As we approached the building, the outside was seriously overgrown and under-maintained. We wondered if the place was still open. Restrooms quite filthy (looked like a couple of auto mechanics had just washed their greasy hands in the sinks), the smelly urinal had an ineffective bar of Dial soap in it as a urinal cake, and the paper towels were empty. In the dining room, the carpet was heavily soiled, and there were no fewer than 32 light bulbs burned out as visible from our table. Had to wonder what the kitchen is like. Table had a plexiglas top over a fabric tablecloth that was quite dirty on the sides. Our young male server who wore no socks seemed to be in a foul and impatient mood, and acted annoyed while my lunch mate was ordering. My fried rice was greasy and mediocre, and didn't seem at all fresh. Lunch mate's sweet and sour chicken was average, with typical sauce in a shade of red that does not occur in nature. Fresh flowers on the tables, new menus with much better English than had been the case when the place was Gourmet Garden, and some newer decorations were improvements. There's quite a ways to go. That grease is still lurking in my mouth. Update: Lunch mate started feeling unwell while on the way to our next destination, where he was sick both directions. Not good. read more

This place used to be a different Chinese restaurant called gourmet garden. The garden was excellent. This place is horrible. The wonton soup tastes like water with a wonton in it. I got the triple sizzling delight. It was awful. The sauce was nauseating, the shrimp and scallops had no taste. I've gotten the double sesame delight before at This place. While I loved it at gourmet garden, it was pretty bad here. It's pricey and the food is bad. read more

The food is very good, The broth of the soup is very nice. The helpings are good and the prices are fair. The food is not greasy, and Staff is very nice. read more

Hot Pot Chen - Low mein - Chinese Near Me - Ann Arbor, Michigan

Overall just OK, Very high prices, We had, Hot Tea, Egg Rolls, Shrimp fried Rice, Sizzling Pan Fried Noodles, Tea & Egg Rolls were good, Shrimp Fried Rice was Mediocre at best would Not order it again, Overpriced, Sizzling Pan Fried Noodle was Different but good, although mostly, Chicken & shrimp, only 1Small piece of Lobster & some Beef, could have used more Noodles, Service was Good. Would try again, Saw some diners whose food was served in a Wok, like to find out what that was and maybe try that. read more

I really could not see much difference in this place from the one it replaced (whose name I can't remember). I ordered one of the pots because that was the name of the place. The one good thing about it was that it came sizzling hot, other than that it was pretty standard other than the meat (I had the beef) was pretty tough. My friend ordered the honeymooners which was shrimp and pork served separately in a cool butterfly platter. It was better than mine. Our waitperson never offered us a choice of beverages and generally seemed to want as little to do with us as possible. I was hoping this town would finally get a good, sit-down Chinese restaurant. My search continues. read more

A place name Hot Pot should have Hot Pot in the menu. I asked the waiter he said they didn't have Hot Pot. Maybe this winter. Huh?!?! Wtf. I did have the Triple Special and it was served hot, with a good Chinese basil taste. The rice was tepid and dry - blah. My wife had had the Ma La Scalops served "extra spicy". The were void of spice and served tepid. read more

Worst Chinese food I've ever had. This restaurant used to be the Gourmet Garden, food was outstanding. They sold it last February and unfortunately the quality has dropped off tremendously. The chicken in my chicken and broccoli was grey, rubbery, and just plain inedible. I'm very dissapointed and won't be back, and suggest you look elsewhere for good Chinese food. read more

Food is mediocre Ambiance is OK Staff is friendly Bathroom is dirty read more

We are past customers of Gourmet Garden that is now Hot Pot Chen. Gourmet Garden was a great restaurant with fresh Chinese Vegtables and quality real seafood, chicken, beef and pork, duck and fish. Their sauces were delicious. We live near this new restaurant and our last take out was just okay with beef and chicken. Tonight we order because of Lent the Seafood Soup with Crispsu Rice and the Sizzling Seafood entree. The meal AWEFUL!!. The soup contained a few shrimp and scallops and IMITATION CRAB. Hardly any veggies and no flavor. It was thickened with corn starch. The Seafood entree contained the same IMITATION CRAB with lots of slimy big pieces. I couldn't eat it and they advertised CRAB. Worse there was a small piece of lobster in the shell that had to be pulled out. Few shrimp and and a few scallops. The broth again lacked taste. We paid $25 for this meal. I called and complained and all I heard was "Okay". This is NOT the previous China Garden. We will not order again. read more

My family frequented this location when it was Gourmet Garden, once it became Hot Pot Chen, it went down hill quickly. We tried it 6 or 8 times, and finally decided we were trying harder to like it than the owners were trying to make it likable. NOT going back. The dining room management sits behind a counter reading text books, looking unhappy and ignoring the business and customers. Inside the carpet is dirty and appears grease soaked, just as the outside front has overgrown landscaping and ridiculously long grass and looks abandoned. Just as the environment does not look fresh nor inviting, neither does the food. Chicken dishes are often made with stringy dark meat deep fried into an unidentifiable mess. Dishes that should have tasty sauces, are dry and awful. The owners appear to be disinterested in this business, and in our opinion should shut it down. In summary it is dirty, messy, and serves very low quality food. No one working there ever smiles or shows the slightest appreciation to customers. Dining there is a depressing experience. If they want to make money, they had better start trying to earn it. That is lesson number 1, in Business 101, for the student behind the books. read more

Just picked up a order of almond chicken very disappointed we've ordered from this location under a different name for years they change the name and change the food I do not recommend this place read more

Amazing dishes! Huge portions and very friendly staff. Everything we had here was delicious and came quickly. Great little gem that I don't think gets the credit it deserves. read more

Horrible foods. We ordered Water Boiling Beef- the beef is not fresh and the vegetables are from old dishes.

I usually love the food here, but recently it seems like it's been going downhill. The egg rolls were very cold and seemed to be cooked for awhile. The only thing i really enjoyed was the egg drop soup. read more

This spot for American-style Chinese food seems generally underrated. We recommend the eggplant dumplings--not dumplings at all, but luscious eggplant stuffed with minced shrimp and fried--if you don't mind fried foods. Salt and pepper shrimp is also enjoyable. The place is looking dingy, it seems to be a takeout place now, really, in spite of the space they have at their disposal. It's really a 3.5 and there are better in A2, but it deserves better than its reputation. read more

Our family loves it here, have been coming for years, before it was hot pot Chen. We do not order anything very exciting and only get take out. We are pleased 95% of the time. I recommend asking for low oil when ordering. read more

Got carry out and very disappointed. Spring rolls were overly greasy and ALL of our food was bland. Szechuan beef had absolutely no flavor and the hot and sour soup tasted watered down. Vegetarian Paradise was okay but the bean curd was gross with a texture similar to creme brulee. Will never go back. read more

This restaurant was recommended to us by two sisters having lunch at Star's Cafe on Monday. They said it is next to Noodles & Company with whom they share a driveway. We went for lunch the next day. It is where my favorite Ann Arbor restaurant was a couple of years ago. We had the same waitress!! The decor is pleasant, the music was very pleasant. Since it was two o'clock it was not busy. The hostess could have smiled and welcomed us. She did ask if we were there for carry out. Our waitress was five star. We enjoyed the fried wonton with apricot sauce while we waited for our hot and sour soup. The soup was very good. We both ordered lamb with spicy sauce that had a nice mix of Chinese vegetables. It was not all that spicy...next time I will specify how spicy. Rice is rice. I like my tea in a cup without a handle and so it was but it was plastic...the chopsticks are break apart. The menus we were handed were worn. We will return on a weekend to see how many tables are filled with Asians. Hearing Cantonese or Mandarin spoken around me is a good thing. read more

Gourmet garden was the best and now the food is so so. Egg roll stay away from, they over wrapped and was raw, the only way I'm coming back is if it's Mexican food and they serve tacos read more

My husband and I decided to try this restaurant on July 4th, as no other Chinese restaurants were open. We had been here when it was Gourmet Garden and it was perfectly fine. It was our understanding that the change to Hot Pot Chen was in name only and that the management remained the same. That cannot possibly be the case, since the quality has diminished so substantially. Our meal began with a cold egg roll that had to have been sitting. It was whisked out so quickly that it couldn't have been fresh. It was just awful, as were all of our dishes. Scallops with vegetables were inedible, in a bland, unappetizing sauce. My husband's tofu was drenched in sauce, as was his eggplant. The brown rice also was cold and tasted like it, too, had been sitting around. After a bit of all our food, I couldn't bring myself to eat any more of it. Fortune cookies tasted stale. I rarely take the time to write reviews, but I feel I needed to do so to warn others to stay away. Our horrible meal wasn't even a good value; our dishes were in the $15.00 range. Ann Arbor could sorely use a good Chinese restaurant. I regret to say this is not one of them. read more

Had dinner inside last week. Food was bad. Spring/Egg rolls were hard and tough. Entrees were dry - no sauce on them. Dining room smelled strongly of sterno - which gave me a headache. And to top it all off - the waitress was rude and disappeared on us. Really bad experience. I would not go back. read more

It was one of the worst Chinese meals that I have ever eaten. The egg roll was cold and tasted old. When we received our entree it was burnt and just gross.. we will not be coming back here.. read more

Arranged a Christmas Eve dinner for family and friends. Utterly disappointed with the service. The waitress assigned to our table, literally pushed her way through to pour water. Where water wasn't available she poured the remaining ice into the glass and walked away. Food was served cold and " Sizzling" dishes on the menu rather had a dampening effect. Order was rushed and she simply dropped off boxes while some of us were still eating. The restaurant is well advised to start hiring professional help as this sort of service will run them out of business faster than they think. read more

Awful. The meal was not seasoned well at all. The chicken beef and shrimp were dry in the dish. It was not favorable or tasty. The spring roll was soft and tasted very stale. I threw it out as well as the soup i didn't dare to even try which looked murky, the rest of the lunch meal after a few bites were also tossed. It's as if they don't care. read more

The House Chicken with rice was delicious. Friendly service and good prices. Don't let anybody tell you Ann Arbor doesn't have good Chinese food. HPC FTW read more

The food is really good and the service is really good we really like our friend Judy she's a waitress here. Get Judy she's great everytime. She never forgets to bring your food, she's fast, she's nice and a good person and waitress, she's funny and she nevers messes up on a order she's just a very good waitress and person all together. Also ever since the resturant got changed to a new owner to hot pot chen and the business next to this restaurant decided they wanted to build another business and have construction there the parking in the parking lot has been terrible. Like there's like always no parking spaces for us to park and for other people to park to. There's litterly only like 7 parking spaces in the parking lot counting the handicapped parking spaces but still those parking spaces are not avaliable sometimes to park there either. It really has become a struggle and a sadness and sad exprience at this resturant with all the parking space parking lot problems they been having. I mean they have alot of places to sit inside but not enough parking spaces in the parking lot. But I will still be dining her and I will still be going her sometimes because I still love this restaurant even though it's not called gourment garden anymore. But my review would be different if this restaurant was till called gourment garden and had more avaliable parking spaces in the parking lot. I'm hoping the business that opens up next door soon will come up with a agreement with hot pot chen so that they can share their parking lot and parking spaces with hot pot chen so that people can come here and not have to worry about parking to eat here and so that hot pot chen still gets good a lot of business and doesn't run out of business ever anytime soon. read more