Emerald China Restaurant — Restaurant in Duluth

Me, family, and friends have been long time customers of emerald China, but in these last few year the quality of the food and the hygiene of the restaurant has just fallen. I’ve never eaten in the actual restaurant before, I only do take out; but the last time I walked in for my last take out order I came to a realization that this restaurant is disgusting…the places doesn’t look like it’s been dusted since it open, the counter where you pickup your food is filthy and is full of miscellaneous objects - almost like someone lives behind the counter. One thing that really bothers me is the carpet..the whole restaurant is carpet, and when I tell you this carpet is beyond soiled, I mean this carpet looks like it was put on a playground, then moved to an auto repair shop, then moved to a construction site where tar was spilled all over it, it is unbelievably disgusting. When you walk in the restaurant it’s almost like you can feel the carpet just barely sticking to your shoes. Next thing is the food, the food here is actually pretty good, it’s nothing 5 star but pretty delicious, but these last couple times I’ve been the quality and freshness of the food were foul! I order shrimp fried rice and the rice was over cooked, tasted like it was sitting there all day, the spring rolls tasted like they were re-fried, and the chicken fried rice I ordered, the chicken was almost like slimy, I don’t know how to explain it but the chicken was horrible, also I’ve had friends tell me that they got food from here and found bugs in it, personally I’ve never seen any bugs in the food, but the couple plates they showed me the bugs were pretty tiny, so who knows what I’ve eaten! My girlfriend even got sick our final time eating from Emerald China. I’m am so sorry to leave this review; the staff here are lovely, the nicest people I have ever met, and they treat everyone very well, and show much gratitude towards the customers, but I imagine it’s not the staffs fault, often times when restaurants decline at such a detrimental rate it’s because of management, a penny pinching manager won’t ever make any real money, serving food from days before and saving food all day won’t make you money. Quality is what will make a manger/owner money, but sadly I’m assuming the owner of this place has no interest in quality. Hopefully this place can get it together, once I see some changes I will definitely try this place again, they deserve a second chance. Hopefully they make some changes soon before it’s too late. Thanks if you read the full review. I know...

My family and I moved to Duluth in 1988, the same year this restaurant opened and we have enjoyed the food over the years. I wouldn't say that we were frequent diners but at least 3-4 times a year. Over the years things have changed. We visited tonight and we very disappointed. I didn't realize that they close at 8pm, on a Friday night? So not sure if that had anything to do with our experience. We arrived about 7:30 and waited quite a while for our food. Many folks were waiting for take out orders and a couple who came in about 10 minutes after us were eating before we got our food. We kept wondering what was going on. The hot and sour soup remains the best soup that I have ever had. The egg rolls were not good. They were filled with some kind of mushy oniony mixture almost like dumpling filling and seemed undercooked. They used to be filled with crispy cabbage, green onions, carrots and mu shu pork and were fried to a deep crispy/crunchy brown - they were amazing! The food came and was not hot, the sauce was thick and congealed. The "fried" rice looked like just brown rice but had a very weird smell and I didn't eat it. I thought that it could be fish sauce because it had a funky smell but I know fish sauce and it didn't taste like fish sauce. I'm sad to say that I don't know if I...

I have always wanted to try this restaurant and finally had an opportunity. I had dental work done (tooth extraction and bone graphing) on Wednesday, 5/30 and I can only eat soft foods. I stopped in to have a bowl of egg drop soup on Thursday, 5/31 but the owner refused to serve me. I was told I could not order just the soup because they had a minimum order. I told the waiter that I could not eat anything but very soft foods. I was willing to spend more so they could have doubled my order even to satisfy their minimum. Instead of working with me the owner loudly said the soup is only $3.00!! I already felt bad and was in pain and then this experience didn't help. I was so embarrassed and since I was refused service, I left. Needless to say after that, I will NEVER eat at this place. I have a lot of business associates and we have lunch meetings often but this will NEVER be a place I will ever recommend. If you have a minimum even when a person wants to pay cash, there is a way to treat people that patronize your business. HORRIBLE...