Lee’s Garden

We wanted to go to Chengdu Taste but the line and wait was outrageous, so we looked for somewhere else to go close by and this was what we settled on.
There was no line and you could tell that this is where the locals go. There is a handwritten menu on the wall, and the owner was super friendly and helped us out. It feels like you’re eating at somebody’s house, which is nice and homey.
The prices are reasonable and the portions are plentiful. We got the hot and sour soup, which was plenty for 5 people. The fried pork chop and fried chix thighs over rice were the biggest hits. As my friend said, «I’m never going to KFC ever again!» The sides that come with the meal are delicious. The beef noodle soup was not the best but ok.
Plus, there is a small free parking lot. I would say food was 3 ½ stars but the kind service, quickness, portion size, etc all bumped it up to a 4.

One of my favorite places for take-​out because it is fast, easy, and convenient for home-​cooked «comfort» food. They have an extensive menu but I can’t comment on it because we always get the daily special combos. The combos come with your choice of protein, rice, and three sides of the day. The also provide soup and hot tea if you dine in. The sides are usually veggies, eggs, or chicken items. I’m not
The couple that runs the shop is very nice. They are located in the same plaza as Asia supermarket. It is a small parking lot but it is usually easy to find a spot. The lot is also accessible from the Starbucks next door.

I’ve have eating stinky tofu from more places than I can count. I have to say, this place has the most authentic Taiwanese stinky tofu anywhere in Southern California. The recipe is supposedly a rare one as no other restaurants seems to be able to copy. Most stinky tofu are Hong Kong style and very rubbery in texture. Not this place. Theirs is crispy like fried chicken. Their fermented cabbage is done the way stinky tofu should be complimented. And their sauce is not some sweet tangy sauce other places use to make up for lack of flavor, it’s just soy paste, hot chili sauce and minced garlic. The way it’s supposed to be

Food is cheap and taste good. Place is small and not too many table for dine in. Most people call and to go their order. I like their stinky tofu and porkchop rice. Will come back if in the area. Not the cleaneast place the food kind of yummy.

Taste just like set-​box-​meal in Taiwan. During the 30 minutes I digged my meal there, the to-​go customers were non-​stop. Most of the customers ordered from the left lower wall board: A, B, C, D, F, H, J, K, M & S. Which you choose one main item, and the meal will included 3 other Pre-​selected items. Every item is delicious. Dine in and they offer a soup for free. Hot tea is self service. One important thing, I never felt thirsty after ate there. A hidden gem for Taiwanese tongue.

This place seems best as a «grab-​and-​go,» especially if you don’t wanna dine in some dingy place. After a short run with my friend Mary in Almansor Park, we were looking to get our grub on when we stumbled upon this nearby Taiwanese restaurant. Being the middle of the night, this place was initially tough to find, but the brightass Ba Le vietnamese bakery sign turned out to be our saving grace.
Epitomizing the definition of a hole-​in-​the-​wall restaurant, Lee’s Garden services many regulars, especially Chinese speakers, and those looking for a quick to-​go meal. So for two mainly-​English speakers such as me and my friend, we found it a little bit challenging to talk to the owner who did genuinely seem like a nice guy, but one whom we found a language barrier with. The scrawled-​on-​wall menu — and only one available — was a refuge, but only because we were lucky enough to sit right next to it.
Feeling a bit peckish but not enough for a combo meal, I ordered the fried chicken legs, which were accompanied by a bowl of homey vegetable noodle soup. The crunchy breading on the chicken had a nice flavor to it, but I noticed that one or two of the pieces that I got was mostly just fried bones… super lame! My friend’s pork chops were also quite nice as well, good-​sized pieces and extra tasty! Both items came around to around $ 7-​$ 8. Cash only.
Overall, I enjoyed the homestyle food offered here, but the atmosphere kind of dampened my experience and the service was okay. Our table was kind of sticky and my friend found someone’s old receipt in her styrofoam to-​go box. Free cups of tea, but not water are an option, and bottled water costs a $ 1. Nice to return for some pick-​me-​up Taiwanese-​y food!

This is truly a hidden gem that has been open since 1984! The owner is super friendly and helpful. He speaks English very well and is willing to explain everything on the menu. The menu is written on white boards on the wall. They have combination specials as well that come with different sides that changes each day.
Today I got the «K special» which had fried pork chop and stewed beef with tofu. It also came with spinach, tomato and egg, cabbage with bacon. Everything was delicious! It was a perfect amount of food that had great flavoring. The friend pork chop was made of fluffy breading and was perfectly fried. You also get a bowl of soup with daikon which went perfectly with the meal.
Drinks are self served, you can get your own hot tea or you can get cold drinks like chrysanthemum tea, herbal tea, sugar cane tea or sodas from the refrigerator.
I will definitely come back and support this local business! It was delicious and the owner is extremely nice!

I was forced to get to-​go here. I honestly wasn’t looking forward to getting food here because I never crave this kind of food since my mom can make them. The food is pretty cheap here. About 8 bucks per person.
The place is really small. It’s in the Starbucks and Chase plaza. The people here is friendly.
I ordered the popular menu item. Pork chop and rice. The portion of the pork chop is ok. Though I personally think that I mostly got bones. It seems like their lunch box menu is also popular here.
Overall, the place is ok. Food is good-​ok.

I came back to try their bento boxes. I got the A set. I wish they had pictorials on each of their bento boxes so I could see what my options are. But if you speak Chinese you’ll have no problem with their description. I just got the first one, the A set and it was pretty amazing. It’s English description is Pork. It was a shredded pork simmered in a soy sauce base w preserved vegetables. (May Tsai). The sides were a tofu and celery mix, fried egg, and sliced and simmered squash or cucumber. It was very Simple and tasted like a home cooked meal. Totally reminded me of Taiwan and my moms cooking. It came out super fast too and just the right amount of food. I will def be back to try the other sets.

I miss Lee’s Garden! It was my favorite place to eat when I lived in South Pasadena. I would sometimes eat there five days a week for lunch. I always order the same thing: the daily combination plate. What’s most fun about the combo plate is that the vegetable sides change every single day and you never know what you are going to get. This works because the sides are almost always great! I usually opt for pork as my entrée, the pork option changes every day also. The plate is $ 7 and you can come in and just grab it and go.
I like to stop by next door to the Vietnamese café to get a huge refreshing sugary supersize cup of sugarcane juice to go

For what it is (cheap Chinese food), it’s not bad.
Decided to give this place a try based on the reviews. I ordered Combos B & C (chicken and beef) and they were both decent. Food tasted fine but this place is pricy compared to similar restaurants. I’d definitely come back here again to try other items on the menu (which is scribbled on the wall) but won’t buy the combos again due to price.

Wow this is the definition of hole in a wall. Without Unilocal I would have never found this place on my own.
It’s situated in such a sketchy plaza and the place is tiny. They don’t have physical menus for you to take because they write up the menu on the dry erase board depending on what dishes they have for the day.
We tried the Pork Chop Rice, the Beef Chow Mein, the oyster pancakes, and asked what vegetables they had for the day. The owner mentioned Yam Leaves and I had to get some. All of the dishes tasted very authentic (the hubs and I are both born and raised in Taiwan so this definitely hit the spot) and the veggie was especially tasty. We found the pork chop batter to be thin enough and not so sweet like most of the other places in SGV. I know it’s a matter of personal taste preference but we don’t like our pork chops sweet so this is great for us.
With so many similar places in the area, it’s great to see this place stays in business after all these years. Personally this is closest to the taste that we prefer so we probably will come back to try out other dishes in the future.

Ever since I found Lee’s Garden a couple months ago, this place has became one of my favorite to-​go place. It is very convenient to pick up dinner here on my way to home when I don’t feel like cooking.
I usually order their combination plates which come with main dish, vegetables, two other side dishes, and rice. If you eat-​in, you would get a cup of soup, but for take out order, you have to order it separately.
I enjoy their pork with garlic sauce, fried chicken, and noodles. Unfortunately, I was disappointed with their pork chops, though. It was very dry and thin almost no meat to eat. It was like chewing the tasteless cardboard. Perhaps it was just on that day, but I haven’t dared to try the dish again, yet.
It is usually not crowded when I stop by mostly around 5:00 which is great so that I can pick up foods fast and go. The gentleman who is in the front (maybe the owner?) kind of reminds me of my relatives although he is not Japanese. The place is not fancy at all but I like the homey feeling of this place and I appreciate that they are there to offer tasty food at affordable price.

A-​OK.
Ordered take-​out. Food came out pretty fast.
–The Oyster Pancake itself is nice, the sauce is a failure, too sweet to my taste, almost dessert-​ish.
–Pig feet, portion too small for $ 5, taste is average.
–Stinky tofu, Tofu is on the tough side, and the pickled cabbage is bland, probably more acidity and sweet would help.

This place is an awesome Taiwanese restaurant for «one-​man-​band» diners, working people in a rush, and even small families. It is really a hole in the walll type place, but they cook fast and come up with very, very home-​y tasting food. Basically, they remind me of my mom’s cooking (only my mom’s is better. ;D). I’ve been coming here for years and its always pretty consistently good.
I have never ordered off the a la carte menu, but they have a old whiteboard that lists combo dinners from A — -F? Most of the items rotate on a daily basis but the letters always correlate to a certain main dish («F» is for fish he said but one day it might be fried and the next steamed?) and if you can’t read chinese you gotta ask the owner to translate.
Their combos always come with 2 – 3 different side dishes, rice, sometimes a fried egg, and the main entrée. So far I’ve tried
* pork feet-​tasty with the exception of a few pig hairs I had to pluck out…
* deep fried whole fish– this is delicious. crispy, crunchy, juicy but packs a ton of bones.
* cooked white pork meat with garlic-​soy sauce– they make it close to perfect. I don’t get grossed out by the thick slab of fat at the end of each piece of meat. I think because its not chewy and hard like regular fat.
Overall, this is really a simple, tasty place for a quick bite. not a high end place by any means. Don’t judge the place by its looks and you’ll do just fine.

Can I give 3.5 stars? I think they are in-​between 3 – 4 but the owners were really nice so I’ll give them a 4. This place doesn’t pretend to be anything than what it is. It’s a super local feeling Taiwanese restaurant. I just went for the first time yesterday. It seemed like there were a lot of regulars that the owners knew. The price for a combo or rice/​noodle dish was around $ 7. There’s nothing fancy about this place and definitely no ambience or anything but if you want some quick local Taiwanese food this is a good spot to go to. I actually came here in search of cold noodles mixed with that sesame sauce but they didn’t have that. I’d still come back but only occasionally.

Another restaurant that I know since I was in college. Yea way back in 1994! The food and the owner is still the same. The food is still delish. Authentic Tawianese food! Since we didn’t speak Chinese, we normally ordered #D7. Pork chop over rice. Yes, this is one our favorite dish in this restaurant. If you like stinky tofu, they have a good one too.

Top 5 for stinky tofu in Los Angeles. Old school taiwanese place. Hole-​in-​the-​wall. Find your usual pork chop rice and all your taiwanese favorites. Don’t expect much in terms of décor or cleanness or service (reminds me exactly like neighborhood places in taiwan).
Famous for: Stinky tofu. Oyster Pancake.

Wasn’t sure what to expect since folks on Unilocal had mixed reviews. I really like the fried stinky tofu here. It is very crispy, got the right amount of odor, and the taste was spot on.
I got the pork chop noodle but the pork chop wasn’t too much to rave about. There wasn’t enough meat but it was at least tasty. My wife got the combination plate and I think it was a bit overpriced for a combo plate. Usually we go to Kang Kang for that style and it is at least $ 2 less. I would like to try the chitterling noodle soup the next time but I’ll definitely come back for the tofu.
The owner was pretty cool too, gave us a bit of the history of his restaurant and suggested a few things for us to try. Parking can be kind of difficult at this plaza.

I remember frequenting this place throughout elementary, middle and high school and I came back to recently to give it a try. Seeing how it has been open for so many years, I thought the quality would still be on point. Man was I disappointed. Prices have gone up but that’s understandable as prices have risen everywhere. But taste was just whatever.
One of the worst things I experienced was using their plastic utensils. My mom went to grab a few spoons & forks before our food arrived. I saw 2 spoons and they were a little oily. I joked around and asked my mom if she had used the spoon already but of course she hadn’t since we didn’t even get our food. So oily spoon only means … recycled? NASTY.
I understand it’s a «hole in the wall» and may be dingy but recycling plastic spoons is way out of line.
That was my last time going there.