Cheerful Garden

I will never drop another dime at the uncheerful garden. Would stop there many a Friday night for a Scorpion (angry) bowl or two. Food is so-​so but sometimes you just don’t feel like driving to Plymouth… Woman (waiting on you is the owner and she always says how busy she is whether there are 2 or 10 people in the restaurant… she is extremely rude, but makes one mean angry bowl… they don’t want your business — take the pathetic sign down and close shop…

No idea why people’s ratings on this place are so low. The only thing I can think is a lot of them are old, and the place used to be not as good.
This place is EXACTLY what I look for when I need my inexpensive Chinese food fix. My family got lo mein, singapore noodles, fried rice, chicken, ALL of which was delicious. Service was prompt and courteous — we came here after a looong day hiking right at dinnertime and we got all our meals quickly. All of us ended up fat and happy with plenty of leftovers.
I’m SO glad I didn’t listen to the other reviews!

I stopped at the «not so» Cheerful Garden today to grab a quick lunch. I walked in the front door and the restaurant was empty except for two patrons just after the one o’clock hour. There was no host at the register so I stood awkwardly for approximately 3 to 4 minutes while I waited to be seated. A woman came out from the kitchen and appeared to be annoyed with something. I asked if they were still serving lunch or were they closing for the afternoon. This appeared to annoy her even further as she waved her arms and said something to me that I could not understand,
I felt so uncomfortable that I left before ordering. I walked up the street to Gilly’s and had a delicious club sandwich. For the record, I worked in that town nearly 20 years ago and ate lunch frequently at both places. What a difference from then ’til now for the Cheerful Garden. I remember great food and friendly people. I don’t know if it’s different owners since then, but the business definitely needs a makeover.
Unfortunately, I am breaking my trend of great reviews and have to say that I would not go back, nor would I recommend this place to anyone. Out of fairness, I cant say the food was bad as I didn’t dare to stay.

What a horrible restaurant! It really pains me to say this as I hate giving reviews as bad as one star, but this place deserves it. Service is awful. The people who work there were incredibly rude on multiple occasions. The food isn’t that great either. More often than not it would be cold and taste very bland. I cannot reccomend this place at all. It is too bad it is the only Chinese place in the area.

so so. place needs a makeover but the food is good but unfortunately the portion sizes are small

It’s a shame this place doesn’t produce better food because they’re the only Chinese place in Bristol and would be a lot busier if they did. Further north in Plymouth there’s a great place named Fugaki on Tenney Mointain Highway near Walmart.

Awful service!!! Went on a Tuesday night and there were only 3 other tables full in the restaurant, but you would have thought it was a packed house. There were only 2 servers working, a man and woman, and I’m not even sure the man worked there because he didn’t seem to know anything or speak English very well.
We ordered chicken fingers to start because we were starving. It had been 20 min and they still hadn’t come. When I flagged down the man to ask him where they were he shook his head and walked away from me as he threw his hands in the air.
The food was decent, but just what you would expect from a Chinese restaurant. Nothing to write home about. I would suggest ordering takeout if you decide to go because I think it is the only Chinese food in the area.

Not too many choices in the immediate area, so we’ve been eating here while on vacation for about a decade. The food is still pretty good, with two BUTs: combination plates include pork fried rice (why? with vegetarian’s delight and all other otherwise vegetarian friendly combinations?)and when you ask whether you can get plain fried rice instead there is a rude NO. No apology or explanation, just no. Yesterday, there was exactly one person serving as hostess and waitress, and while it wasn’t busy (my party of two, a couple of other parties of 3 – 6), one person just doesn’t cut it, especially on a Friday night! There were a bunch of take out orders going on too. Portions aren’t as generous as they used to be… and my biggest complaint about this recent visit is that there was no ‘cheerful’ in the garden. Our drinks were never replenished once, the one server was very gruff/​abrupt, etc. However, my tofu dish was tasty… just would have preferred it as a combination and with more pleasant service. Slowness I could understand, but we were thirsty and felt like we’d intruded rather than feeling like guests.

Greasy, tasteless and expensive. Even the students at the local boarding school won’t eat this junk. And that’s saying a lot. Just avoid it at all costs or you’ll end up with a very bad stomach ache. It’s worth it to Tilton or Plymouth for better food.

I stopped at Cheerful Garden for my lunch break very recently. This is a full service Chinese restaurant (dine-​in or takeout) which has a casual old school dining room and a bar menu including mixed drinks and scorpion bowls. 33 Combination Specials are offered, lunch ($ 6.25-$ 6.95) and dinner ($ 8.25-$ 8.95), including rice, appetizer, and soup (dine-​in only).
I got takeout since I have a short lunch break and service was prompt, food ready in under 10 minutes. I got the L27 Pork Lo Mein, which had soft noodles, vegetables (carrots, mushrooms, sprouts, scallion) and tender pork (not dyed red). The pork fried rice (light tan/​short grain rice) had onion, minimal pork cubes, and eggs. The crab rangoons however, were okay, the typical fried puffs with very hot cream cheese/​imitation crab filling.
The good portion of food overall was pretty good, especially for this neck of the woods. I was pretty cheerful afterwards, hehe. Overall 3.7 stars
PARKING across the street
CLOSED on Mondays