Imperial Garden — Restaurant in Plymouth

The WORST Restaurant I’ve EVER visited and the worst dine out experience I’ve ever had! If I could have left 0 stars I would have. Rude staff, terrible customer service. Restaurant does not take card payments and only accept cash. This was not mentioned when I called to book the table or on arrival or advertised anywhere on site during my visit. I only had apple pay as a payment method. After covid, most places tend to accept card. So I didn’t think twice about getting cash for my visit. The restaurant offered to escort me and my friend home in their vehicle to get money from my friends student accommodation or walk us ‘somewhere’ to make payment someplace else, after we’d finished our food. As if I would do this. The restaurant would not allow me to complete an intent to pay form. Adamant on cash payment (I wonder why). We had £11 in change between us. Our bill was £28.00. You’d have thought the restaurant would have done the right thing. Accepting the cash and allowing us to return the next day to pay the remaining £17.00. Instead the staff intimidated us and forced us to call the police as we were worried for our l safety. All for a £28 bill and poor service. I will be reporting this business to HMRC, it is very clear to me why they do not accept card. We came for the vegan food and had heard they did great vegan options. As I am vegan this is important to me. There was plenty of vegan options to chose from, but the food was average and lacked flavour. I personally found it to also be way over priced. Would not recommend and will not be going back, EVER.

I waited after my meal for over an hour to try and pay/resolve payment. If I really had no intention of paying for the food I ate, I would have happily left. But I didn’t.

EDITED; To top off this awful experience the restaurant have replied with total lies!!! To say that I was rude to you is a lie! We were two young women alone in a restaurant, sorely fed by angry aggressive men. The companies solution to the situation was to escort us home for money. Forgive me if I feel uncomfortable by a bunch of strange men taking me home. Forgive me if I then didn’t want to follow a bunch of men I do not know down a back alley to another premises. I am not from this area so do not know it well. The restaurant made me feel very unwelcome and very uncomfortable, it was very traumatic. Hence the need for myself and my friend to have to call the police. The restaurant wouldn’t allow us to complete the suggested police intent to pay form. We had between us three apple payment methods. It’s not our fault that you chose not to accept them because you only accept cash. Everyone reading this with more than half a brain cell will totally understand why you do not accept card payments and only take cash cash. Let’s also not forget about the fact that you and your countless staff (approximately 10 males) barricaded the door, making sure we couldn’t leave. You basically held us hostage over £17! Even though we had no intention to leave until payment issues were resolved. This review, as all other reviews I have left here on google are accurate reflections of my experiences. Hence, why I am a trusted google reviewer. The fact you have replied with such lies...

I've been ordering from here for years as they have a large vegan menu and the options are great! Unfortunately though, we found the dining experience fell massively short of the takeaway one.

I booked a table for my partner and I only to be seated right next to the front door where the takeaway cue was pressed right up against our table (surely breaking some fire regs there!). The staff didn't acknowledge us after seating us and I had to go and get them when we were ready to order. I appreciate the staff were rushed off their feet but as other have said, if they can't manage everything then they need to prioritise the restaurant or the takeaway, or employ more staff.

One of the waitresses did move us to a better table (after asking) and that was appreciated, but so far the experience hadn't been great. It then took ages to be served and for the food to arrive. Normally restaurants are somewhat apologetic when service is slow, but not in this case. My partner ordered the vegan egg fried rice only to be served a bowl of rice with no vegan egg-like substitute like the other dishes have. It was essentially normal rice spruced up with a bit of soy sauce at a higher price than the normal rice. When we spoke to the manager there was no attempt to graciously resolve the situation (swap it for something else, free drinks etc), the attitude was pretty much 'like it or lump it'.

The prices are heavily inflated to dine in and when you consider the service was almost non-existent, you have to wonder what you're paying for. Having supported Imperial Garden for a number of years, we were disappointed with the evening and will probably just stick to takeaway or go elsewhere...

I had a pretty horrendous experience dining at this restaurant unfortunately

I visited here with some friends as it seemed to have good reviews and I heard that it was "reasonably priced" The latter statement couldn't be further from the truth... they charged us £6 EACH for a small portion of egg fried rice?? That's almost double what I'd expect to pay anywhere else

On top of this, the waitress who served us seemed very uninterested and unenthusiastic

The beers we ordered were flat and stale, like they had been poured and were left to sit on the table for a few hours before being given to us as well which isn't the end of the world, but you'd expect more from a restaurant with such high ratings

The bathrooms were disgusting and there was quite literally a flood of urine on the floor...

To top it all off, we asked for our bill and after waiting for 30 minutes, it hadn't arrived so we went to the bar and asked to pay, at which point we were informed that they do not accept card payments? So we had to go down the road to withdraw cash from a card machine... I may add that the lady rudely told my friend to wait in the restaurant while we went to do this, showing that she distrusted us even though the restaurant not having a card payment option was the reason for us having to leave to get the cash in the first place? I'm personally quite suspicious of the fact that it is 2023 and they don't have an option to pay by card?

I wouldn't suggest coming here... I'd also like to note that they seemingly discredit anyone who dares to leave a negative review on their TripAdvisor page instead of actually making improvements to their establishment, how...