Liang’s Joy Luck Garden

This is the best Chinese food around. The staff is amazing! Great service and the experience is always top rate. The servers truly enjoy their job and it makes the meal even better. We have never had a bad meal and are always surprised when we try something new that it always beats the best weve had anywhere in town. I highly recommend this restaurant. Its our family favorite and could be yours as well!

I hate giving one star reviews, but this place deserves it.
My boyfriend and I ordered the House Special Chow Mein and Golden Fried Rice. The Chow Mein was «okay» but was on the greasier side. The fried rice… my boyfriend hates onions with a passion. He does not touch anything that has, or even smell of onions. We specifically said, «no onions on anything» because we know how places like this use it on almost every dish served. Our waitress acknowledged our request, even writing it down on our check.
Our food came out, Chow Mein first then the fried rice. Well, what do you know, there’s onions in the fried rice! A lot of onions! We thought it was chives at first… but you really can’t mistake the smell of onions. My boyfriend push through it, and took the first bite. He didn’t taste the onions. I was relieved… until he took a second bite, and nearly gagged. So I had to eat the fried rice, while he ate my Chow Mein dish.
Our waitress was no where in site. We could not make any complaints, or even voiced our concerns. Some guy brought our dish out, dropped it on our table and went on his way. I should also mention that we were the only two customers in this entire restaurant.
So what happened here? Guess they just didn’t feel like having customers in that day. This is also what happens when you take a risk and try a new place. There’s a reason we were the only customers there… we should of taken that as a sign and ran!
We will not be returning, and advise that you do the same.

Two star mainly for their service. We waited about 15 mins before getting our order taken, another 20 to get our food (waited about 10 minutes between receiving each plate), and about 15 mins to get our check even after letting them know we were ready to go. Their service was so bad, but their food itself wasn’t too horrible. Although I must say, their utensils itself isn’t so clean. I’d rather order to-​go than wait 1 hr to eat.

Ordered Yee-​Fu Noodle with Yellow Leeks that was cooked with shelf life has expired oil (can taste it on 1^st bite) which tasted awful. another dish was Sizzled Chicken with Ginger Sauce, very greasy of chicken with skin and bones AND ALL… so very disappointed
Uses plastic plate as CHARGER PLATE… what wonderful set up…

We ordered a lemonade and she brought it out steaming hot… I’ve never heard of hot lemonade before and nothing on the drink menu mentioned that it would be hot all it said was «fresh lemonade» so I asked the waitress for a cold lemonade and she went back there and put ice in the steaming hot lemonade and brought it out again lol so the ice obviously melted instantly and I had to then ask for a cup of only ice and I poured it into the ice which caused me to spill lemonade all over my appetizer… Moral of the story is DON’T ORDER LEMONADE FROM HERE. Food was good but my favorite restaurants is right across (Asian n Cajun) sorry about the long lemonade review but I was pretty annoyed by it.

The food was decent. The host was nice. The waitress was nice but the waiter was not nice. When did you have to serve your own soup when ordering the family meal? The waiter brought out our bowl of soup. Forgot the serving spoon so he went back to get it and than just handed it to us. Wth we did we have to serve our own soup.
I hate when you have to ask for water refill and for napkins. These are standard stuff that any restaurant should offer.

I love this place. The staff is so friendly and nice! The food is always delicious! We always go for the seafood dishes here and I’m always pleased to see that the shrimp is always deveined. The menu is huge and there are so many options I always have a hard time deciding on what to eat! The restaurant is big and I’ve seen the back room being used for karaōke at one point so it’s a good place for larger groups as well!

Haven’t been here in a while but decided to try out their pork and preserved duck egg congee and salt and pepper pork ribs. I ordered them to-​go and they were both delicious! My boyfriend is sick and the congee was the perfect remedy. The food was ready within 10 minutes, I’d definitely come back again! :)

If you want a better quality Chinese food than Panda Express for lunch, try this place ! Price is very reasonable, and food s great !

Amazing food for price. We always get chicken curry clay pot and the braised tofu with seafood. Both are phenomenal. Customer service is alway great! Very kind gentleman took my take out order and was very attentive on the specifics of my order. I will gladly make this 30 min drive to get take out any weekend.

Definitely the BEST Chinese restaurant in Natomas. They’re always consistent and service is always great. I have yet to order a dish that I didn’t enjoy here. My favorites are the house special fried rice, crispy Garlic spare ribs and spicy fried squid Not to throw shade but I am not sure why CF Chang’s restaurant here in Natomas has the most Unilocal reviews and 4 stars also becas I’ve been there a handful of times and their food is just OKAY compared to Joy Luck Garden.

Really good Chinese food. This is the plaxe my family goes to because it’s so close to home. My favorite dish is the chicken and mushrooms, and the salted fish fried rice. Really great service considering most Chinese restaurant are not known for their service. The staff is super friendly. I once ordered takeout and while I was waiting they offered me something to drink. Another time I had a big takeout order of 9 dishs and the guy up front help carry the food to my car. The only reason it’s not 5 stars is because I have had better Chinese food in my life but they have all been in bigger cities with larger Asian population like San Francisco, LA, and Vancouver Canada.

Why is finding high quality Chinese food so difficult in Sacramento areas? So this place is exactly what I thought it would be, not good and a little creepy. First of all, I never ever trust any Asian restaurant that has disgusting fish tanks stuffed full of these poor fish that are for eating. All of those fish are not only being treated immorally right in front of our very eyes, but they literally feed on each other’s poop because they’re all shoved in this little tank. Already not impressed. I normally go to CF Cheng if I’m in the Natomas area, which is really not that great either, but it’s the best we have found nearby. So back to this place, we got chicken fried rice with meat that was highly questionable, and pot stickers to share. The potstickers we are typical pre-​frozen, basic potstickers. No freshness, no high quality ingredients, just defrosted and fried. But the fried rice? It’s pretty hard to make bad fried rice, it’s so easy! So the pieces of chicken they use were so tiny, you could literally barely find them. And the little bit of chicken you did find almost looked grey. the husband thought it may have been from the soy sauce and fried rice and, I just wonder if it was chicken and how old. They hardly used any scrambled egg, and the only vegetables that were in the whole container with wilted lettuce. Yes, you read that right, not cabbage but rather wilted lettuce. To be honest, the employee that helped us was very nice, the food was edible, but just so basic I will not be back. I reserve my one star reviews when things are all bad, nothing can salvage them. That was not the case with this place.

We did take out. They were helpful and quick to get us our food which was great. Best Chinese we have had in a while. Everything was fresh. Not gloppy or salty. The House Special Cow Fun — dry — was fabulous. As was the cashew chicken and the golden fried rice. The prices and serving size were good too. We will definitely go back.

Clean, nice people, cooked fresh, good tasting food. They have a good lunch special as well!

My family and I went to the Joyluck restaurant last evening for our annual Chinese Christmas dinner. We’ve had dinner there in the past, and found their cuisine average at best, but thought we would give it another try. There were only two persons serving a full house.
Directly across from my wife and I sat a young family of three. The husband and wife had a child that looked 10 – 12 months old. The young man addressed the waitress as she walked by, but was ignored two different times. The main waiter (man) walked by and there was a verbal exchange, and the waiter became enraged and yelled at the young man and demanded that he look at him, and then proceeded to tell him that he was very busy and had other customers to serve. The entire restaurant became silent. Whatever preceded this encounter certainly didn’t warrant the behavior displayed by this waiter. The waiter acted like a bully. My family won’t be coming back due to the bad behavior of this staff person.

We came in not long ago for a large party of 30 or more people. Staff was friendly, helpful and efficient. Questions and requests were answered as they arisen. Requests for extra utensils, water, corkscrew, rice refills were met or addressed before they came up.
Food ordered was traditional Chinese in all senses. Food was hot for various cooked dishes. Seafood options ordered were properly cooked. Nothing tough and nothing overly chewy. Some of those dishes included oysters, shrimp, flounder. All appropriately seasoned to my full enjoyment.
Proteins ordered include chicken, duck, beef, and pork. Specifically some dishes Asian style fried chicken, fried duck, chicken chow mein in gravy, pork belly. All the dishes were mouth watering. Cooked tender. Bursting with flavors and seasoning. Nothing fatty trimmed well.
Overall food and service execution was good. Close to authentic as you can get. Would definitely come back

This place has been open for a while now after multiple owners within the last few years. Finally tried it today. Ordered the following for takeout: salt & pepper chicken wings, chicken phở, and pan fried noodles with shrimp. The chicken and pan fried noodles was very good, but you could definitely taste the MSG on the wings, but I like that it had some spice to it. The phở broth was not your traditional broth (tasted more like a Chinese version?), but with some siracha and plum sauce, it was ok.
After 10 minutes of ordering, it was ready right when I got there and their prices are pretty cheap. Three entrees for less than $ 25 is a good deal. I would come back again!

Hooray! A good Chinese food restaurant in Natomas! I have tried my fair share of places around here, and most of them ended up tasting way too greasy with cheap, cartilagey pieces of meat. We ordered from here as soon as we saw a dish that consisted of hot beef marinating in a spicy chili broth.
So you know that when you are leaving a restaurant carrying a to-​go BOX (not bag) that weighs as much as a small child, you probably made some kind of mistake in the ordering process. We ordered said beef in chili broth dish, chow mein, fried rice, and sweet and sour pork. Everything was SO good! Not greasy, giant portions, and cooked fresh (I could tell). We had leftovers for days. We will be back, Liang!

I came here for a birthday party, so you know this place was packed with people. My boyfriend and his family really like going here because it’s the more expensive/​authentic Chinese food. For me, it was just okay.
We took up maybe 80% of the restaurant, which is a lot for me. Haven’t seen that happen ever. Usually it’s just 50% or something. Anyway, they came out with plates after plates after plates of food. First, it was this abalone soup. This is SO good. I really like it. It was flavorful. It didn’t have a fishy taste to it either. For those that don’t like the fish taste, get this because no or little fish taste. However, that might be the only item I did like. Next was deep fried crab meat. I usually would like this, but this time it just didn’t taste as good. The texture was crunchy and soft on the inside, but it wasn’t juicy compared to other places. Next was lobster and quail. The lobster was spicy! It was good, but I didn’t wanna get messy, so I had to use my utensils to get the meat out. This was the first time I had quail. I’ve had quail eggs when I was young, and I didn’t like it. Similarly, I don’t like the quail. I was hesitant because I based it off of the eggs, but my bf said it’s like duck. I ate it, and tasted like liver, and I hate liver. So ew. Next few dishes were veggies. They’re just veggies so they’re…okay. Next came the crab. I like crab, but don’t like to get messy in public, so again I used my utensils to pick out the meat. Next came a fish dish and the salty fish and chicken fried rice. I actually did like the fish, but it was on the bland side unless you get the sauce/​oils from the fish. I’ve had fish were it was good by itself. The fried rice was good, but I didn’t get a lot because we had to share. It wasn’t as salty as other places I’ve tried so kudos!
We were there for about 3 hours. Not once did a waiter check up on us. If we wanted something, we had to go up to them and ask for it. I know it’s a big group, but come on. Check up on every table once in a while. I went thirsty or just kept drinking tea the whole night.
Also, I just felt like the workers seemed annoyed when serving us or getting something we had asked for like we’re asking them to get us all gold. Again, yes we’re a big group, but that shouldn’t mean that your service should be shooty.
Overall, I guess this place is good. Had a few good items and some not so good. It might just be an acquired taste. Quail… never again for me. If you like liver, try the quail. I do suggest the abalone soup! Really tasty! Wish I got more of the soup. And apparently it’s good for your body. It cleanses the oils? Not sure. It was just tasty.

On Sunday, I was craving for real Chinese food for lunch and wanted to stay in the neighborhood. So I convinced hubs to try this place. It was our first time here. So glad I went. Rejoice, a Chinese restaurant that can cook tasty food without MSG.
As we walked in, we were both impressed with the furnishings and décor. It was a bit fancier than your average Chinese restaurant. The A/​C was cranking, and no I haven’t hit menopause yet… I just like my A/​C in triple digit days and don’t like eating at places that are stingy on the A/​C.
Hubs and I are quickly seated. We sat in a booth, they also have tables if you like. The booth cushioning was soft firm meaning no lumpy bumpies.
I asked our waiter if they can cook without MSG explaining that I have severe reactions so don’t «play me». He said yes. Yahoo! If he said no, we would have left. And to contest to his truthfulness, I’m writing this review a day later and no bad reactions. We ordered pork and preserved duck egg congee, chicken fried rice, and mixed veggies. The price came out to ~$ 25, not too shabby… affordable pricing. Portions are huge, family style. We had left overs.
The congee flavor tasted just like how my mom used to make it, delicious… I enjoyed it. I also liked the stir fry mixed veggies… it contained two different kinds of mushrooms, celery, carrots, baby bok choy, brocolli in a great tasting sauce. Yummy!
To be honest, I’ve had better tasting Chinese food. But this is the best non MSG Chinese food I’ve had in Natomas. Yes, I’ve even been to the one across the parking lot.

Service: pretty poor. There was a large party in the back singing karaōke and one server on the floor. The owner/​manager was in the front talking to a friend the entire time we were there. Refills of drinks were extremely slow and getting boxes for leftovers took way too long. Our server was super nice and friendly but overall service was just too slow.
Parking: big lot shared by other businesses in the center. Very easy and there was ample parking for everyone.
Food:
black bean spareribs — best thing I’ve had at a Chinese restaurant. It was so close to how my grandma used to make it. It does take a while to cook (I think we were quoted 20 minutes) but it was well worth the wait. Portion size was pretty good for the amount of food we got.
hot and sour soup — one of the better hot and sour soups I’ve had.
tomato beef chow mein — this was another nostalgic dish for me and this place killed it (in the worst way possible). It was mushy and almost inedible. There was hardly any tomato in it and it was overly sweet. Basically noodles with ketchup. I will not ever be ordering this here again.
Overall: I will return for the black bean spareribs and hopefully try some better dishes. Hope the service isn’t as shady as it was this past weekend…

This restaurant is outstanding. Best Asian food we have had in Natomas. It’s big and really nice inside. Perfect for big family dinners and private parties. They have a big variety of dishes to pick from and the prices are excellent.
I encourage you all to try it and keep Natomas locals eating in Natomas.

We came into Liang’s tired and bedraggled from a 12hour cross-​country flight. Our server was so sweet and friendly that she made me forget all about my jet lag.
I ordered the MaPo Tofu, my Wee One got the shrimp chow mien. They were both delightful dishes. My tofu was spicy and the sauce was complex and well executed. My kid’s chow mein was simple and delicious.
If I am ever fresh off a plane in Sacramento again, I will be seeking Liang’s out again for another meal!

The food was average. Not sure I would make plans to come back; but certainly don’t have anything against it. They have a good selection of Chinese food, seafood, hot pots, and varied lunch and dinner specials. I’ve only been here once and we had beef chow fun and Peking duck in a bun. It was good (nothing spectacular).
When we arrived, there was a large party in the back of the restaurant and their main seating area was almost full. A sign of good food and great prices. The employees were very friendly and helpful.
The only negative was the dirty tea cups and lack of serving utensils. I suppose we got off on the wrong foot (with the cups and all); but I would still rate everything to be pretty average.

They have Phở and Hot Pot here! It’s kind of like your catch all Asian Restaurant with Chinese, Vietnamese, and Japanese fusion.
I really wanted some Phở since it’s been chilly out. They don’t have the authentic Beef Phở, but they have chicken and seafood. I opted for the chicken with egg noodles and was not disappointed. We also ordered the Cod Clay pot. I was surprised at how much fish they gave us in the clay pot. Most places give you more tofu than anything. Glad they weren’t stingy with the fish. The hubs really wanted pecking spare ribs. They were alright. Tasted like regular peking spareribs. Nothing special.
What I really liked about this place was the amount of space it offered. As much as the hubs and I love CF Chengs for their food, this place has just so much room. I don’t forsee there ever being a ridiculous wait time. Also, there is a private dining room for parties or a meeting.
Service was good. We came there 15 minutes before closing (it was our first time and we didn’t know they closed at 9pm) and they didn’t rush us out. They are also a $ 1 cheaper than CF Chengs as far as price.
Not bad! I’d definitely come back for their chicken phở and hot pot! And also their tasty Cod Clay Pot.