South Garden Restaurant — Restaurant in Hamilton

Was visiting friends in the Hamilton Mountain area, and we decided on ordering Chinese takeout for dinner. Where we were, it was a choice of the Mandarin or South Garden. We decided upon South Garden.

Getting an order placed proved to be difficult. Each time we would call ( we tried at least a dozen times) we got an automated msg saying that the customer we were trying to reach was unavailable. Since this was the Xmas holiday season... during Covid, we weren't sure if this was a case of the line being busy, the restaurant being closed due to holidays or the restaurant being shutdown/out of business due to Covid?!?

Instead of calling the Mandarin, we gambled on driving to South Garden first to see if they actually were open and if we could put an order in, in-person. They were 5min away, so driving to their location was quick enough, and we were happy to see that they were indeed open! And upon entering, we quickly realized why we couldn't get them on the phone! They have a single line, and out of the two ppl at the front, one person was constantly on the phone taking orders, while the other person was keeping the two delivery guys busy with completed orders for them to deliver.

Even trying to put our order in, in-person, the lady on the phone had to put the customer on hold, in order to take our order.

Upon receiving the food, we drove back to enjoy it! The food itself was good... I would rate it a 3.5 out of 5 that nite, but only based upon the fact that this was probably a busy nite for them, and therefore a little bit of quality probably suffered due to volume of customer orders! That being said, all the dishes we ordered were tasty and you got a good portion of what you ordered (ie. The dish was what we expected vs having more filler content than say protein).

Overall the biggest issue (IMHO) of this restaurant is their phone system. Had the ordering process been easier or if they had an online ordering option, my rating...

I have been going to this restaurant since they were on the other side of the plaza.So that is well over 20 years since I was in middle school.The level of disrespect they showed my wife for Mispronouncing the order from mini plate and her arguing her down and being completely rude because it’s called a personal plate when she outright knew what she was talking about.When she that week placed multiple orders of the same thing.The next problem is that she asked for the red sauce on the side because the last few times it oozed out everywhere and it’s not like we were asking for extra just what you put on it normally on the side and the spare ribs were all fatty pieces with no meat no honey garlic sauce just dry and oily from the fat.She continued to be rude and give weird excuses to why she couldn’t accommodate a good customer who frequents your restaurant and ultimately helps to pay your bills.You lost a good customer who has been coming to you for many years very disappointing but me not wife and my other family members who I told will no longer be giving you business and whoever else reads this I hope you think twice about where your dollars...

The worst customer service I have experienced. Gave 1 * BC the food that was made right was decent. Missing items from our order. Called and let them know looking to correct the order. Missing chicken balls, Szechuan beef and our ss pork was made wrong. Received the rudest response to our missing items. The ladies who work there argued with me saying that there was no way they forgot, even after I told them to come to the house and I'll show them. I was not looking for anything but what I ordered. They made me go back to the store to pick it up, when I arrived they were ignorant on site in giving me my food. AFTER I got back home with the food i was missing I received a call 30 mins later from one of the ladies who then starting arguing with me AGAIN saying that there is no way they forgot the items and that she wanted me to come back a 3rd time and bring back the ss pork that was made wrong earlier. I feel sorry for the nice man who works in the front taking orders, he was very apologetic for the mistake they had made (when the ladies were in the back) working in such a negative...