Lin Garden

I was meeting my mom in Scarborough and we didn't get a chance to make reservations anywhere for lunch, so we thought we would try out luck at Lin Garden.

Restaurant: Lin Garden
Location: Scarborough
Meal: Lunch
Day: Thursday
Son's Age: 20 weeks

Lin Garden is a fantastic Hakka restaurant that I typically do takeout from, so this was my first time eating in. The owner is very familiar with me and he was so excited to meet my baby, which was nice. They have a weekday lunch special which is very typical for Hakka restaurants but I was curious how it would be here.

Accessibility: ⭐️⭐️
The restaurant itself is quite large. There is a waiting area for people getting takeout, and then there is a separate seating area. I had no issues bringing my son in his car seat.

Unfortunately, the washroom did not have a change table or any place that could function as such, so I would probably have had to run to my car to change my son's diaper if that had been necessary. 

That being said, there was a larger washroom so in theory if I had brought my stroller inside, at least I would have been able to bring my baby with me. Overall, though, I don't find the accessibility to be very convenient. 

Service: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

First off, I want to point out that Chinese servers are generally very blunt. They don't tend to go through pleasantries; they tell it as it is. When we were looking through the lunch specials, my mom saw that there was fried rice and asked the server if she could have manchurian fried rice. The server very bluntly said there were no alterations to the lunch specials and if she wanted manchurian fried rice she could order it off the regular menu. My mom tried to flag down a different server to ask the same question but was similarly dismissed. I still give the service four stars, though, because once our order was taken, food arrived quite quickly, and the owner came over to chat with us and was very pleased to meet the baby. He interacted with my son quite a bit which kept him very entertained while I was eating, and he also inquired after my sister and my husband (I mentioned I'm a bit of a regular customer, right?). While there is room for improvement, overall I felt very welcome with my baby. 

Food: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The lunch special is served with a choice of soup, pop, or spring roll. Both my mother and I chose to start with hot and sour soup. 

The soup was fine albeit unmemorable. It's not really want the restaurant is known for anyway. For the main, my mom ordered Shanghai style chow mein while I got chicken in chilli sauce. 

The noodles were okay - again, not really the restaurant's specialty, and I question why my mom would order a Shanghai dish at a Hakka restaurant. The food gets four stars, however, because the chilli sauce is phenomenal. I tend to judge Hakka restaurants by their chilli chicken and this isn't even the chilli chicken that I normally get - my takeout order is usually breaded and likely thoroughly unhealthy. This chicken was unbreaded but still in the same amazing sauce which was the perfect level of spice. I still prefer my regular order but I highly recommend this dish as well. 

Overall: ⭐️⭐️⭐️½

The service and the food makes this worthwhile although the accessibility leaves a bit to be desired. Then again, I suppose there is a reason why a lot of customers seem to prefer takeout.