Hunan Garden Restaurant

Really good cheap hole in the wall chinese food. We discovered it on the way ba ck from South Lake Tahoe this weekend for a quick meal before heading down the mountian. Buffet for under $ 10 a person… anytime!

We were visiting relatives up in Nevada and decided to hang out in Lake Tahoe for a bit. We were a big group of about 13 people and came as soon as they opened. Upon walking into the buffet it had a very small dining area and an even smaller food cart. I grabbed some fried fish, chow mein, and some shrimp. Food was above average for a regular buffet and some of the items were good. Most of the issues I had with this place was the customer service. Me and my fiancé sat on the table next to the large table where everyone in our group was sitting, mostly because it was very crowded. Yes we could’ve squeezed in but we just wanted a little extra space. The waiter walked over with a disappointed look on his face and aggressively asked what we were doing sitting there. After explaining to him that I was actually eating at the establishment he told us that we couldn’t sit there and we had to squeeze in to the table where our group was. It would’ve been completely fine and understandable if he would’ve asked politely or even explained that they were about to hit a rush hour, whatever his reason, and I would’ve gladly moved with no issue, but he talked to us as if we were intruding upon his space and we were eating for free. For some reason he spent the remainder of the time I ate staring at us and speaking to his coworker in hushed tones. Food was not good enough to bring me back and customer service was bad enough to keep me away.

Based on reviews we had high expectations and this place completely lived up to them. Great service, great prices with large portions, and great food. We had hot and sour soup and it was one of the best we have had, the pot stickers were flavorful as was the sauce, and then the sesame chicken which was tasty, crispy yet juicy. Even the white rice was good. We could not finish it all and had to take a box home. The added bonus was they also had beer. I can confidently recommend it highly.

Think 3.5 to 4 stars appx.
OK. Been here before. Was pretty good. So cool. The speak Cantonese here. Lots Unilocal Elites gives some GoodStars here.
Ordered…
Cantonese Dry style Beef Chow Fun.
Tomato Beef Chow mein with Hong Kong Pan Fried Noodles
Spicy Garlic String Beans (Braised. Awesome in prior visits here)
Sizzling Beef. Cource I saw that in someones elses Unilocal picture. Looked so so so Wonderfully Delicious.
My 4 stars is pre Eating Dinner
Wow. Beef Chow Fun is 5 stars. They make the flat noodle fun
The sizzling beef looked, tasted as pictured. This is dish I seldom ordered anywheres. But was influenced to order because of they did’nt have the two seafood dishes we wanted to indulge today. Believe most non Asians would love this Sizzling platter. And give it 5 stars. Beef was very tender and so much of it. Yes its a great dishe. Certainly 4 to 4.5 stars.
Tomatoe Beef Chow mein pan fried noodle was non Cantonese traditional. White folks liking fusion would think well of it. 3 Unilocal Stars as Cantonese Asian.
I was expecting spicy garlic string bean, which we did not received. Which has a clear sauce.
Ours was dark. Obviously my communation mistake. I should have gave them a menu item number. Ok. Hate to give 2 stars.
Our server was really nice. An accommodating Thumbs up. 4 plus stars.
Our server sampled us 3 spicy crispy wings. So delicious. 5 stars. Cource that item is the rave by Unilocalers.
Total Unilocal stars this experience is… appx 4 stars plus. But would be closer to 5 if correcting attention given above

Really impressed with the food. Veggies fresh seafood tasty. Price was amazing. You need to try the stuffed mushrooms and the chicken wings super t

Good Chinese food at reasonable prices and with decent serving size. We took take-​out and were pleasantly surprised!

We always come here for lunch or dinner when we visit Tahoe. The food is delicious and the price is very reasonable. In my opinion, Hunan Garden has the best pork pot stickers: big, juicy and nicely pan fried. Highly recommend this place !!!

Ordered take out from Hunan Garden while staying in South Lake Tahoe. The service was friendly and fast, and the food was excellent! We ordered General Tso’s chicken, Mongolian Beef, and pot stickers. The portions were very large. Having never been here before, we didn’t know what to expect, and we were very pleased with our order. I would definitely order from them again.

My wife summed it best, «It’s not disgusting, but it’s not good.» The buffet was all about quantity and no quality. Even my 9 year old hated the food and he loves Chinese food.

Service ¹⁰⁄₁₀!
Food ¹⁰⁄₁₀!
This place as amazing. I absolutely adored the food, one of the best Chinese restaurants I have been too. The overall size of the food ordered was large and filling. The wait staff were absolutely wonderful and attentive. And they had an area where I could sit to breastfeed in a corner and still be able to sit and eat without sitting in the open. I so plan on coming back many more times.
Food to try: Sesame Chicken! Yummy!
Thank you for the wonderful experience!

Been here for lunch a few times when I’m in Tahoe. Lunch Buffett never disappoints. Wonderful and fresh dishes. I’m amazed how the servers keep coming out of the kitchen and promptly replenish with hot and piping entrees.
We bought two big party trays of fried rice and chicken wings for our winter camp kids back at Sierra Pines. And, it only took 20 minutes from the time we ordered. The kids were so grateful to get such delicious entrees besides camp food. Thank you.

Yup people I just confirmed my previous review again over the weekend and the buffet is still delicious and inexpensive, compared to other places.
We were in Tahoe with a group of 10 adults and 3 kids. Our initial plan was to visit forest buffet at Harrahs since we were already there gambling and arcading (is that even a word?!). Anyhow, we all took the elevator up to the 18^th floor but once the elevator doors opened it was a mad chaos! The lines for the buffet was to the elevator area. What??? It’s not that good and fairly expensive. Shoot! We were not about to wait for almost 2 hrs so we got right back in the elevators and left to head over to Hunan. My group hadn’t tried Hunan before but I reassured them by saying IT’S HUNAN OR BUST! Which didn’t mean anything really but they all went along to the restaurant and boy did they enjoy themselves.
Items to try: chicken wings, fried shrimp with a glaze look, string beans, pot stickers… Yeah!

The food is delicious and service here is excellent, waiters here are no doubt very kind.
During our feast here, we ordered the BBQ pork fried rice and the crispy duck. Even thought it took about 15 minutes for them to serve the crispy duck, it was worth the wait. Not only was it crispy (as the title says), but it was really tasty too– it was cooked right. As a personal preference, I don’t like green peas, and the fried rice contained a few, so if you’re the kind of person who don’t like consuming them, just a tip, tell them not to include the green peas. Other than that, everything was excellent.
¹⁰⁄₁₀ would go again. (:

Friendliness ⁵⁄₅
Water refill service ⁵⁄₅
Chairs ⁵⁄₅
Variety ⁵⁄₅
Fortune cookies ⁵⁄₅
Parking ⁵⁄₅
Price ⁵⁄₅
Food quality ²⁄₅
Overall 4.625÷5
Brought my tinder date here

I came for the buffet. And I stayed to get my money’s worth (8.99 lunch buffet). So I had at least 3 – 4 plates of gourmet orange slices, chow mien, orange chicken and it all tasted mostly fresh. The place can probably hold at least 100 people. Parking outside isn’t too bad and the service was phenomenal. They consistently refill the buffet food with hot and fresh food.
Best dish hands down was beef and broccoli.
Worst dish was the California roll.
¹⁰⁄₁₀ would go again whenever I come back to Tahoe.

We had the buffet here and the food was very good (aside from the sushi but, hey, this isn’t a sushi restaurant). The best chicken wings, walnut shrimp, green beans, and pot stickers I’ve had at any Chinese buffet (and I’ve had a lot of Chinese buffet). The service was also friendly, quick, and efficient.
* Those bad reviewers must have gone to another restaurant.

The husband and I were referred here, as we were at the casinos down the street and asked our dealers where the best Chinese restaurant is. Glad we took their advice, we actually went back to the casinos and gave the dealers huge tips for such a great referral. Haha.
It’s a pick-​n-​choose restaurant. You can either have the buffet, which is unfortunately just one counter top of limited deliciousness, or you can order off the menu for family style dishes. The husband and I were starving so we went with the buffet option, not knowing or asking the price (at the time we didn’t care).
First of all, best damn chicken wings I’ve ever tasted. Green beans were perfectly crisp and flavorful. Normally, I don’t care for honey, walnut shrimp, but this made the cut. They somehow made one of the foods I don’t really care for tasty. Magic. Haha. I think the item that perfectly ended our meal was these light, crisp warm donuts? I don’t know what they were. It was just simple deep fried dough, lightly sprinkled with sugar. Whatever it was it was tasty as hell.
Service was superb too, always refilling our waters when needed and I could see they were moving fast and working hard.
The only downside to this place is its a little small, as well as the parking. We had to park in the back of the restaurant cause there was limited parking spaces. Now, I want a location close to home. Haha

Not many selections for Chinese Food in SLT but we were so happy to find a gem. Went for lunch at 11am and although a buffet each item on the buffet line I tried I was very impressed! We especially liked the chicken wings, so flavorful and just the right amount of crispy! The chow mein was on point along with the fried rice. And I’m not a big fan of either of those dishes usually. The string beans were very crispy and good I had probably one entire plate! The fiancé made 3 trips to the buffet line and couldn’t resist those chicken wings as well. It’s not the biggest buffet, but had a lot of selections for the size of the place. It’s pretty small and could use some remodeling but the food makes up for it.
The restaurant t was very clean and although we were the first ones here at 11am, as we ended our visit the place was almost packed with different walks of life! The staff is super friendly, make an effort to check how you’re doing and even make small talk asking where we are from. And all staff are Chinese which makes me feel good when eating at a Chinese restaurant (no wonder the food was delicious!) The parking is scarce but there is extra space in the back. Prices are amazing for the quality of food you get and all you can eat. We will definitely return and it may be our new fav spot while visiting Tahoe when wanting our Asian food fix. Love those hole in the walls that turn out to exceed your expectations!

Every trip we take to Tahoe, we look forward to going to Hunan Garden. We’ve got takeout menus from them from 2002, 2004, 2006 (Spring & Autumn), 2009, and 2012. It’s been 3 years, then, since our last time, and I have to sadly say, they aren’t as good as they used to be.
We’ve never tried the lunch buffet, mostly coming for their very reasonably priced lunch specials. This time we tried Basil Chicken and Szechuan Style Prawns. As always, huge serving sizes. The Basil Chicken was all white meat, and seemed like close to a pound of meat (probably not, but there was a LOT). There were 9 large prawns in the prawn dish. Both had quite a lot of veggies, but not as many as we’d remembered, and not the variety or quality. The sauces, especially the one with the Szechuan Style Prawns, were just so-​so. Also, they have only white rice — no brown rice is available. A disappointment after so many years, but still worth going at least once.

Very cool that there is a Chinese restaurant in South Lake Tahoe. They have an option to either eat off their buffet ($ 7.50 for lunch and $ 10.75 for dinner) or off their menu. The prices are pretty good, and the staff does an excellent job of accommodating a constant flow of customers throughout the day.
The food itself was not impressive, but I didn’t expect much in the first place. We ordered a wide variety of foods from Green Beans and Sweet and Sour Pork to Mongolian Beef and Black Bean Fish. I would highly recommended the Sweet and Sour Pork as well as the Mongolian Beef. They are cooked well without too much seasoning. Most of the other foods that we ordered were too saturated with sauce that was too salty or sugary. My stomach could not handle such overly pungent taste, but it’s not too bad if you eat it with rice. The few rounds of rice we got did not taste very fresh, and it has this grainy (beyond just tasting like rice) flavor to it.
Hunan Garden is a decent place to satisfy an urgent Chinese food craving, but I would probably not come back unless I had a friend who really wanted to go.