Summit Garden Chinese Cuisine — Restaurant in Mississauga

My family and I had a horrible experience at their restaurant on Canada Day, we are never going back. We ordered about $200 worth of food and service we received was just pathetic. We ordered a full Peking duck (see image 1, from another Yelp reviewer Joe U) which was close to $40 and they only serve us very little meat with mostly skin initially and the server said they will take the remainder of the duck and chop it up to serve to us. In image 2 here, the center portion was all skin and there was no meat under that pile. Whatever you saw on the rim was the duck meat we got. So when the “remainder” of the duck came up (see image 3, from another Google reviewer Stephanie Huynh), they gave us minced pork in the center and there was no duck meat to be found and the duck leg and breast meat were removed from the bone but not in our plate. In essence, they stole that portion from the paying customer and stored it away in the kitchen for other purposes. In image 3, you can see the legs of the duck does not have much meat left and I sat there watch the waitress skin the duck for us and there was lots of meat left on the denuded duck’s leg and breast. The second thing that made us feel ripped off was the fish we ordered. It came in like it is on image 4. We asked why the fish looked like it’s been handled and broken in half, the waiter said they removed the fish bone from the meat so it’s easier for us to eat. However, as Asians who are used to eating fish on a daily bases, we noticed a portion of fish meat had been missing. This does not look like a whole fish before we even set our chopstick to it. The sneakily removed the meat from underneath the top layer so hopefully we won’t notice it. I have never been to another Asian restaurant that does this, the act of removing the fish bone from the meat is just another way of stealing food from paying customer but making it less noticeable. This is not the first time this occurred, my family doctor held a wedding here before and the restaurant was also cutting corners on the food portion. That was a huge embarrassment for that family on a very special day. Another minor point that disappointed us is their after meal dessert. Usually Asian restaurants will serve some sweet soup or fortune cookie or just small candies at the end when we ask for the bill but we received none of that. Of course it is not mandatory for them to offer that, I am writing it just as another service improvement that they...

Heads up, this is a long post: Average Chinese restaurant with decent food, prices and service. I come to this restaurant because the food is not westernized like the other Chinese restaurants that are closer to me in Oakville. The reason I'm posting this review is to point out their deficiencies today, on Lunar New Year. Obviously, from previous years, they should have known how busy they would be today. They were turning people away from the door to tell them take out was unavailable because they were "too busy". People who got there earlier were waiting 40 min+ for Peking duck, some were upset that they kept pushing back the estimated wait time for their food to be ready. My experience today wasn't ideal. I placed an order on Doordash for pick up and it was estimated to be an hour until it was ready. When I got there, the gentleman at the desk couldn't find my order through their stack of invoices and told me he would "find it later", even though I told him I ordered via Doordash. (Why would you have to look through written invoices if I ordered online?) After waiting 15 minutes, I flagged down another gentleman who actually looked on a tablet for my order and said that my order wasn't completed because they had tried to cancel my order earlier but couldn't due to the fact that they were "too busy". I understand that it's CNY and they were getting more orders than they could fulfill. They should have communicated with the staff and customers better by: 1) placing signage on the door saying that they weren't accepting any more walk-in orders other than the pre-made BBQ meats, 2) informing all staff to inform customers that placed orders online that their order had been cancelled (and not have customers like me, wait 45 minutes to be informed of this). It's not that hard for them to contact Doordash to have them de-activate online ordering for the restaurant, temporarily, 3) being more proactive about informing inability to fulfill orders via social media and voice-mail greeting (over the phone). Overall, poor management was demonstrated today, causing unnecessary stress for their employees and customers. (I had to come home to a starving family that wanted Chinese food and not the pizza that I ended up bringing home.) I hope for next CNY, they learn from the sh*tshow that I...

My family of 5 visited this restaurant today. I looked at the waiting list, and there was one table of 7 and 4 tables of 5 ahead of us. Fine, that's to be expected at lunchtime on a Sunday. I went to the washroom (which was surprisingly dirty at a relatively early time in the day) and came back to the waiting area to find only 2 5/6-person tables ahead. I though we would be seated shortly. The lobby was getting full, and my family stood in front of the bar. While we waited. a group of 9 came in and asked for a table. One of them had a hushed word with the restaurant owner, and they were promptly escorted to a table near the back. The group of 7 should have gotten that table. They were instead brought to a table that was only meant for max 6.

By this time, we have waited for over an hour. I look over at the waiting list, and see that we are the next table of 5-6 to be seated. Another family of 5 comes in and has a hushed word with the host and then stands next to us. We see a table of 6 leave and assume we are next to be seated. Surprisingly, the family who came in long after us is seated. I look over at the waiting list, and see that a "5" was added where a table of 2 had already been seated. The wait number. ahead of us was a party of 5 that was already seated. Suddenly, a "4" was scribbled in its place.

Clearly, people who know the owner or host are given preferential treatment and bump those who are already waiting. At the very least, such practices should not be so brazenly visible in front of waiting patrons. We've gone to this restaurant over the last 10 years, though after this experience, Summit will earn not another dollar of my business. There are far better options in Mississauga.

Should you choose to go to Summit, watch the host an owner carefully. If you speak Cantonese or Mandarin, listen to their conversations carefully. Look carefully at the wait list. If you see a number scratched out, and another written in its place, that means another group has jumped the line...