Tong Soon Garden

Mediocre at best. I’m kind of shocked when I go into a Korean Restaruant and my white boy Kimchi is far better than theirs. I expect far more from a Bay Area Asian Restaruant.

This is for their service… I didn’t get a chance to eat here. I walked in and two servers walk out and the other lady is on the phone and does not acknowledge that I have even walked in. How rude!!! Won’t be getting my business!

Tong soon garden is held in high regards by my Taiwanese and Chinese friends. I was told that their Jjajangmyeon was excellent coming from a few friends. The black bean noodles did not disappoint! Whats good:
Jjajangmyeon (black bean noodes) — 5 stars, order in and not togo
fried chicken wings — 3.5 stars, leaves you craving san tung wings if you’ve had before.
salt and pepper fish — 4 stars, pretty standard
house special beef? 3.5 stars, was a pretty basic chinese beef dish.
I’ve been back a couple times for the black bean noodles, but am still exploring the menu for favorite side dishes to accompany it. I have to stress ordering the noodles to dine in, as we took a togo order and 20 mins later it was all clumped up and not as «QQ».

I see many people confused by this place. is it korean? is it chinese?
here’s the real dope — tong soon is korean chinese. there are many chinese living in korea, and they have brought chinese cuisine, albeit modified, to the peninsula. case in point — ja jiang myun. it is a historically chinese dish that was taken to korea and modified for korean palates. what results is soupier (but not soupy) version of the sauce that is blacker but less black beany.
i have been to tong soon countless times, but i can only comment on one dish, the aforementioned ja jiang myun. i love this dish. they do it really well here, much better than the dedicated purveyor za zang. what i’ve heard from some older koreans is that the style made here at tong soon reflects an older style of ja jiang myun. that’s fine by me, because it is fantastic. i haven’t tried anything else on the menu, it might be good, it might be average, but one thing’s for sure — it’s not ja jiang myun.

I wish I could get a refund and I would be satisfied but I can’t bc it was a pick up order (ChangPong) spicy seafood noodle soup. It’s absolutely horrible. Taste like water with cayenne pepper!

I’m no Korean but others have confused me of being one and being seen eating the ja jang myun here won’t help matters. I think this is probably ja jang myun done right. Noodles are that nice slippery, chewy kind. The sauce is very tasty and had the right amount of beef, shrimp, and baby scallops! Often you can’t eat the sauce by itself in a ja jang myun, but here it’s tasty enough and not too salty that you can. Not the best anbience, but heck I came here for the food. Service was good. What more could ask for.

Amazing fresh authentic Chinese food with great service
Nothing fancy inside but always fast service with a smile and consistently good food

Where has this place been all my life? I’ve lived about 10 minutes away but never knew this was here until last week because we were craving some honey walnut shrimp. but MAN the walnut shrimp is one of the best I’ve ever had. Especially the walnuts. MUST try!
For our other dish, we shared the black bean sauce with noodles, which was also really good. I thought the service was fine– much more attentive than the average Asian restaurant. I agree with everyone that the parking in the back is definitely a bit sketch at night.
I’m only giving them 4 stars because I’ve only been there once and only tried two items. I definitely plan on re-​visiting and trying the other dishes. Will definitely update my review then. :)

I’ve probably been here about 4 – 5 times mostly cause the jjajangmyun is addicting. I’ve been to zazang down the street and had others in the area but this place gives you a lot for what you pay for. My typical order consist of jjajangmyun and tong soon fried rice. Typically they give you so much sauce that you don’t want to waste any of it so that is what the fried rice is for. There are minor things that could be changed: 1) the owners like to hover over you a lot to do an assortment of things like clear out empty plates, refill water, but most annoyingly check to see if you’ve paid the bill and what not and unconciously intimidate you to not loiter around 2) the parking lot is pretty shady and sad to navigate around but if you don’t find anything, there is street parking available in the area.
Overall, it is comfort food that satisfies that chinese/​korean fusion that you did not know you craved until you come here and order it.

I always come here to get jjampong to go. I don’t know of anywhere else in the area that serves jjampong as good to be honest.
I also want to try their jjajangmyeon but that will be for another day when I’m completely sick of jjampong :)
My one word to the wise for Tong Soon Garden is that you should try and consider this a to go only place. I dined in once and it honestly was not where it’s at. Service is lacking and it feels like any other chinese restaurant. Order food to go — service is always a lot nicer and speedier.

I was really curious to try the black bean sauce noodles which I haven’t had since I was in Pusan for work and we were running late to a client meeting but had to have lunch and so pulled over to each have a bowl of these noodles (my co-​worker said he one managed to eat the entire bowl in one slurp).
It’s not fancy but it hits the spot. Black bean sauce — not too salty — just pour the whole thing in over the noodles. The beef and shrimp are a nice touch but I kinda like just the noodles with sauce. Simple, straight forward and satisfying.
$ 9.50 including tax for a bowl. Enough for two lunches for me. Comes with a side dish of cabbage kimchee and tea.

I’ve been dining at Tong Soon for years, but even more so ever since my go-​to location in Fremont (i.e., Palace Chef known for their authentic hand-​pulled noodles) closed down a couple of years ago. And now I make the trek down to Santa Clara to the only place I know of that makes decent Korean-​style Chinese food. My staples here are always the Jjambbong noodle soup, Jjajangmyun black bean noodles, and spicy fried chicken wings (I switch off with the sweet and sour beef here and there). Tonight, everything was spot on. Both the Jjambbong and Jjajangmyun had nice chewy noodles and an abundance of accompanying items (soup had succulent shrimp, tender squid, huge chunks of beef and pork, and fresh veggies while the black bean noodles had good amounts of shrimp, beef, pork, and zucchini, too). Our wings were fried nicely and had a great crispy outside (not soggy at all from the mildly spicy, sweet, and savory sauce, and still juicy and moist inside). The food is prepared quickly, portions are generous, and the owner and employees are always very attentive. I will certainly keep coming to this fine establishment in the future.

As a regular I only come when I’m craving Jjia jjiang myeun or their spicy seafood noodle soup. Best place in the south bay that serves these. My fellow asians will understand the agonizing heartbreak of having to choose between the two. Some genius in Socal came up with the half and half bowl so people can get the best of both but I have yet to find one in the Bay Area.
They are always consistent with their food and service. The restaurant is clean and somewhat spacious, they have additional tables in the side area that’s not so visible from the entrance. Parking is plentiful with street and rear lot.
It may not be the fanciest place but damn their food is good!

Tong Soon Garden has mainly Chinese dishes with a number of Korean-​Chinese dishes like Jjajang Myun (black bean sauce noodles), Jjampong (spicy seafood noodle soup), Tangsuyuk (sweet & sour pork), etc.
You get tea & cabbage kimchi when you are seated (
). The kimchi is made with regular cabbage not the typical napa cabbage and was not heavily fermented.
Jjajang Myun ($ 8.95) is not the largest portion of noodles, but had plenty of sauce (
) The noodles are not hand-​pulled, but were nicely cooked and had good chew. Flavorful sauce. You also get two slices of pickled daikon, but no onions like you do at other Korean-​Chinese spots (
)
The menu says the JJM comes with seafood & beef and the waitress asked if I was OK with pork (
). The seafood was 3 shrimp, 1 piece of squid and a few tiny scallops (next to shrimp for scale
)
The Gan Pung Gi dish ($ 11.95) is 13 dry fried chicken wings with sauce (
). All flats, no drumettes. These were nicely cooked, moist, with a slight crunch. The sauce could use more flavor; there were a few dried chilis but no heat (
). Wonder if you can get half orders for solo dining as you lose any crispiness when reheated. ..

Listed as Chinese, I’d say this is more of Asian fusion between Chinese and Korean.
Craving for some won ton noodle soup, I decided to give it a shot. A surprise is what I got, korean flat noodles in a pork broth with chinese char sui (bbq) slices and korean potstickers in a gigantic metal bowl, enough for 3 people. While I’m okay with the noodles, I felt that the potstickers were a bad substitution as the skin isn’t thick enough and the filing was lack luster.
We also tried the recommended Jajangmyeon (korean black bean noodle). Same large serving. The black bean sauce was served on the side so you can flavor your noodles as you like. There were shrimp and misc veggies in there, nothing recognizable as it all looks like tar. Not being a fan, I still don’t like the dish (not their fault).
All and all, I’d come back to try the other options on the menu for a Korean/​Chinese fusion to see what they’ve done differently.

Unilocalers do it again! Thanks for the reviews, Tong Soon Garden was delicious! We took my dad here for dinner for our first time and thoroughly enjoyed our meal. While it appears to be Korean run, you do get Chinese food. We loved that the menu was traditional Chinese and while the flavors were typical but slightly mellow, none of it was heavy or overly greasy. For the first time, I didn’t feel so guilty having Chinese food. Thumbs up.
We ordered:
–Potstickers: large, flavorful, filled with meat, and perfectly pan seared.
–Sizzling rice with seafood: HUGE. Instead of sizzling rice, it was crispy rice crackers with seafood and sauce served atop.
–Seafood chowfun: lots of noodles and seafood which included shrimp, calamari, imitation crab, and small scallops.
–Cashew chicken: this dish garnered plenty of praise with lots of chicken (not gristly/​fatty), onions, cashews, and zucchini in a nice sauce. I would order this again!
There were three of us and we only finished half of each of the dishes. Afterwards, we were served the sweetest naval orange slices (two per person) and fortune cookies (with positive, not cryptic/​weird fortunes). Service, which made sure to roam the dining floor and attend to patrons, packed the leftovers neatly.
The place was clean, the food was good, the water was crisp, the pricing was appropriate, and the portions were huge! Service was attentive, friendly, and English-​speaking. Plenty of parking to the rear. Everything I’d want from a restaurant!
P. S. Hi-​chew candy pieces were also available at the counter (probably for take out… but you know, I had to take one).

Though conveniently located right off El Camino and close to Lawrence, it’s kind of hard to find this place because the name of the restaurant is shown on the front windows/​entrance. It’s pretty nice inside, bathrooms are clean, waitresses are actually pretty friendly, service above average for a Chinese place.
The tong soon chicken dish was not that spicy even though it was displayed as so. It’s slightly sweet, savory, and had good flavor. The chicken was cooked well but I would have preferred larger chunks instead of smaller pieces.
We also got spinach w/​garlic dish. Though instead of spinach the waitress offered us «kong jian cai» instead because it was in season, which was very nice of her to offer. There was a good amount of garlic but I preferred more as I enjoy fresh garlic flavor. Also, the vegetables weren’t the most tender but you can’t expect much. This is a dish to get if you want something on the healthier/​lighter side.
Just order 1 portion of rice for every 2 people. It’s more than enough. We even had leftovers. 2 dishes and 1 portion of rice came out to $ 30 with tip/​tax. Kinda pricy for what you’re getting.

I have pretty much always held this place in high regard ever since going to SCU and eating here frequently when I was in school. I love that this place hasn’t changed.
Let me be upfront. This is a Chinese restaurant. What does that mean? It means you don’t come here for spectacular service, your food may be fast or slow, you may or may not understand everything they say, but the food is downright delicious and that’s the end of it.
We ended up with a family pack, which was very good value for 7 – 8 dishes and many sides /​soups to share for about 8 people. I think Chinese restaurants are highly taste dependent on what you order. If you come with a party of two, are used to things like orange chicken, you will have a bad time. This place is pretty authentic and true to what I’ve had in China so highly recommended.

Everybody just hold your horses on the San Tung wing comparisons. Not close.
We had the chicken wings (menu item #9 of the Chicken page), which were good but not San Tung amazing. Kind of similar to 99 Chicken’s spicy soy sauce garlic fried chicken, but not quite as good.
The other dishes we got ranged from pretty good to quite bad…
The Mongolian beef was quite tasty.
The seasonal vegetable special (on choy?) was bland.
The Peking style pork was really bad. Firstly, it’s boneless pieces of pork, not spareribs. I mean, the dish is (normally) called Peking style spareribs… ging duo pai gwat. You might be thinking, «No bones, all meat, why is this guy complaining?» The trouble is the incredible amount of crunchy batter on each little piece of pork. Really unsatisfying. The sauce also disappointed, more like a sweet-​and-​sour sauce than anything else. Maybe the worst Peking style spareribs variant I’ve had anywhere.
Maybe I’m spoiled by places like Won Kee (Milpitas), but I expected the prices to be a little lower too. I don’t think vegetable dishes should be checking in around $ 10 each.
Kimchi brought at the start of dinner, orange wedges at the end, fortune cookies with the check.
Service was pretty good until I was trying to get someone’s attention for boxes and the check.
Awkwardly crowded parking lot behind the restaurant.
Food: 3 stars
Value: 2.5 stars
Service: 3 stars
Overall: 2.75 stars

Love how they accomodate and can make their zha-​jiang mien vegetarian. Portions are incredibly generous for the price, flavor of the zha jiang mien is great, only downsides are the sauce is a little bit too oily (can spoon oil off the top after letting it settle) and I feel so guilty eating a huge bowl of noodles that can really feed 2 people, easily.