Empire Garden Chinese Restaurant — Restaurant in Township of Langley

I will not call out any name, but they should know who I am referring to. Male server was our server to begin with. Definitely worst customer service I have ever experienced. At first, he tried to act nice and chill. We ordered combo menu that has halibut dish, but lady server accidently gave us cod dish. As soon as the dish got served, he came and checked that cod had been delivered to our table. When we almost finished the dish, he came up and said that he will have to charge us extra money since we ate cod dish which was more expensive that halibut dish. He never stated how much difference there was between cod and halibut, but he said he will add extra charge to the bill.

Then I asked why are we being charged for you guys’ mistake, and he said “you guys finished the dish already.” He had enough time to take the dish away before we started it and just kept saying that cod is better than halibut and just pay the extra charge. Since then, he never came up to our table. He just kept sending poor lady server who was working under him and she was very naïve and nice. It was 9PM when we almost finished the food, but were still working on food, but server kept asking us if they could take the dish away. I’d definitely understand if we were last table left as we were aware that they close at 9:30PM. But there were other tables who were just starting their orders.

The worst part came after this. It’s still too funny and makes non-sense to serve a customer this way. They asked if we wanted a to-go box for remaining food, but they were not that good so we said no, we do not need any containers. Later, Glendy came up with bill, which was charged extra for cod and containers. We were charged with containers we never asked. And I know that Chinese restaurants usually give red bean soup or pudding as desserts. He gave us fortune cookies and some weird coconut cookies indicating that they are the desserts they have. But lady server saw our table didn’t get red bean soup as dessert, so she asked us if we wanted any red bean soup. Glendy rapidly came up to her, started to speak in Chinese not to give them red bean soup. I guess he thought none of us understands Chinese or something, but he was lecturing her about not to give any additional service to our table.

The customer service was unbelievably bad, and totally wasted our uncle’s 60th birthday. I am going to save my review and post again whenever they delete my review. I am open for any replies from Glendy or their team if they think I am lying or giving any falsy information. Food was not even that good and with this kind of customer service, we are never going back. I knew that under 4 stars with 1k+ reviews is a huge red flag. Avoid at all...

PLEASE READ!!! UTTERLY DISGUSTING!! NAUSEATING! FOR YOUR OWN SAFETY!

I ask you all to take the time to read what this restaurant has done! I ordered a $65.00 take out order today March 15th 2015. They told us 30 minutes it would be ready. So i arrived 40 minutes later. They told me the order was not ready, no big deal.... So i waited another 20 minutes in person. Then.... a gentleman walks in with 2 bags of food and says "this was the wrong order, we got home and notice this was not the food we ordered" So the girl at the front takes the food back, and gives him his actual order that was sitting at the front. Right away the girl takes MY order that the gentleman has already taken home, opened and brought back and walks to the back with it. 1 minute later she walks out and hands me the 2 bags.... shockingly i ask her if she was being serious... She replies with a simple "yes" as if she sees no wrong in this. FIRST the food has left the restaurant and gone into someone else home, who opened it, possible touched or even had some of it. SECOND the food has been outside the restaurant walls for at least 30 minutes by the time the other gentleman brought it back. THIRD the girl insists the food is still warm as she "personally checked it herself" FOURTH She even had the guts to tell me that the other customer did not open or touch our food when clearly the plastic bags caring the OPENED food containers was ripped. I was so utterly digested on the act to honestly give me this food.... So I simply asked for my cash back. Well... She then has the nerve to try and deny me of my refund for 5 whole minutes or arguing back with me that the food is clean, safe, good and whatever else she tried feeding to me. Finally i got my money back once people started to notice what was going on probably just so other people would not hear what they were trying to do.

Think about this, if they try sending out food that was inside and opened in someone else's home, cold, and possibly eaten out of to another customer who has been waiting over an hour for the food to come... then just think what they RE-USE in the kitchen and what they serve to other customers inside the restaurant!! It actually makes me nauseous just thinking about what they did to me and my order today. Scares me as what else they do and get away with. Just the nerve to argue with me about giving me a refund for my money... I would never eat food again from here EVEN IF IT WAS FREE!!!

Thank you all for reading this, i really hope you do not support this restaurant mainly for your own health and safety! I am truly and utterly disgusted by their actions and the way they treated me after giving them business for years after years. DO NOT...

Empire is a bit far from us so we've only ordered by Skip twice in the last 14 months. Last night's order was a wreck - on a Friday night!! perhaps it was because we ordered so so early - 5 pm. We got 5 dishes including curried prawns and vegetables which was actually very enjoyable. However, our chicken chow mien was burnt and because I use that as a bed upon which to place other items, it contaminated the whole plate. I first though it was the beef and broccoli that was ruined but I then narrowed it down. I'm glad I had my hot and sour soup first because the burnt chow mein sat on my palate for a very long time and ruined the rest of my meal. Then there was the Bbq Duck. I ordered a half duck. It arrived so incredibly overcooked and dried out that it was barely edible and in fact, totally inedible on some pieces. I suspect that because we ordered so early, I think we got a duck that was left over from the night (or more) before and then re-fired for our order. It was useless and unenjoyable. The beef and broccoli was tasty but broccoli slightly overdone which sucked for reheating the next morning because it went to mush like I've never had in past before. I paid the extra $5 to upgrade to a small seafood hot and sour soup for $15. there were no prawns nor seafood portions, at best I got the occasional small shrimp on my spoon. But at least they weren't rubbery and overcooked, they were added at last minute as should be. in all this was a $200 skip order with taxes, fees and $7 driver tip for him getting on the highway to Tynehead. Empire Garden was my alternative to Lee Yuen but they will never again get another cent from me after this...