Tam’s Garden Chinese Restaurant

I’m super sad to see my favorite Chinese place closed! My three year old has been asking to go here and we can’t even go anymore! I have been coming here since I was a kid! I really do hope they open elsewhere soon!!! I miss my won ton soup! They use to have super cheap fulfilling lunches and dinner. I can’t believe they have closed ‚(PLEASE OPEN SOMEWHERE ELSE SOON!!!

I will never forgive the landlord for closing down the cheapest good lunch in LA. Never.

The land owner has forced Tams to close because they want the space back! This place is amazing, great price for amazing quality! Been coming here for years, they are consistent.

I’m so sad. I’ve gone to this place as long as I’ve lived in LA. Beautiful family, beautifully run establishment. Sad that it looks like the landlord ran them out without any notice. I hope they reopen somewhere. Thank you for the hospitality over the years. This was one of my favorite places. I won’t be patronizing whatever opens up in the old location.

They just told me they will close on December 6^th, 2015.
I am SO SAD.
This place was so cheap, fast and tasty. My go-​to comfort food.
Hurry before they close. Get their Beef with been curd dish and chow mein.

Tams garden is off the hook. Cheap food. Great taste. Never skimps on the portions. This is the best Chinese food in this area and what’s best is that they deliver. From order to delivery the time is usually 20 minutes with a 20 $ minimum order.

I love this place. I always get the curry chicken, tea & egg flower soup. Lovely, family owned business. The prices can’t be beat either. Best lunch special in town.

The interesting thing about Tams, is how they reheat their food right when you pick it up. For example, I have ordered orange chicken 3 times, and every time I go and pick up my dinner I see him dump a container of already cooked orange chicken in the wok, cook it, then put it back into the container and give it to me. The first 2 times I thought he was just finishing up as I got there, but the third time I really payed attention.
I’m going to be completely honest. I don’t really mind because the food tastes great. BUT, if your looking for fresh food that is made to order, I’m not sure this is the right place for you. Because at the end of the day, what if I was getting orange chicken he made 5 hours ago? I sort of have faith in them that they wouldn’t do that though…
Other than that, I love the food here. It’s priced perfect, and tastes authentic to me. Everyone there is also so nice. I proudly support this little hole in the wall restaurant.

Really. Where’s the garden?
I have lived in the Miracle Mile since 2008. This restaurant exterior looks so bad, I never even considered eating here. Big fat B on the window didn’t stop me. Some of those B restaurants have the best food. It’s just so faded and dim and lifeless. The video store died next door.
So, I was Unilocaling around for a good neighborhood Chinese restaurant one night — just had a craving. Saw all these reviews for this Tam’s restaurant. Somebody had posted a menu so I called and placed my order for pick up.
The faded outside being what it is, I didn’t expect to walk into somebody’s homey pink living room — with booths instead of a couch, of course. I was made to feel like a regular even though I never set foot in there before. That is a aspect of welcome that restaurants need to master. It’s wordless, really. It is a smile that ignores you being in sweats and no makeup. You are here for sustenance, and they know it.
The food is just good. Seasoned well, tender meat and vegetables, good sauce. For a time, the orange chicken strangely had no coating, but they’ve since fixed the recipe. It’s sticky and sweet on the outside. And, I don’t care for red sliced pork so I don’t order that. I like it in seasoned, slippery little chunks. But that’s a personal preference.
This food is cheap and we almost never finish our order, even after two attempts. Not because it isn’t good, but because you get so much.
I can call my order in if I feel like it, but I get it nearly just as fast if I come in. And then we get the treat of watching the chef toss it up in his super hot wok.
So, one time I walked in and this customer was giving the employees a hard time. His call-​in order was wrong. He wanted justice, or something. They were trying to fix the situation, but he was methodically dissecting this one guy — the order taker that day — as if he were the worst person on the planet.
Yeah, yeah I have encountered this employee a couple of times on the phone. But since I haven’t taken the time to learn to speak Chinese, who am I to criticize? He is putting himself out there and trying. And he is kind. Every time I go in there (or get our food delivered, with my lazy self) I have the correct order.
So, I turned to that giant, mean customer and I yelled, «You’re the problem!» And I laid him out on the floor — left hook, boom, he went down hard.
OK, maybe not really. Maybe I just gave him a dirty look and left.

Decent chinese food and best part is the price!!!
If you want Chinese for a great price come here.
The place looks run downed, but hole in the wall places sometimes serve up the best food.

Good food for great prices!

Had a few friends over and we had the late night munchies and was craving some greasy chinese fast food. We tried calling a few places but they were all closed. So I finally found Tan’s on Unilocal around 8:45 pm (15 minutes before they closed). I called, they answered and took my order and told me to be there in 10 minutes. Great!
We ordered chow mein, fried rice, beef and broccoli, kung pao chicken, and sesame chicken.
The food was alright but when everything else was closed or too far to drive, Tan’s came to the rescue.
For late night cravings that must be met… I’ll give this place a call.

Good for the price. Ordered a bunch of stuff:
Orange Chicken: good
Cashew Chicken: good
Shrimp Lo Mein: great
Broccoli with Beef: not good, beef was weird
Combination Pan Fried Noodles: Noodles itself were great and crunchy, but sauce was not good at all
We got the dinner combinations which came with rice, spring rolls (yummy!), fried shrimp (ehhh), some fried wontons (yummy), and soup (we paid $ 2 to upgrade to hot and sour soup – it was OK, but not great – definitely not as good as the one at P.F. Changs)

I’ve been getting food from this place for a while and it was always delicious. Tonight’s meal was a total fail… The taste was bad the presentation was bad. My combination fried rice had blobs of meat from which I couldn’t make out which the chicken beef or shrimp, it all tasted like old chicken. We tasted plate after plate of everything we ordered and one after the other they went straight in the trash. Even the fortune cookies had a stale taste. Ruined our appetites and our dinner.,

Tam’s garden is excellent for take out. It epitomizes Chinese take out. The staff is friendly, the prices low, the food delicious, and the packaging traditional. $ 20 buys take out for 3 people.

Whole in the wall… BUT THE
Best Chinese FOOD in l.a. county.
Cheap and fast make time to sit down. Simply AWESOME.
very east coast Chinese food vibe.
FRIED RICE PERFECT NYC STYE.
MONGOLIAN BEEF. PERFECT
EVERYTHING ELSE… well. just go and see.
You won’t be disappointed with the food at all… but the place itself is nothing great to look at.
Take out is the best.

Been going here for many, many years. And finally thought I’d share and give a review.
If you are ever in the Miracle Mile, Hancock Park, Mid-​City area or even near the Grove, drop by this little hole in the wall for real good, freshly-​prepared Chinese food at a reasonable price.
I’ve only sampled their lunch specials recently and it’s as good as their everyday entrees.
Their combination (chicken, beef, & shrimp) lo mein is the best. So is their broccoli beef and sweet and sour pork. Their kung pao’s not bad. The Mongolian beef is okay – too much green onions and their BBQ pork is run of the mill.
Other excellent dishes are their Tam’s Garden Vegetable and their Shrimp Mushroom.
Oh, and their Soups are very good, too. Tasty and lots of vegetables and shrimp. My favorite is their wonton soup, though their wontons have been not up to par recently.
They went through an ownership change several years back, and some things changed, but it’s still good.
So, if you want to get good Chinese food next to going to Chinatown, this is the place. Enjoy!

Kung pad chicken was okay.
Beef and broccoli was bad (the beef was questionable at best).
Hot and sour soup was mediocre.
They have a $ 20 minimum for delivery, so I ordered a lot — there was a ton of food, but nothing all that great.
With that said, I was hungry, lazy, and wanted something greasy brought to me. Were I in the same spot again, I still might order from them…

We found this little gem through Unilocal so we figured it had to be decent. Boy were we wrong! This place is great!!!
We ordered the wonton soup, combination Lo mein, Mongolian beef, pork fried rice, and sesame chicken. Everything was definitely yummy!
The wontons could have been slightly larger with some more meat in them, but they were still great, and the broth of the soup was spot on. The sesame chicken and pork friend rice were the favorites, they just hit the spot. Overall great place and probably even better for take out though.
Caution: the restaurant is mainly take out but if you soon to dine in like I did, the walls are crazy pink colored. Hard to stare at after a while.

B health grade? Chatty owner/​waiter who cuts greens on a table in the center of the restaurant? I love it. This place is legit.
The area around my office doesn’t have any good Chinese food, but Tam’s Garden easily takes the cake as the best of a limited lot.
I got a vegetable lo mein ($ 6) and a sauteed broccoli ($ 6). The portion sizes are large so expect lots of leftovers. Both dishes were solid: savory, simple stir-​frys with garlic and salt.
They have a couple of tofu dishes, too, which I look forward to trying.
Sadly, they don’t offer brown rice, though I didn’t expect that they would.
If you need quick and cheap Chinese take-​out in the Hancock Park area, Tam’s Garden should be your top pick.