Happy's Chinese Restaurant, 17 Garema Place, Canberra

Had dinner the other night for my birthday and the place was wonderful. The staff were very friendly and polite. The food came so fast! and was delicious! The decor of the restaurant is out of date and looks like they have never upgraded, but i is not bad at all. Would definitely go again!

The food is standard Chinese fare, pretty authentic but nothing special. The location is not great, pretty cramped but it makes up for it by having relatively cheap meals in Canberra standards. Service is fast, but if you stay too long they might tell you to get moving. There's usually a few Asians eating there, which is generally a good sign for Chinese restaurants.

Everything I've tried on the menu is delicious, and amazingly fast to arrive, even when the restaurant is busy.

Been going here regularly for years, consistently the best chinese restaurant I've been to. Prawn toast is superb, satay chicken, mongolian beef, chilli beef are all excellent. Service is also good, although the dishes are brought out a bit fast sometimes on busy nights. Brilliant place.

From the reviews that I had read, I was expecting something a little haphazard but rewarding. This place is pretty woeful. I had heard that it was a rough around the edges, and that is the kind of place I like, I was hoping for something like Thy Thy in Melbourne. We sat down, and within about two minutes, we were being pushed to order. I asked for a couple of minutes to think, and in no time the same waiter was back. We felt pushed from the moment we entered. This is a basement restaurant is old style, tacky, but great. You have to head down the stairs to find it. It looks as though some parts have not been touched since the 1970's. But the way the food comes out, you know what you are getting. We ordered the Happy Spring Rolls. In less than a minute these deep fried entrees arrived. Followed by the Special Fried Rice and Chicken Curry which came out in less than 1 minute later. A few minutes later the Lemon Chicken arrived. At the speed the dishes came, it was clear they were just slopped on a plate from a pre-cooked pot. The spring rolls were average at best, and not served with lettuce or mint. The fried rice was bland, and had 1 prawn. The chicken curry was a watery with celery, carrot and onion, and you could still feel the curry power in your mouth. The Lemon Chicken was actually really good. But in all honesty, this food was of lesser quality of that which would be served up at your average food court at a busy lunchtime rush. As we were still eating were were asked if we were finished. Watching the manager stand at the till counting money was not a good look. I would not recommend this place and would not go back if I had the chance.