Some restaurant critics have a rule--say something positive about a family owned restaurant, but never something that would shut it down. I am not a restaurant critic, but I also do not want to see this establishment close, even if a review from me could possibly result in that. But I do want people to know that the food here is nearly vile. First Garden is not especially bad; instead, it's like most other Chinese restaurants that try to appeal to non-Chinese tastes. The food is saturated in salt, sugar, and oil. It is unimaginative, over cooked, and sits in the stomach with a force somehow greater than gravity. It was the worst meal I have had in a year. But what I really want to say, what I want its owners most to know, is what they already must know: It doesn't have to be this way. They can do much better. In fact, I would even wager that they don't cook for themselves the way they cook for the good people of Guilford who buy from them. I wish they would open their own kitchen to the rest of the world and stop turning out the sickening fast-food they now serve. A model for that is a restaurant that operates in Clinton and New Haven. Taste of China is fundamentally different in how they think about cooking. I think that the owners of Taste of China respect their clientele more than the owners of this restaurant do. So if you (reader) are thinking about going to First Garden but are rethinking based on what I have written here, wait a few weeks. Maybe the management will change things around, serve fresh ingredients rather than frozen, lighten up on the sugar-rich sauces and use other flavors, get rid of the dyes and colorings. Maybe they'll cook for us the way they cook for themselves. That's a restaurant I would return to.