Ming Garden Chinese Restaurant — Restaurant in Fiordland Community

Honestly appalling food for how much it cost and how long we waited. The restaurant seemed desperately understaffed, which we understand. However, there were some employees who seemed to be doing 4 jobs and some who seemed to be doing...none? This is a management issue and it needs to be fixed. It should really not take 90 minutes to serve a medium-sized plate of fried rice, let alone 45 minutes to get tea and dining ware. Fried rice takes 5 minutes to make if the ingredients have already been prepped properly.

We were definitely not the only ones frustrated, as people kept flagging down the poor host, who was also handling checks, serving food, and cleaning tables, to ask why their food wasn't there yet.

The worst part about the wait was the food we received. The hot and sour soup tasted like ketchup and made with tomatoes and frozen peas in carrots. I can understand some ingredients may be hard to come by, like shiitake or bamboo shoot, but I've definitely seen tofu, woodear, and other mushrooms available at the grocery store. It was the worst hot and sour soup I've ever had.

The fried rice was wet and had all of literally 10 pieces of vegetables in it. No joke, two small slices of each vegetable they must have had in the kitchen: two pieces of sliced carrot, two florets of cauliflower, two halves of a button mushroom...etc. We also had to salt and pepper it on our own.

Also ordered the stir-fried "seasonal vegetables", which I thought would at least be a solidly-sized plate of broccoli, but it was mostly onions. I guess onions are the "seasonal"...

This place was super disappointing! We went here for my birthday dinner after having an amazing day finishing a cruise in Milford and Glow Worm Caves in Te Anau. We got there early before the dinner rush with just a few tables. It was just my husband and I and we placed two simple orders plus an appetizer. As we waited for our food more and more people started piling in this place. I said to my husband I was glad we got our order in before the crazy rush. Then one table after another got their food except us. My husband questioned it and I said maybe they called in their order. By the time I came to terms that we were just not being served it was clearly evident that we were purposely being skipped and ignored. We were the only white people in this restaurant. Thought it would be authentic. We finally said we aren’t waiting anymore. It had been an hour and everyone else had eaten and were leaving. The dinner rush was over now and still no food. I said to the server it seemed racist that we put our order in and were the only ones not being served and she said that the owner told her she had to serve the others before us so there was nothing she could do. Wow. First time I’ve ever dealt with racism like this. Insane. What a negative restaurant to have apart of the adorable little town. Very disappointing for a birthday dinner. You should be ashamed...

If your concept of Chinese food revolves around wontons, springrolls and chow mein, please take the opportunity to dine here and order the following. Hopefully, they'll change your perception:

Crispy Paper Chicken. This dish may take a while to prepare, but it's worth the wait. Nicely seasoned with five spices salt, this chicken is tender yet sports a crispy paper thin skin. Delicious.

Stir fried vegetables (ask the friendly waitress for recommendations of the availabilities). After verifying the chef's Chinese origins (he's Cantonese), and being Cantonese ourselves, we decided to test his skills with this simple stir fry. A seemingly simple dish. But with simplicity comes the difficulty of perfecting it. The dish that was served to us had the hallmarks of a skilled Cantonese chef, the most important of all its Wok's Breath. The Japanese call it Umami, or what scientists call the sixth taste. And while many places achieve This with MSG (with somewhat mixed results), what was served did not. It's done correctly with extremely high heat and constant stir frying. Definitely a nod to good Cantonese cuisine.

If the above are anything to go by, my family of five, despite having been deprived of Chinese food for a good six days holidaying here, have decided that the food is good not because of said deprivation, but it's just good....