Chuan Lu Garden

This place is great if you are missing authentic Chinese food, not that Americanized crap. If you like real Chinese food put this place on your list of places to visit.
The servers speak both Chinese and English, the menu is in both Chinese and English also. Prices are not too bad, figure $ 40 for two people to eat dinner.
I love real Chinese food and I approve this message!

I am sometimes reluctant to try chinese restaurants, because I am frequently disappointed. This was not the case here. The Szechuan shrimp was excellent. The service lacked a bit but the shrimp was surprisingly fresh and flavorful. Try it out, i’m going to go back to try the noodles:)

Really bad experience. My friends and my stomach got extremely uncomfortable after eating dinner there. Some of the materials were not fresh. Won’t come again.

Here, you can’t get upset that your hot pot sauces are on a get-​your-​own sauce buffet beneath a sneeze-​guard. Go for the salty tofu sauce and feel like you’re in Hong Kong.
And you can’t let it bug you that the shrimp come out whole, so you’re gonna cook ‘em, letting the gooey heads melt into your broth, then pull them, de-​head them, peel and de-​leg them, then string out the main «vein». They’re good quality, good-​sized prawns.
If you order the spicy house broth, be ready for some heat. The pepper oils have released and float on top — soon everything will be coated in it. Welcome it. Revel in it.
Until they know you, the service might seem slow or indifferent — it might even seem deficient in English.
But who cares? Because the ingredient quality is so good it puts most other hot pot places to shame.
Seafood is my poison and the price is extremely reasonable for a «mini-​hot pot» entrée with choice of fish slices, scallops, or shrimp. Remember that scallops shrink immediately and dramatically in a hot pot making them a bad choice. The fish and shrimp make your best choices for this.
Fish here, like many other Asian restaurants these days, is Swai, also known as «Asian Catfish». They’re not even related to the American catfish, but look a bit similar. They’re farmed nowadays in Vietnam along the Mekong River and in the Mekong Delta. It’s tender and white and fluffy and flavorful.
It’s a beer-​and-​wine choice, but that includes a surprisingly good house sake. Always perfect hot with hot pot, as long as you have a nice, cool Asian beer (or ice water) next to it for when you accidentally over-​heat.
See my pictures of what’s included in the Seafood Mini-​Hot Pot entrée — you don’t really need to buy much more than that, unless you have more than two people. I got extra enoki mushrooms for a mere three bucks more, but the veggie plate comes with them anyway.
Entirely reasonable. Entirely flavorful. Entirely good quality.
Open late — I was there until almost 2:00 a.m. on a Sunday night when almost everything else is closed.
I will be back soon. Could be the perfect Sunday night go-​to place. :-)
4-​Stars for what it is: Casual. Very Asian. High Quality. Fun.

A very wide selection of food which I was impressed with! I recommend trying their shrimp chow mein, it is absolutely delicious.
Their hot pot has one of the most amazing broths I have ever tasted, I wasn’t able to finish so I took it home with me and cooked my own noodles with the broth! It was so delicious!

Not as good as I had hoped. Both me and my buddy agreed this was meh. We literally just got back from a month NE Asia eating dim sum and stuff you don’t tell you mom about at hole in the walls and having lived near this Mills/​50 area (and being afraid of eating at some of these paces) for 10 years… We went for it. It was just OK. Where was the chili oil? etc? It just seemed — OK. Our server was amazing and even more super amazing — so it’s really just the food. I had really high hopes as I LOVE schezwan cuisine but this was not it. And the search continues for something that is decent N. Chinese near downtown…

The start to the whole process was slow and made me second guess our choice. Patience is a virtue, and worth having here.
Started our food adventure with the pork and cabbage dumplings. We chose pan fried. They were the perfect way to start. You get a healthy portion of them as well. They were crisp on the outside with a nice flavor filling the inside.
The hot pot was worth the wait and drive. We miss this food group a plenty since leaving LA. Well we’ve finally found a spot here in Orlando. The broth was fantastic. The meats thinly sliced. A healthy portion of veggies. The sauce bar may be my only complaint, but had adequate choices. We will be back.

I ate my dinner there yesterday. The dishes are good and delicious. The environment is also fine. However, the servers are very HOSTILE, especially to Chinese people. After my dinner I only gave her 1 $ tip, because she never refilled our drinks and also spoiled the drinks on our table. They she became upset and chase us to the parking lots with swearing in very bad words! WTF, you did a bad job and expect many tips? I compiled to her boss, but it seems the boss can do nothing about it.
Later on, they charge 20% additional gratuity to every table no matter how many people they have… what a horrible service!
I would not recommend tourists to dine in this place! Good food, but BAD service.

By far one of my most favorite restaurants in Orlando! Authentic as it gets, with a large selection to try from. They really do have a good variety, some dishes can be found at other Chinese restaurants, but the ones that this place is worth going for include the Cumin Lamb, La Zhi Chicken, Chinese cabbage, double cooked pork, and Chinese jelly appetizer. I really appreciate the Szechuan style flavor that can’t be found anywhere else in town — almost hits home every time I come. Service is great too, the staff is willing to take the time to help you find the dish that you are craving! This place is also open till 2am — so perfect for late night family style dinner. I also prefer to sit in the little room on the very right of the restaurant, it’s a most whole in the wall in the middle of China feel that makes the atmosphere feel more authentic!

My husband and I decided to try something new for dinner. I was in the mood for Asian and suggested we come here since it had been in my Unilocal bookmarks forever and I had read such great reviews. Lets just say this place did not disappoint and that we can’t wait to go back!

Great food! We are traveling in Orlando, we eat here every night, they open everyday until 2am, that’s really nice!

We went on a busy Friday as a group of 7 college kids, although we probably look like a bunch of high schoolers. It was to celebrate getting jobs and good grades. But service was pretty horrible. We got a lazy Susan and we didn’t get any extra plates to share food even when we asked. We didn’t get any dipping sauce for the fried tofu, even though on the menu it said it would be there. Service was pretty slow about everything. When we finally asked for to-​go boxes, we had to ask a different younger waitress to get the job done. She was with me last time I dined, and was the best. And the food really is amazing. But service is near enough for me to try and find a new favorite on that street.

This place serves authentic Szechuan dishes. The spicy tofu and lamb curry are my favorite. The food comes out fast!
The restaurant itself is huge and seems like it houses two restaurants in one. You can sit on the dine in side or do hot pot. There are also teppan grills, but I’m not sure they are in use.
It’s definitely a casual diner. Good place to grab a quick bite.

This place serves authentic Szechuan dishes. The spy tofu and lamb curry are my favorite. The food comes out fast!
The restaurant itself is huge and seems like it houses two restaurants in one. You can sit on the dine in side or do hot pot. There are also teppan grills, but I’m not sure they are in use.
It’s definitely a casual diner. Good place to grab a quick bite.

Okay, we went back here for the hot pot and this is a review of that. We’ve been searching for a good hot pot place in the area and after getting sick from Hotto Potto in Winter Park, we were a bit hesitant.
To start, this place is a bit confusing. There’s a couple of restaurant names associated with it… Chuan Lu and Ginza. Also, there’s very little service to help you decipher where to go or what to order and such. We had to be moved after being seated as hot pot is only served in a small section of the restaurant with built in induction elements. After getting situated, the waitress was of little help in us ordering as she expected us to know what to order and where the sauces were located. I get it, it’s a Chinese restaurant and we should be happy to be served anything, but a part of me selfishly wished that wasn’t the case 90% of the time.
On to the food… we ordered the chicken and steak combo and the shrimp and scallops combo along with one regular and one spicy broth. Everything came out fresh and cooked up nicely. We did have some issues with the heating elements going wonky and the waitress didn’t know what to do and asked us if we wanted to move. Luckily it started working again as moving all of the food would’ve been no good.
The sauces were a bit underwhelming, but there were quite a few that we didn’t try as there’s not enough room on the table for them all. The broths were tasty (spicy was better seasoned), vegetables were fresh, meats were frozen slices (which was a plus with our experience with Hotto Potto and their corn starch tenderized meats), seafood was acceptable although you’ll have to get your hands dirty as the shrimp come with full heads, and it even came with an egg for us to poach. We did order a side of the fresh egg noodles which is very good.
Overall, a good experience and we would go back. We would probably just get the meats and not the seafood, but it was a fun time with friends. Not as clean as say fondue and you do need to be proficient with chopsticks (although we didn’t ask for a spider to fish out our food). So if you’re looking for something different, give the Chuan Lu/​Ginza hot pot a try.

Man, I really don’t like these types of reviews. They’re just not Unilocaler funtastic. In fact, it really sucks.
Our family has dined here several times. At first, we liked it. It wasn’t a love-​fest but definitely a like-​fest. Today, it wasn’t even likable. It wasn’t photo worthy. The whole thing just — wasn’t.
So, the goods…
This restaurant is always clean.
The service can be hit or miss. Today, our server was a really sweet girl. She wasn’t familiar with several items we ordered but dang it, she tried. She really put her best foot forward. I appreciate when a person is honest and if they’re not sure of something then they explain they will ask the chef. She did exactly that. If I were to rate her efforts, she would be more than 5 stars. Thank you!
And now, the not-​so-​goods…
The food… Yikes, what happened today? I would never rate the food more than 4 stars previously but today it was lucky to be a one star. It was really, really bad. We ordered a LOT of food. The only items that I would rate over three stars is the beef fried rice and the scallion pancake. Those items totaled approximately $ 12 of our $ 100 meal for three people. We ordered enough food to have leftovers. When the hubby got home to try it, his immediate response was, «What happened to this restaurant?» We all agreed that the food was not worth another go around.
Hopefully this sweet server can find a job at another restaurant with better eats! It would make for a win-​win elsewhere.

Giving it 5 stars today because our server Sophia was pleasantly cheery and attentive so that made this dinner experience better.
We (party of 3) had the fish fillet with bean sprouts and special sauce, the salt and pepper calamari and fried tofu with vegetables. Also tried out the chive/​egg/​noodle pancake appetizer, but came out during dinner, no problem… it was still good anyways!
The fish dish (fillets) was quite soft and had a beautiful spiciness that Sichuan peppercorns give. We almost always get this dish when we dine here. If you like to sweat, ask to make it spicier. I always do!

So. Good.
Food is spicy, but not in a chugging a gallon of milk afterwards way. It’s spicy in that the dishes try to engage all your tastebuds. Every time I eat here, I have a serious problem stopping when I’m full. It’s so good I want to keep taking bites.
One critique I have is the service is quite slow. Don’t expect to see your waitress very often. I can’t stress enough that the food is entirely worth it.

It’s such an unhappy experience to have dinner in Chuan Lu Garden.
Dishes serve so slow. We only have two people.
They took 20% of tip without my signature approve while the service is so bad!

I’ve heard some people had a great experience here, and I wish I could say the same.
— We saw DEAD fish in the fish tank (yes, as in lying on their side, not moving)
— Waitress had the same answer for every question we asked (ie. asked what kind of sauces each were, she only replied «spicy»)
— Music was a mixture of odd 80’s style keyboard songs from Cats and every now and then a rock song
— Tofu was spongy and the brown sauce on it tasted off

After reading many reviews on Unilocal,my husband decided that we should have lunch at Chuan Lu on a Monday afternoon after the lunch rush. We sat down and ordered the top «must eats» here.
We ordered: La zi chicken– it was all fat with hardly any meat, heavily fried. Szechuan wonton– very little meat in the wonton as they were stuck together with chili oil dumped on it. Twice cooked pork– not flavorful, or spicy as requested. Nothing we ordered were memorable and it makes us question the positive reviews on these dishes from other Unilocalers…

We went here because it was known for authentic Sichuan food. I had the dandan noodle, curry calamari, and crab puff. It was appropriately spicy and authentic. The crab puff was not memorable though. It was just fried wonton. Everyone seems to love the dandan noodle but I just did not care for the sauce too much. As for the calamari, it was quite chewy. The thing about calamari is that it is hard to cook correctly.
Overall, it was a good experience; I just would not pick this specific place as my first choice for some Chinese food.

Oh boy! I dream about these hand pulled noodles. Nothing really compares to the fresh noodles they make in house! If you want something fresh, chewy, and delicious, come here!
I got the Dan Dan noodles. My favorite parts were the noodles themselves. The spicy pork had too much lemon grass so it was a little overpowering and bitter. My SO got the hand pulled noodle duck soup which was superb! The broth was so tasty and the duck was seasoned really well. We both enjoyed slurping up our handmade noodles that night. We also got the Sichuan Wontons as a appetizer and fell in love. The wontons melt in your mouth while the hot chili oil offers a nice kick.
Our food came out in record timing and the service was great. Overall this place was amazing. The prices, parking, and food all gave it four stars.

This was pretty disappointing. My family insists on eating Chinese food and I just don’t care for it so I’m going to be a lot more critical here. I’m sure their Szechuan food and curry is good but my family and I had a craving for duck. Don’t get the Peking duck, it’s dry and has very little meat. Also, if you want lamb get it spicy even if you think you can’t handle it. I got it with scallions and could not finish it, it wasn’t all that great.
If you want Szechuan food, curry, and hot pot knock yourself out. Also our waiter was apathetic and pretty rude.

We came in late around 9 pm. The place was still very busy with guests in and out and people picking up take-​out. We ordered a plate of pork dumpling and a smoke fish appetizer. The service was fast. We didn’t have to wait for a long time to received our food considered how busy the place was that night. I felt the dumpling were made fresh from the kitchen, They were tasty. The fish dish got good flavor but a lot of bones which I already expected that. The price is affordable, specially with the big portion. The service was good. I admired the owner willing to serve the food even pass mid night. It just becomes so convenient for travelers, theme park goers, whoever look for good food after 9 pm. Plus, the menu selection is huge, everyone eventually find something he /​she like. This restaurant is awesome!

This restaurant use to be many restaurant and they change almost every year we are here. Finally this restaurant makes some steam in the headway and has many customers event at 9:30 pm.
Chuan Lu Yuan offer hibachi and Szechuan Chinese cuisine. We went to the Chinese section of the restaurant. This restaurant was recommended by one of our friend in Tampa. I been here with other restaurant and they are not successful. I can say this restaurant finally pick up with the business with new cuisine.
They offer northeast and central China cuisine. The central China Szechuan cuisine has hot and spicy food. The northeast cuisine has a lot of noodle. They have the hand pull noodle or knife shave noodle that is very traditional to Chinese cuisine. Their dumpling is hand made fresh every day. It comes with the selection of the interior meat with chive.
I cannot believe they serve to 2 in the morning. The place is still pack with people after 10 pm. I would recommend if you craving for Chinese food at mid night, this is the place in Orlando.

If you’re looking for authentic Sichuan food, this is your place!
I studied in Cheng du, China back in 2008 and since then have been searching for the real stuff here in Orlando. Well, I struck gold!
Yes, some Sichuan style cuisine is spicy as hell, but luckily this place captures the diversity of authentic Chinese food. Both the extremely spicy dishes to the more mild stuff.
From their savory hand rolled dumplings, to their spicy lazi chicken, to their cabbage cooked with the actual numbing peppers, there really is something for everyone.
My go-​to dishes:
— pork & cabbage dumplings (dip in the pepper oil)
— lazi chicken & cabbage (this is a lot and meant to be shared)
–lunch special: eggplant, fried rice, spring roll, & won-​ton soup (the real hand-​rolled, melt in your mouth won-​tons)

This little 25-​ish seat restaurant really does it for me. The massive menu offers plenty of options to keep you coming back (which you will want to do, believe me). Choose from the many options that you may have never tried before, or play it safe and pick something that you’ve already seen elsewhere (and be ready for a surprise when that dish tastes nothing like the version you’ve had).
Oh, and hand pulled noodles! The bowl of spicy pork noodles that I ordered on my last visit was not only delicious, but the large bowl left me enough for lunch the next day. And since you probably don’t know me, I’ll just tell you: that NEVER happens.
So, what’s with the four star rating? Actually, I think of it as a high four stars and in another visit or two I could see bumping it up to five. It’s just that on our last visit we ordered the spring rolls. I wanted a different appetizer but my wife doesn’t eat pork, so no luck there. Anyway, I was hoping for something handmade but ours were hot on the outside and cold in the middle. And by cold, I mean COLD, not room temperature. They’re obviously frozen and then fried (but apparently not fried for long enough). That was a shame. So I won’t get those again, but that’s a minor quibble once you get to taste a meal here!

This is absolutely one of my favorite restaurants in Orlando; you’d be hard pressed to find a restaurant that executes their dishes at a higher level.
My gf and I have eaten here several times and we have been completely satisfied on each occasion. It’s the perfect place to bring friends so that you order 1 of EVERYTHING!
So what is amazing? Saying ‘everything’ won’t turn this into an effective review so let me attempt to narrow it down a bit: Dan Dan pork noodles, Szechuan wontons, La Zi chicken, Double cooked pork belly, Spicy Beef Hand Pulled Noodle Soup, Eggplant hot pot… EVERYTHING. Sorry. I tried, but I honestly have loved every single dish I’ve tasted here.
Aside from the great food, this place also has solid service. They’re friendly, helpful and refill your beverages at a good pace which is very helpful when ordering Szechuan cuisine.
Do yourself a favor and check this place, you will not be disappointed. Your wallet will also thank you… great food at a great price.

I love fresh hand pulled noodle soup! I don’t know of a place in Tampa that serves this dish. So whenever we go to Orlando, this is a must!
We always start with the Szechuan wontons. They are delicious and I always add more hot chilli oil on top to give it more of a kick. Please try one before you do this in case it’s already spicy enough for you.
My hubby and I ordered the spicy beef noodle soup. I got the hand pulled noodles and he got the hand cut noodles. The hand pulled is more like long spaghetti noodles I prefer the texture over the hand cut. The texture is just the right amount of chewiness. The hand cut is just thicker and various in size and not symmetric — I’m a little OCD. The broth is so-​so it tastes a bit watered down. It’s not terrible but obviously I don’t come here just for the broth.
We also wanted to try something different and ordered the Seafood tofu claypot. The sauce was good to pour over rice. There was a lot of tofu and fish fillets but the variety of seafood was limited. It was a bit deceiving as the calamari and shrimp was on top. Once you got into it you realized the bottom was completely tofu. Oh well it was still good but I probably wouldn’t order it again. There are other dishes I would want to try as the menu is so extensive.