First food served at new China Garden to waiting crowd

A popular Parker restaurant that made news when it burned down in late 2014 opened again to the public at lunchtime Wednesday.

A line of hungry people queued up outside China Garden ahead of its 11am opening, eager to get back to eating at one of the community’s favorite food spots. 

When the restaurant went up in flames, an outpouring of sentiment flowed on this website and elsewhere from visitors to the Parker area far and wide who claim China Garden as their favorite Chinese restaurant.

“It sounds crazy to my friends when I tell them,” one of them said, “but the best Chinese food I’ve had is in Parker, Arizona.”

The first customer through the door was Josh Savino, who had lined up from around 9am and posted updates on his Facebook page. “The whole town showed up!” he said.

Early reports from the first customers into the brand new eatery were that the food is just as good as it was and the atmosphere is even better than before.