Empire Garden

5 Reviews on “Empire Garden”

• Susan Santos Seva

  Do not eat here. The place looks unkempt and filthy. We should have seen it coming. Then my daughter found a big fly in her yang chow. It was a disgusting sight!

  September 23, 2020, 5:11 am

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• Henny_316

  Extremely disappointed.. I ordered Kung Pao Pork. What I received was thin strips of pork with a bag of frozen mixed vegetables stir fried together. Not exaggerating one bit. It was the exact size cut carrots, peas, and green beans that are in a bag of Bird’s Eye frozen mixed vegetables. Also, there was no heat. Not a small amount of heat, a complete lack of heat. We were a group of 4 and literally the only customers in the entire building from the time we got there to the time we left. I attributed this to the cold weather but now I know better. My suggestion is to not waste your time.

  April 8, 2014, 2:09 pm

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• Cherylhchan

  Worst Dinner/ party place. Beware if you plan on having a party at Empire Garden, located at 690 Washington St, Boston, Massachusetts 02111. We had a half-Chinese, half-Western wedding on November 2, 2013. Here was our experience: We were engaged in October 2012 and knew we wanted our wedding in the Fall of 2013, so we started looking at different venues in the Boston Area. We decided to have a traditional Christian ceremony at a church in Boston and then have a Chinese reception/banquet in Chinatown. We scoped out different restaurants in Chinatown and found options to be limited. There are only 3 large Chinese restaurants in Bostons Chinatown: Hei La Moon, China Pearl, and Empire Garden. Our guests list was approximated to be around 120 people and Hei La Moon and China Pearl do not have smaller rooms to accommodate parties of that size and we did not want a divider between the restaurant and our wedding so we decided to go with Empire Garden. Empire garden has both a very large dining area and a smaller private room with a bar that is suitable for parties of around 150. We had trouble from the beginning trying to reserve the room all the way to the week before the wedding. We wanted to make a deposit to reserve the room, but the manager was reluctant to take our money. He gave the impression that if someone came in with more money to reserve the room he would take that party instead; a poor way of doing business, but most Chinatown restaurants work this way so keep that in mind.Wedding Day – List of disasters: The space is not kept clean. While this is nothing too out of the ordinary for Chinatown, it would seem some basic dusting and glass cleaning could be done for a private party room. Dirty glass and dusty Chinese lanterns could easily be cleaned/replaced. Low maintenance standards in the dining room perhaps hints at potentially low standards in the kitchen. The entrance to this restaurant looks like the establishment is perpetually closed. Some lighting, cleaning, and improved signage might be a wise investment. There is a reason this place is empty except for the occasional party/dim sum crowd.We repeatedly told to the manager that our guests will be arriving at 4pm and we want appetizers and drinks to be served when people start to arrive. Guests started to arrive at 4pm and they were turned away and they were told come back later. We had friends who were willing to come help us out on our wedding day and they arrived at 10AM to meet the groom and groomsmen to get directions about set up and they were told to leave. A family friend had to help the waiters set up the room and help put chair covers on all the chairs. The DJ arrived at 1pm to make sure he had plenty of time to set up, and he was told to come back later. He was not allowed in the room until 3:30. As soon as people were allowed in the room to set up, our helpers had to rush with the waiters to move tables and put chair covers on and set up the tables and table numbers. If we had relied solely on the restaurant, our party would not have started at 4:30 when people were finally allowed to go inside. Most likely they would have dragged it on till 5:30. Dinner finally came and the food was NOT GOOD. It was significantly worse than the food you would have there for dinner (which is still not great). Do not get the seafood soup. They do not serve it correctly with vinegar and it tastes like feet!!!They do not know how to mix drinks and the quality of liquor and mixers are terrible. You are not allowed to bring in your own liquor or request specific brands. We were told that the champagne would be Martini and Rossi. While this is not top shelf, it is good enough for toasting. The champagne provided was an absolute no-name brand that tasted terrible. The way they served the cake was horrible and unacceptable. They do not cut it up into slices for you; they give each table a big chunk with no utensils. We requested that the cake be sliced up individually and placed on a table so that guests could choose from the different flavors. When you spend a few hundred dollars on a cake, you would like it to be presented correctly.While this business is able to continue operating like this due to the incredibly low level of competition in Bostons Chinatown, please consider your alternatives. If we could do it over again, we would likely choose to pay more to rent one of the larger spaces at the other venues or perhaps may have rented a banquet hall and had it catered with traditional Chinese dishes. I HOPE THEY GO OUT OF BUSINESS

  February 22, 2014, 4:10 pm

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• Jtay

  INTERRACIAL COUPLE MISTREATED. RACIST COSTUMER SERVICE: I am a Chinese/Vietnamese girl with a Hispanic boyfriend. The waiter gave us dirty looks when I kiss/hug/hold hands with my Dominican boyfriend. I am in college and my bf drove an hour from my hometown to see me. This waiter was not careful handling the water, he poured it NOT from the spout but from the side and so recklessly that it spilled onto the table and onto my Hispanic friend’s phone. After that, this waiter still carried on with his reckless water pouring onto my cup. We could not believe the discrimination and i felt so embarrassed. Other tables commented on the waiter’s behavior as well. The tip was suppose to be 4 dollars(15%) but we gave him 2 dollars for the mistreatment. HE(waiter) had the audacity to gasp and smirk at us…This is america and not every Chinese girl will marry a Chinese man and there is nothing wrong but clearly this Restaurant cannot train their waiters to treat interracial couples with respect.

  February 17, 2014, 10:02 pm

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• Lynne Sarao

  Great First Dim Sum Experience!. I went to Emperor’s Garden (or Empire Garden – depending on which sign you read) this afternoon for my first ever Dim Sum experience. After reading some of the reviews on here beforehand I was a little nervous about what to expect. I have to say I was very pleasantly surprised. The actual restaurant was giant and beautiful in that old 50’s extravagant sort of way. We were seated right away and the carts started going by immediately. We tried many different dishes but my favorites were the chinese brocoli, BBQ pork and a banana leaf stuffed with steamed rice and other yummy things! And as it is my motto to try everything once, I even tried a chickens foot! All in all it was a great meal! We ate so much and when the bill came, we were all shocked to find out we only owed $10 a piece! Needless to say, I’m a newly born Dim Sum fan! Xie xie Emperor Garden!

  July 27, 2009, 12:26 am

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