Fountain Garden Seafood Restaurant

The place is walking distance from me. The one item I enjoy here is the Wonton soup. You can't go wrong with the soup here! I've tried other items like noodles and chicken, but the soup is what I get. If you are looking for a good wonton soup, try it here. You won't be disappointed.

"Fountain Garden Seafood Restaurant" is a Chinese restaurant located in Oakland's Laurel neighborhood. I found this place while flipping thru my DoorDash app. They had something on the menu I just had to try...."salted fish chicken fried rice." Yes! "Haam yu chow faan." Fellow Yelpers, there's fried rice, and then there's one step up.....Salted Fish Chicken Fried Rice.So on a Saturday night, I ordered Salted Fish Fried Rice and Spareribs in Black Bean Sauce. As a DashPass+ member, DoorDash offered me free express delivery, so I got my food fast. So the food arrived, and it was delicious. When Salted Fish Chicken Fried Rice is properly made, I can't stop eating it. It had the strong aroma of salted fish, chicken, green onions, and shredded lettuce. The Spareribs in Black Bean Sauce was tender and easy to eat. The dish came with onions and bell peppers. Now, this food was so good, I wanted to go check out this place in person. On the next day, I went there for lunch around 1pm. The decor is a bit stripped down and basic. The server greeted me, and she told me to sit anywhere. Without really looking at the menu, I simply asked for "Wor Won Ton Soup." The place has AC, so it was comfortable on a warm day. She came and set the table with ice water and a napkin. The table has no condiments, you have to ask for things. But service was polite and attentive. So my Wor Won Ton Soup arrived at the table, and it was a big bowl of 10 dumplings in a savory dark broth. Also known as House Won Ton Soup, this meal has a little bit of everything. It had seafood, pork, chicken, beef, and veggies. The interesting thing was the dumplings had small whole shrimp inside, not shrimp paste. Very good Wor Won Ton Soup!So, if you want family style Chinese food at reasonable prices, this place is worth a try. Especially if you have never tried Salted Fish Chicken Fried Rice! Street parking.

I used to come here for great Cantonese food years ago. But the meal we had on Friday was unbelievably bad. When we arrived at 6:00, the lights were off and there were no customers - a bad sign. I am Chinese, ordered in Cantonese but had to walk to the back and get my own chopsticks. Only forks were set out at the table. The spring rolls were mushy & tasted like baking soda - not much inside them except corn starch slurry . I took one bite & spit it out. The walnut prawns were only a bit better - at least the little bit of seafood had flavor. But the walnuts were inedible - moldy. We ordered the iron platter steak - the bell peppers and onions were fresh, but again the only flavor in the steak was baking soda, bitter. There was no oyster sauce in the cornstarch slurry used to thicken the sauce. No discernible salt or pepper. The sautéed string beans and beef were much the same - coated in baking soda so that everything was mushy & bitter. Again, no seasoning. Even the fried rice was bad. Everyone uses day old rice to make it, but it still needs to be cooked. Ours tasted like ingredients were mixed out of the refrigerator and not stir-fried - there were cold clumps of rice throughout, again inadequately seasoned. I cook. I understand the use of baking soda to tenderize meat. But it needs to be rinsed off before you cook the meat. This entire meal was ruined because the cook was lazy and skipped this step. If he tasted what he was serving he might know he needed seasoning - salt, pepper, sesame oil, soy sauce, oyster sauce, SOMETHING / ANYTHING in EVERY dish he prepared. I felt bad for the waitress. She was nice. But the food was inedible and we left hungry after spending $100 for the two of us. The leftovers were not worth taking home. We went home and had to make another meal for ourselves. Never again.

Love this place! Great food, lovely service,and really generous portions. It's my go to for dine in or take out. Support this place!

Won ton soup is our favorite dish at this restaurant. We always request two orders for order out or eat in when visiting in the Laurel District of Oakland . Other dishes are family size and shareable with at 4-6 moderate eaters. Other favorites of our family: crispy chicken chow mein, crispy pork chop spicy, beef chow fun.. This neighbor restaurant interior is simple. It uses paper napkins & disposable chopsticks, plastic plates. The service is one person but she is attentive to the customers.

I've been coming to this restaurant for YEARS. I order the same way every time. Today I opted to pay in cash instead of card. When I get there, the lady tells me the cash amount is wrong. I show her my emailed receipt and she says all the prices are wrong? I asked if they just recently changed the prices since I had ordered here earlier this week. She said the restaurant was under new management as of earlier this year. Then when I asked to speak with someone else she told me to leave. $85 for Wonton soup, Chow mein, and broccoli and beef?!?! I know prices go up but $85 for 3 items was crazy.

This is not good. First of all, the food is very mediocre quality. But more importantly is that they do not listen to you when you order. I ordered Mongolian Beef, mild, not spicy. What I received was a plate of mongolian beef with a bunch of: 1) sliced jalapenos, 2) red pepper chili flakes, and 3) actual full red chili peppers. And the dish itself was not akin to quality Mongolian Beef. It was in a brown gravy sauce, no scallions and no bed of crispy rice noodles. Had a bunch of green bell peppers. Have not seen those in Mongolian Beef before. When the server came back to pick up my plate, she noticed that I had pushed all the jalapenos and chili peppers off to the side. She looked at them and said, "a little spicy is good, yes?" I just didn't know how to respond, as I asked for "mild". I also had ordered chow mein noodles *plain*, for my picky daughter. I literally told her: "just noodles. no meat. no veggies. nothing." What I received was a container of very spicy chow mein noodles which was highly disappointing to my kid. Just not good. Not good at all. Laurel deserves a better chinese restaurant.

I usually don't like to feed into who's cooking on certain days but this is the first time that I've gotten a chicken and black bean sauce and this is what it looks like. Where is the sauce? Where is it??? The review on a regular day is 4 but today.... Consistency matters!

I ordered the salt and pepper pork chops, which were delicious. Then when I went to eat the prawns and curry with white rice, I realized that there was a bug on the rice. Now I have to make rice and ensure that the curry doesn't have anything in it that I'm not aware of. It's unfortunate because I like the food and it smells great.FYI: they use MSG but will not add it if asked.

We ordered chicken chow fun, chicken with double mushrooms, and snow peas. This is not a fancy place, but good food & descent portions.