Takenoko is one of the most beautiful games I've ever played. The entire production is stunning with gorgeous artwork and lovely components with great attention to detail (even the panda and gardener figures are beautifully painted).
Beyond it's good looks though there is a lot going on. It's a relatively simple game to learn so it's a great gateway game, but it's also addictive! Once you've played it a few times you'll want to go back to it over and over to try different strategies and improve your score. We play it probably more than any other game because it has a nice level of challenge, especially after a long week when we're too tired for anything too heavy, and of course it has great replayability.
Appealing theme, great components, good level of challenge that will appeal to a broad range of people. I'd recommend this for both adults and families alike. It's my eight year-olds favourite game so we've just invested in the Takenoko Chibis expansion, which I'd also reccomend if you want to make the game a bit more 'thinky'!