Crystal Gardens Chinese Restaurant — Restaurant in Merritt

My husband and I dropped by this restaurant since we were really craving some Asian food. We happened to walk in right when the buffet dinner started (5pm) and the food was fresh. There was a decent array of options such as sesame chicken, battered shrimp, egg foo yung, chop suey, dry garlic pork, crispy wontons, long spring rolls, bbq pork, chow mein, fried rice, wonton soup and much more. I quite enjoyed the sesame chicken, dry garlic pork, wontons, spring roll and chop suey. The cuts of meat were tender and basically all meat, not fat, which is what I usually look for. The fried rice, chow mein and wonton soup had a nice home-cooked taste and were not greasy at all. The lady at the front was friendly, and even though the furniture is dated, it was clean and it works for a small town feel. Overall, it was a pleasant meal of western chinese food and we would come again whenever we're on...

I'm sorry I seldom "EVER" do this but the food I ordered last night pretty much went straight in the garbage it was just terrible. Greasy , the taste was sub-par, the veggies in my beef chop suey were so wilted and mushy, and I order sweet/sour pork "NOT" sweet and sour " PORK FAT " it was disgusting. I don't know what happened, this place was "ALWAYS" my go to for awesome Chinese food over the last 35 years but last nights garbage was enough of a downer that I won't set foot in there again sorry to say. I'm sure some people have good things to say and like I said, it takes a serious issue for me to leave a bad comment, usually I just walk away and chalk it up to a bad experience but this time I have to vent cause it...

Oh my, non, nada, nyet will we ever eat there again. Ditto the couple with us. $60 for two which was shocking and you have to pay in advance 🤷‍♀️. In retrospect, I imagine some have refused to pay after eating. Seriously. There was only one vegetable dish. One. Maybe two meat entrees of some deep fried shrimp, deep fried balls, both sweet n sour. Some kind of fried fowl legs (assume chicken but they were like black inside). Mmmmm deep fried blood was my thought. One rice dish, one noodle dish, a spaghetti style dish, again with the sweet n sour! Dollar size egg foo young and the ugliest chicken and veggie chop suey I have ever seen. Desert was chocolate chip cookies and squares of some sad, sad...