May Garden Chinese Restaurant — Restaurant in Bedford

I went with my family of three for dim sum. We ordered over $150 pre tax. The service was not remarkable. The food was fine. We noticed they recently increased their price making them the most expensive of all restaurants in HRM that offer Dim Sum. But the increase in price does not reflect better quality. That being said, we didn't really complain about it. We simply ordered, ate and paid. There were no extra service for us nor did we expect it.

When I went to pay, the owner completed the transaction. She asked about the tip I had entered. It was less than 10%. She asked if I had a problem with service or food. I said service was fine but the food was a problem. I gave an example. She was immediately dismissive. She proceeded to lecture me on the 10% tip, how it goes to the staff. It was obvious that she looked down on us based on the tip I had entered. She raised her voice at me and argued with me. She had the audacity to essentially demand that I ought to pay 10% of my bill as tip.

Let me say that there is no requirement to pay 10% tip. It is discretionally and I always have the view that tipping more is for remarkable service. When service is standard and is expected across the board, there is no reason to tip an average 10% or higher. I did tip in this instance, it just wasn't 10%. So while the owner continued to respond in a rude manner and basically does not want my business and does not care that I was giving her business by choosing to dine at this establishment, she instead, made me leave with utter distaste and angry. The audacity to directly challenge a customer at the till for the amount of tip they were paying is absolutely terrible customer service. I think the fact they've been long established in Halifax has led them to this level of arrogance. I see it in previous reviews about the tipping issue - treating customers with absolute disrespect is uncalled for. I will not be returning and I certainly do not recommend friends to come.

There are more Chinese restaurants in HRM than it has in the past 5-10 years- competition is getting fierce - having this entitlement attitude does not win over any...

The dining experience was the worst yet the most expensive one. We called to make a 10 people reservation for Mid-Autumn Fest dinner, the waitress who picked up mentioned nothing about “mandatory 15% service fee” upfront. We went there at 7ish pm and there were only 3 tables. When we were still in discussion, she asked us to not to talk at the same time in an almost scolding way. The waitress was impatient and showing attitude by rolling her eyes when we were ordering. She also demanded us to only say the number of the dishes, and did not repeat our orders even I requested. We didn’t know what exactly we ordered since she was rushing us. During the meal, no one checked on us or refilled our drinks. We had to shout and stop them to order more drinks or dishes, despite the fact that there were 3 waitresses and 3 regular tables. We were seated in a small round table but they didn’t take away the empty bottles on the table though it was apparent that we did not have enough room. After we finished our dinner and proceeded to pay our bills, the supervisor said she didn’t keep track of who ordered what drinks, so we can only split everything evenly. I personally find it unfair cuz some ordered 4 drinks while others only had water. It was also quite obvious that they didn’t make any effort to record. Here comes the ridiculous part, the supervisor informed us about the “mandatory 15% service fee” after we got our bills since there were 10 of us. The customer service was so bad but selecting our tipping percent is not an option. They chose not to tell the customers until the end, and that perfectly explained the poor customer service and failure to split the bills fairly. So here we are: paying $50 per person after tax and tips, leaving the restaurant with half full stomach, and feeling upset about our dining experience on a special festival. I strongly recommend you to NOT come here if you want to have good vibes or...

I rarely review places, unless it’s amazing or I feel like I’ve been ripped off. This is a case of the latter.

Decided to order a couple of meal combos for my partner and myself. We both went with sweet and sour pork, chicken chow mein and fried rice. We got a couple of eggs rolls for good measure and waited for delivery.

Everything came on time. The food was packed well, it smelled great. I thought I just hit the jackpot.

Opened the box to find that, for some reason, chow mein is a few fried noodles on top of a massive bed of bean sprouts. This is normally chop suey anywhere else, but here, it’s chow mein. Ok, not the end of the world. I didn’t read the menu more thoroughly, so that’s on me, I think to myself (Granted, there is no actual description of each combo item and what the ingredients are. It just says “chicken chow mein”).

Egg rolls weren’t bad, but kind of…wet? Ok, this is a bit odd, I think to myself, but the flavour was still good, so i figured it was time to try the pork. But…where is the pork??

After moving my food around, I find 5 (yes, 5) small, tid bit pieces of fried pork. Like, the size of half a pinky finger each, at most. The sauce was on the side which was great to keep it crispy. It all tasted great, so no issues there…

But when people are paying roughly 18-20 dollars for a combo per person, make it worth their while. It was obviously and deliberately cheap on their part. And I hate to say it, but calling something chow mein and packaging it as chop suey, when every Chinese restaurant I’ve ever been to serves chow mein as…you know, chow mein, seems purposefully misleading.

The food tasted great. I was happy with that. But I don’t appreciate it when it feels purposefully cheap. Will never return out of principle. Will still give the food a couple of stars for a rating because it does taste good. They obviously can cook! But it’s not worth what you pay for what you get....