Ming Tree — Restaurant in Alcoa

Today I experienced the worst service I have ever had in a restaurant. I have loved Ming Tree for years, but today, this restaurant proved that it no longer (perhaps never) deserves my loyalty.

I had brought my best friend here to enjoy a nice girls' lunch. When we were seated, I was surprised by the waiter who I did not recognize. He asked what we wanted to drink and returned with our beverages, asking if we knew what we wanted to order. I replied that we probably needed another minute or two.

In well over 15 minutes, he returned. During this time, I had seen another waiter hustling and waiting on several tables in our section, but our waiter had apparently vanished. Upon his eventual return, we placed our order which include two appetizers. I also added a ToGo order, telling him, "It won't be hot when I get it home, so just go ahead and turn it in and bring it so we don't have to wait for it." After taking our order, he never looked at us or spoke another word.

About 15 minutes later, he brought one appetizer, crab rangoon. He did not say anything about the other one. The crab rangoon was fine, tasty and well fried without being oily. Almost 20 minutes passed, and I told my friend, "He's not going to bring that other appetizer." She replied, "We don't need it any more. How much longer for the main dishes?" (He did eventually fling pot stickers at us.) That was a good question because we had ordered off the lunch menu. I have been there many times, and lunch usually flies out of the kitchen. Not today.

Eventually my soup came (hot and sour), and my friend's egg roll. Her egg roll was cool, and she asked me if she would be able to get soy sauce. About that time, the waiter came-- to another table. I tried valiantly to get his attention, but it was obvious that nothing short of a two-fingered whistle would bring him. So, I went to the server station and got it for her.

The worst is yet to come: When our lunch came, he swept by our table and flung our plates at us! This was so hard that they clattered. I was too taken aback to even say anything. We ate our food, which was tasty, but the experience was ruined. He never came back, never refilled our beverages, never brought the ToGo order. When we gave up on our meal, I went back to the server station to get something to put our leftovers in and told someone we needed our check.

During the time we packed up, he still did not deign to bring our check, so we just went to the counter and told them what we had to have them ring us up. I told the girl at the counter that our server had been unbearably rude, and she said nothing. She could not have cared less.

Back at the car, my friend said, “In all our years of eating out together, this is the first time we have ever stiffed a waiter, and he sure deserved it!” How true that was. He treated us like life-long enemies from the time we came in. No one should be treated like this. I almost asked to be moved, but I was raised not to make a scene. I should have made a scene. If the restaurant’s attitude was bad at the beginning, we could have left and had a pleasant meal elsewhere.

I gave this two stars because the food was fine, but I had no appetite for it because of the shoddy treatment. I will not be going back to this former...

As someone who has ASPD (Antisocial Personality Disorder) I can honestly say I prefer this place compared to many others. I was welcomed warmly and my waiter was very patient with me because I'm indecisive when it comes to the menu. The menu has a much larger variety of options including larger varieties of options for people with dietary restrictions and allergies and the choices that were hot and spicy food options are very clearly marked because they are printed in red ink and everything else in black ink. Prices are very clearly marked and everything was well organized on the menu. A few of the food options I noticed were apparently authentic Chinese dishes that I had never even seen or heard of. I ordered their chinese hot tea, a small bowl of egg drop soup, shrimp toast, and lo mein with the ming tree option for protein which was a blend of meats. The egg drop soup was the best I had tasted across any asian restaurant and actually tasted fresh compared to other places. The shrimp toast was definitely a new experience for me but I thought it was good. The lo mein was definitely up to my standards because I'm very picky about noodles. The tea was the ground breaker. I had gotten the tea expecting it to be sweet but I was met with a flavor that was a potent and bold mix of bland, bitter, and refreshing. I didn't expect myself to enjoy it as much as I did but I stayed to finish the whole pot before I left because I loved it so much. They also gave me these chips with what I'm assuming was duck sauce. The chips looked and tasted like the same chip stuff they use to make crab ragoons and I will risk smacking a military drill sergeant for a plate of crab ragoons. My whole order was 27 dollars for myself alone. My waiter was very attentive and from what I noticed, he wasn't much for small talk which I greatly appreciated as per my ASPD makes it unable for me to hold long conversations without getting drastically irritated. It's very quiet during slow customer traffic but there is the usual noisy group of people or two and even then it feels like ambient background noise in my head. Five stars across the board. Will definitely return when my...

AMAZING RESTAURANT! My new favorite place to dine (it's really hard to make my "favorite " list). Unbelievably, I have driven past this restaurant for 30 years or more and never given it a second thought. Two weeks ago my Maryville friends suggested we have dinner here and I'm so happy they did. The restaurant facility itself is very unassuming, especially viewing from the outside. The Ming Tree is is in a small strip shopping center and is located on busy Alcoa Highway, across from the runways at McGhee Tyson Airport. Once inside the dining room the atmosphere is casual and very pleasant. The restaurant is immaculate. The dining room is a medium size room with a mix of tables booths. My friends quickly introduced me to Rudy, our server, whom is a long time employee. Rudy is fantastic and an excellent server. If you're lucky enough to sit in his section, you'll immediately appreciate his kind and caring demeanor. I ordered one of my favorite Chinese dishes; sweet and sour chicken. Needless to say, it was DELICIOUS! Absolutely perfect in every respect. It was a large portion, so come hungry! My friends all have their favorite Ming Tree menu items and entrées. They ordered a variety of food items, everything from soups to egg rolls and fried rice. Everyone enjoyed our respective meals and without doubt, left very happy and satisfied. The menu here offers large selection of Chinese favorites, everything you would expect from a good Chinese food. Ming Tree is excellent for large and small groups. It's also perfect for dining alone. I have since returned to Ming Tree a second time and had another excellent experience I highly recommend Ming Tree! You can expect excellent service and delicious, hot, fresh...