Equity Bank Business Spotlight: Imperial Garden Built on Family, Fresh Food, and the American Dream

For Victor and Mai Jou, Imperial Garden is more than a restaurant. It is the result of decades of work, sacrifice, family commitment, and a belief that hard work still matters.

Victor’s journey began long before Imperial Garden became a familiar name in Salina. He came to the United States from Taiwan more than four decades ago, arriving with very little and starting the way many first-generation business owners do: working long hours, learning the restaurant business from the bottom up, and building step by step. According to the family, Victor first worked in Omaha in a restaurant kitchen, putting in more than 12 hours a day, seven days a week.

That work eventually led to ownership. Victor opened his first restaurant in Hastings, Nebraska, in 1992. Over time, the family expanded its restaurant experience, including locations in Nebraska and later Salina. The Jou family moved to Salina in 2009, and the community has since become home base for Imperial Garden.

The family says Salina is not just another market. It is their headquarters, the place where they train staff and continue to operate the business hands-on. While there are no current plans for additional locations, the family made it clear that keeping the Salina operation strong remains the focus.

Like many restaurants, Imperial Garden changed after COVID. The dining room has remained closed, and the business has continued operating with a takeout-focused model. The family said that setup has worked, but they would like to eventually remodel and refresh the front area before reopening seating.

Behind the counter, the work remains labor-intensive. Imperial Garden is not simply reheating boxed product and calling it good. The family says much of what they serve is processed in-house. Chicken is cleaned, cut, marinated, breaded, and fried by hand. The white meat chicken used in many of the restaurant’s most popular dishes is prepared several days a week, with large amounts cooked by staff working over hot oil for hours at a time.

That attention to quality became especially clear during COVID, when staffing challenges forced the restaurant to briefly use pre-ordered chicken. Customers noticed the difference. The family said people told them it tasted more like a chicken nugget, so Imperial Garden eventually returned to its original process.

The same approach applies to other menu favorites. The family said crab rangoon filling is made in-house, and the wontons and rangoon are folded by hand. Popular dishes include sweet and sour chicken, General Tso’s chicken, sesame chicken, chicken fried rice, egg rolls, and crab rangoon.

Imperial Garden also serves a large number of customers. The family estimated they serve roughly 250 to 300 people a day, or about 8,000 to 10,000 people a month, not including catering orders. Those catering orders can range from smaller groups to buffet-style meals for dozens of people.

The family says one reason customers keep coming back is value. A typical box of food, including rice and sauce, can weigh about a pound and a half. In a time when restaurant prices continue climbing and many families are watching every dollar, Imperial Garden has tried to balance rising food and labor costs with portions that still feel worth the money.

That has not been easy. The Jou family said inflation, supplier costs, and labor shortages have all made restaurant ownership more difficult. They said independent restaurants cannot always match corporate chains on price because their food is prepared fresh, by hand, and with more labor involved.

Still, the family keeps working.

Victor described the reality plainly: running a restaurant takes good people, long hours, and a willingness to keep going even when costs rise and staffing is difficult. The family said they are also hiring, another sign of the challenge many local restaurants continue to face.

For the Jous, Imperial Garden is a family story. It is also an immigrant story, a Salina business story, and a reminder of what small business ownership really looks like when the public only sees the finished plate.

Victor and Mai Jou came to America with little, worked hard, raised a family, built businesses, and made Salina part of their story. Imperial Garden continues to stand as the result of that work: local, family-run, and still built one order at a time.