TG Garden

A small Garden Grove restaurant with good Hong Kong- and American-influenced Chinese dishes

Following the abrupt closure of Irvine’s popular Cantonese seafood and BBQ house Sam Woo, we (and many others) hoped to find at least a partial alternative nearby. Our quest for something compelling led us to TG Garden, a Hong Kong-style restaurant that opened in 2021 in a Garden Grove plaza.

TG Garden’s venue was quite small but clean and modern. The menu included around 75 items largely spanning soups, typical Chinese-American entrees (pork chops, Mongolian beef, chicken with string beans), and large Hong Kong-style wonton/noodle soups and congees. It appeared to operate with minimal staffing, particularly in the dining room, where only one or two people handled guests, and everything we ordered was served in take-out containers.

Each of the items we tried was pretty good: We particularly liked TG Garden’s plentiful bowl of fresh, lightly cooked seafood and bok choy, clams with basil, and the classic deep-fried orange beef. The overall ingredient and prep quality were higher than typical Americanized Chinese take-out places around here, bolstered by a nice collection of housemade tea and slush drinks, and egg waffles.

Previously a Taiwanese bubble tea and snack cafe called Hodalla Cafe, TG Garden closed in 2023.

Stats

Price: $$
Service: Counter
Open Since: 2021
Closed: 2023

Addresses

13913 Harbor Blvd.
Garden Grove, CA 92843