Canton Garden Restaurant — Restaurant in Chilliwack

Upon entering a fairly modern entrance, we seated ourselves in a booth for two (2). Service arrived within minutes by way of our friendly and upbeat server (Rebecca). Not knowing that she would turn out to be the finest part of the overall dining experience in the end. My dinner companion for this evening was my lovely wife. Hungry and anxious to get down to some serious chow, we ordered Sweet & Sour Chicken Balls, Sweet & Sour Pork and Chicken Stir Fried Rice, with one appetizer to start.... 4 egg-rolls. Our appetizer arrived in record time. From the moment we saw the plate after it arrived, we knew we were in trouble. The appetizer look so alarming, I actually thought she brought the wrong plate to our table and had to ask if this was the egg rolls we ordered? Rebecca informed us that it indeed was. Noticing the look of alarm on both our faces, she began to upsell the item by telling us they are so good, and made by hand in house! Go ahead try it, you'll love em. I am perfectly well aware of what an egg roll is supposed to look like, and this was NOT it. They were batter coated and deep fried (oil desperately needed to be changed), and they resembled the look and size of oblong Ostrich egg. They were certainly not rolled and crispy looking with neatly tucked in ends with a tantalizing golden & lightly tanned colour. I immediately looked around the table to review our napkin inventory before picking the item up as it was oozzzing grease even before I picked it up and I knew this was gonna get messy. I was right. Loaded with and overabundance of grease dripping out everywhere leaving a hint of old burnt deep fried oil bitter after taste. Rebecca came by just at that moment, and asked "how are the eggrolls"? With a mouthful and trying to avoid providing an answer after her big upsell, I motioned a "thumbs up" hoping she would leave before I swallowed and would be forced to tell her they were not appetizing at all. My wife was also giving me "that look" which suggested don't say anything! With another smile and bubbly personality, our main course arrived and we knew it was going to be phase 2 of disaster for the remainder of our dinner. First, the chicken fried rice was shinny, glimmering and looking much like the egg rolls.....saturated in too much oil. We tasted it, and our suspicions were confirmed. Missing was the hint of open pan fired and smokey aroma flavour which is typically infused through the frying process. Instead replaced by a flat, unseasoned, greasy rice. Our 2nd dish, Sweet & Sour Chicken Balls. Also deep fried in the same old oil, and definitely not golden brown, was not covered in the signature sweet and sour sauce the world easily recognizes as shimmering red and semi-translucent. No, it was an off colour of brown! My wife and I both looked at each other with raised eyebrows and decided to push on through with a high level of skepticism. We again were correct. Hard and crunchy on the outside, mushy with uncooked batter on the inside and soaked in....you guessed it....grease. A theme we were becoming used to thus fa for this restaurant. Pay close attention persons with heart or dietary issues. And lastly, the Sweet & Sour Pork. This will be short and sweet......very sweet. So sweet in fact that we both got sugar burn on our tongues because it was OVER sweetened beyond even being palatable. There was so much uneaten food on our table, and we just wanted to pay and leave. Forget the take home bag. But alas, Rebecca stopped by just in the nick of time to ask how our dinner was. Spotting the perfect opportunity to make the experience end, we told her were full and would like the remainder packed up to go.... to be polite and avoid the awkward question...."did you enjoy your dinner"? The moment we exited the restaurant, we literally both breathed a sigh of relief and said "Thank god that's it's over with".

Bon...

This restuarant is dark, mundane, drab & gloomy. The service was sub par and definitely could have been better. When we entered there were maybe two other small tables taken and by the time we left there was nobody there. This should have been a bit of foreshadowing on our experience. That foreshadowing as well as my spouse back at home googling and seeing the bad reviews for this place. However I figured might as well try it, some people are picky, even one of the photos being the food in the trash. I wanted to try and give it a chance. So upon first entrance our waitress was average, no real excitement for the job. Slow, mid level smiles and more. We were a table of four and the other three people ordered a lunch special. I was lucky and ordered two dim sum items. When my lunch partners received their items it was very obvious that this was going to be an uncomortable meal for them. The entire lunch special (Chow mein, vegetables, meat) was just entirely coated in something greasy. The vegetables were not soft - they were worse. One person exclaimed that as soon as they were a couple bites in they instantly felt regret. Their stomachs immediately started to feel heavy and gross. By the end two out of the three barely finished their meals. One person asked for theirs to go and as they scraped it into the to go container I could see the shine and just how coated in grease it was. I ordered Dim Sum (Soup Dumplings and Steamed Pork Buns) and they were delicious. It felt not as heavy as the chinese food and I loved it. It was delicious however it does not make up for the fact that three people had a bad experience. I also received my Dim Sum five minutes after everyone else and that was not a big deal but I absolutely despise having to wait while everyone else enjoys their food. Once we left the restaurant it was a constant internal struggle for my lunch cohorts stomachs and the need for washrooms pretty much right after.

We definitely will NOT be going back and I do see and understand why this restaurant has bad reviews in part. They are good at Dim Sum but chinese food...

If you're looking for an authentic Chinese restaurant, be warned that you will not find it here. Our family was looking for some good Chinese in Chilliwack as we have recently relocated from Vancouver and have become very fond of it and based on the Google reviews we thought we might find it here, but we were wrong. I had a bad feeling when I first walked in and all the staff including the cooks were Caucasian with the exception of one Asian who I believe was the manager.

We ordered a large wonton soup, chicken fried rice, chicken chow mein, sweet & sour chicken balls, and spring rolls. The wonton soup was decent and tasted very similar to most small Chinese restaurants I've visited, but a bit bland and not the best I've had (Hon's Won-Tun House). The sweet & sour chicken balls were the best part of our meal. They were very tasty and met with our standards/expectations. The chicken fried rice was served to us in a very strange manner that I've never seen in the past as it was basically fried rice with a bunch of shredded chicken piled on the top. It tasted very bland and was not enjoyable at all. The chicken chow mein was served to us in a similar way. The noodles were like nothing I've ever been served when ordering chow mein in the past in Vancouver as they were two very bright colours (green & orange) with another big pile of shredded chicken on top. It tasted nothing like chow mein and we were very disinterested in eating it at all and found it hard to finish. Finally the spring rolls were not that good, and grossly over-sized.

The cost was a bit over-average as well. In Vancouver a similar meal would cost us about $40, but I was a bit shocked to see my final bill was almost $70. Don't get me wrong, I guess the food was alright. It just didn't meet with our expectations of a truly authentic...