茗宴会 Ming Yan Seafood Restaurant (Order from our website & SAVE MORE!) — Restaurant in Surrey

This review is about the unfortunate experience we had at Ming Yan.

My wife and I had went here for dinner and ordered 2 dinner dishes and a dim sum dish.

We ordered the hand-cut noodles with beef and onions for the first dish. This was delicious and would recommend.

The second dish was the black cod and tofu dish. Unfortunately, in our minds, we had a very different idea of how this would be cooked. For one, we didn’t think that it would be a fillet with the bones in. For a dish that costs $32, we weren’t expecting this. It was brought to the attention of the server and we told the sever we would not be eating any more of it and to take it back. The server apologized and recommended a different fish dish, one without bones in the fish. We took her recommendation and ordered it. The dish came out quickly and it was tasty.

We received our bill and we’re charged for all 3 dishes - including the $32 black cod dish that continued to sit on our table uneaten and we did not even request it be packed up. We ended up leaving the entire dish on the table.

It was an unfortunate experience having been charged full price for a dish we did not consume. Obviously, being a Chinese restaurant there is a lack of English on the menu and it’s up to the customer to ask the appropriate questions to clarify the menu. We made a mistake with our order. But when the staff recommends dish to essentially replace another dish, I believe compensation should be provided - such as, a small percentage off of either the recommended dish, or the dish that was sent back/not consumed. It’s standard industry standards to make the customer happy.

The total bill for my wife and I came to $120 after tip.

The food is actually good but this experience has left a bad taste in our mouths, pun intended. We won’t...

Food: They try to save money by giving as much vegetables as possible in your meat dishes, to the point where any dish is at most, 30% meat. It also took over an hour and half for the dishes to arrive, and we ended up cancelling the rest because at that point, we were done, and the food that did come long became cold.

Price: It's about $25 for a dish, and it would feed a small child. Expect $50 to feed a small adult, and if they do exercise/eat a lot, it could be something like $100 for one person.

Service: Terrible service. Waiters barely pay attention to you, and if you wanted anything, you would have to get up yourself to grab their attention, or wait 10 minutes for a waiter to come out of the kitchen. We spoke to the waiters about the long wait time and they were dismissive of our concerns. I had to fight just to cancel what we ordered, because it still hadn't arrived after an hour and half.

Atmosphere: It was good. Well decorated, very clean. Nothing luxurious like a fish tank but it felt like a restaurant.

Overall, the experience was terrible. I wouldn't come here again, even if the food was free. This place used to be ok, but it has really dropped in all areas since the pandemic. I would just suggest going to Richmond for Chinese food. It'll take the same amount of time anyways, because you won't have to wait an hour...

Came to try the dim sum. Usually, we head into Richmond or Vancouver since there isn't much in South Surrey in that regard. Wife wanted to try since the reviews looked ok. The place did not disappoint.

The table side robot was a bit confusing at first and we couldn't tell which table it arrived for. Some guidance / instruction would have helped since there was no one there when the tea came, so we didn't know what was what. After the initial serving of the tea, an actual person helped us retrieve the food from the robot's tray.

Ordered 7 dishes between the two of us and they came fairly quickly - did not have to wait long at all. We were in and out in less than 60 mins - which is always good timing for lunch.

We ordered the Siu Mai, gai lan, spicy side ribs, beef rice rolls x2, shrimp spring rolls, and radish/turnip cake. The gai lan was cooked perfectly - crunchy, sauced well, and not too oily with a nice, bright green color. The spring rolls were nice and crunchy and the shrimp was cooked perfectly. Both the beef and pork side ribs were very tender. All in all, the dishes were on par with what we've had before and left us satisfied.

I would say this is one of the better Chinese restaurants in the area. However, we'll have to see what dinner is like when...