Lemon Garden — Restaurant in Calgary

My friend and I decided to try this place out and ordered 3 dishes. The salt and pepper shrimp, dry garlic spareribs, and the cantonese chow mein. The first 2 dishes were okay, pretty bland but unfortunately found a wooden piece in our chow mein. I get that mistakes happen and everything but how they handled our situation was wrong.

After pointing out the wooden piece, the waitress gave us 2 options. Half off of the dish or replace it for us and pay full. Initially we had agreed on to making it half off for us and continued eating. Later on she comes back and asks if we wanted to a new one. I said if you guys don't mind then sure. At this point I thought this was out generosity and expected to still get the half off but when we got our bill she scratched off the discount and argued that its because we had told them to replace it. My fault for not clarifying to her but I'm kinda irritated with how they handled it overall.

Next time don't offer to replace their dish if they accepted the discount already, causes quite of confusion. In my opinion I would've waived the dish for free and also replace it for them instead of doing either or. I get that times are tough and all but if you're telling us that this wooden piece issue has happened multiple times before you should be taking a loss and make it right...

If I hadn’t had previously okay experiences this would be one star. I am smart enough to know that things I get from some places just won’t be to my liking or to my taste. It was entirely how the situation was handled that I am writing this poor review. I said “excuse me I know this is what I ordered, I just don’t think I can eat it.” The presentation was pretty unappetizing and I was already very hungry. The beef dip was served like cold roast beef with just mayonnaise on a bun and the “jus” was just gravy watered down. I politely asked for something else and I was shamed for wasting it. I was also made to pay for both meals. This certainly wasn’t what I expected and it’s pretty disappointing. Of course I took it cause I felt really uncomfortable. On my walk home, the gravy mixed with the water nicely but I don’t think I would eat it. I’ve worked in restaurants before and know that some things are up to personal taste or how that place makes the item; that’s not my problem. Although it was bad, it was how it had...

So I tried this place on a whim for takeout due to how close it was but also I had a menu show up in my mailbox. Definitely worth it on first impression. I had a variety of things: wonton soup, salt and pepper chicken, spring rolls, chicken fried rice, and mixed vegetables. Wonton soup was excellent, better than I make at home. The spring rolls were interesting - they were filled with rice noodles that appeared cooked in a curry sauce with a few vegetables. The chicken fried rice was fairly standard, but the salt and pepper chicken was great with a nice assortment of pepper, onions, and carrots. The mixed vegetables were pleasant enough.

Much food was leftover as intended as well, so I get to have it tomorrow too. Service was fairly quick, despite how busy they seemed for takeout orders at the time, and the 5% discount for pickup was nice....