Soup, but only because I ordered the nonexistent Sizzling Rice Soup with Chicken from the false menu, and that’s what they gave me. Not the same thing at all.
The dumplings were a little short on ginger and scallion, but the sauce was very dark and savory, which is what I am always hoping for. It too was short on ginger and scallion, but not too shabby. The skins were just the right thickness; not doughy or, conversely, too fragile. I didn’t get to taste the fried rice, but it was pronounced excellent by my dining partner, and it looked it. It was brown, and it incorporated egg, so the minimum requirements were met.
The lo mein was not a success. It lacked flavor in general, but specifically in regard to that smoky hit that is normally present from slightly burning the oil in a very hot wok prior to tossing the ingredients in. Without ordering it again, I would have no way to know if this was just a miss on their part, or the way they typically prepare it. I’m not inclined to order it again, though. It was edible, but I’m not starving, so I’m not forced to suffer the merely edible. Not to come off like a snot, but we have a cat who goes nuts for lo mein, and he wouldn’t eat it either. He has good judgement and a refined palate.
My wife was also put off by the chicken, stating that the pieces were too large and not well enough battered, but it tasted fine to me. Notably (considering that Sweet and Sour Chicken is about as unnotable a dish as possible), there was actually a sour bite to the glowing red dipping sauce. I don’t usually find that to be the case at other restaurants, but I don’t eat it one way or another; it looks like cloudy brake fluid to me, and I don’t care much for sweet things.
The Mongolian Beef was excellent; spicy, smoky, and tender. As a previous reviewer noted, there were too many scallions (as well as onions), but it was a nice change of pace from the usual cardboard carton fare. When I tasted it, I announced that I had found where the flavor from the lo mein had gone.
Today, I tried the Wonton and Egg Drop Mixed Soup, the Spare Ribs, and something called Beef and Scallops Delight. The soup was truly a blend of the two, as opposed to how most places only put wontons into the egg drop. The bits of pork and scallion broke it up nicely. It was salty without being overwhelming, and not at all oily. The ribs were ribs; I just felt like chewing on some bones, and they filled the bill. The beef and scallop dish was excellent — five good sized pieces of flank steak, five large, fresh scallops, and a nice array of Chinese vegetables in a brown sauce. The menu indicated that it would be spicy, in that it was printed in red with a little chili pepper next to it, but it wasn’t at all. I’m glad it wasn’t, as it left me better able to taste the core ingredients, especially the veg, which are always my favorite elements of a Chinese dish.
All around, I can’t say enough about how much I enjoyed the food here. While I picked up the other night, I had the food delivered today, and it came promptly as well as still quite hot. They also have several tables in the restaurant, which is nicely appointed for eating in. I give it my wholehearted recommendation.

Great food, it has been a favorite for a couple years now.