Garden Café - Arcadia — Restaurant in Arcadia

This review is not my usual approach to reviews. I like to focus my reviews on food because as long as the food is delicious, I actually don't mind how I'm treated. Despite the many negative reviews on here and on Yelp, there's always a steady flow of customers so I wanted to try it for myself.

Food - They are known for their Hong Kong-style food, but they also have pretty much all different types of food from Italian to American. I think they would actually do better if they focused on their Chinese specialities. The food is Chinese comfort food. Surprisingly ok, the beef in my crispy noodles was tender, and the flavor was decent. But it doesn't stand out, 3 stars at best, and I wouldn't bring guests here.

Now the service, which is what I usually don't like to focus on with restaurants. Our server took our order, our drinks came, and only 1 of 2 dishes were brought out. About 5 minutes later, our server came by and pointed out that we were missing a dish. I thought she was going to remind the kitchen, but she did not. Another 15 minutes passed, our server was now working the front desk and didn't come back. Since my husband was already completely done eating, I started eating his leftovers. I went to our server to let her know that my food hadn't come out yet. She sent another employee to go check. After another 5 minutes of watching that other employee serve food to another table and still not being checked on by our server, I approached her at the front desk again and this time she did apologize by running to the back. Another 5 minutes pass with no sign of our server so we just decided to wait and pay at the front. While standing there, the food finally came out so I asked for it to go. I know I'm technically getting the food, but many restaurants would not have charged me for the dish that took 40 minutes. They were apologetic at the end, but man...that took quite the effort on my part. Very...

I would've given it a 4 because the drinks can be refilled and there are free soup before the meal, and also, their Spaghetti and Garlic Bread is AWESOME. But I gave them a 3* because though the food is great, the service SUCKS.

I, a 16 years old, went there alone yesterday. Though they seated me rather quickly, I had to wait for at least 10 minute for someone to take my order.

When I asked the first guy, he told me he will come back for me after he put the tray away, but he never came back. Then I asked another lady, and she started talking in Hongkongnese(?) to lady2, probably telling her to get my order. Then after lady2 got done with her stuff, she came and went to the table BESIDES me and took their order, AND THEY ARRIVED WAY EARLIER THAN I DID!

Finally, they took my order. Thankfully, the food came very quickly. However, the way they set my food was extremely rude. They just walked past me, setting my food on the table, while neither sparing me a glance nor stopping in their track. They did it as if they were throwing away a trash, walking right past the trashcan, just throwing their trash inside and not sparing it a glance!!

They should've stopped, gave me my food and say something like "and that's the last of your order, enjoy!" It was lunch time so there weren't many people in the restaurant, meaning they weren't busy AT ALL! If they were busy, I probably would've forgiven them, but they were not busy! They could have at least taken ONE SECOND and say "enjoy"!!!!

Also, the boba's in Boba Milk Tea seemed to decrease in quality since the last time I went there with my family. The boba's were not chewy and while chewing them, I felt as if there's something hard in the middle of the boba. I highly doubt that their boba's are, as said in some newspaper, made of plastic. I suggest everyone to stop buying...

The food is good. The first time I went, the service is ok. The second time I bought breakfast, I ordered online and went to pick it up. I mentioned I would like “two orders” of pineapple bun, but the lady who pick up the phone didn’t put in two orders, and also she asked me how I will like my egg cooked, I said over medium, but when I open the order at work, I saw it’s well done. If they are going to cook it well, then what’s the point to ask me how will I like it cook??? Tonight is the third time I go, and it’s the most terrible experience I had with their service. The guy who ever takes our order never smiles and is not nice the whole time. He put down the order hard on the table like I own him something, and never check on us about how our orders were. Moreover, when we are checking out I ask for a bigger to-go box and a cap for sauce. He just throws the check on the table and comes back with a really small to-go box that will not fit whatever I have leftover, so I have to ask him for a bigger one and a cap for the sauce. The whole time he looks like he doesn’t want to take care of us, and when my boyfriend went and ask for another cap because the one he gave is deformed, the same server just ignores him, and the other one is acting dumb. I know working in a restaurant is hard, so I always tried to give 20% as tip, but whatever the service is today isn’t worth the 20%. ...