Ming's BBQ Duluth — Restaurant in Duluth

AVOID LIKE THE PLAGUE Ever since this establishment was sold and changed ownership (despite they kept the name), quality has gone DOWNHILL. I asked the dour unfriendly waitress about the establishment and she said that the CHANGE OF OWNERSHIP happened a few years ago during Covid. She did not give a precise date nor time-frame. So, I am guessing that it was sometime around 2021 or thereabouts. Although sharing the same name, the Doraville Ming's BBQ and this Duluth Ming's BBQ are INDEPENDENTLY-owned/operated and both locations are NOT affiliated in any way. Separate ownerships.

My spouse and I stopped by for dinner on Saturday 9/23/2023. I ordered rice plate with 2 meats (Roast Pork - half fatty, half lean, and Roasted Duck Leg), and spouse ordered rice plate with 2 meats (Roast Pork - lean, and Barbequed Pork (Char-Siu - lean). We both received Roast Pork that were IDENTICAL - tough and 90% lean... devoid of flavor, lacking in Five-Spice, soft chewy skin instead of crispy skin... And tasted overall like yesterday's merchandise... like the meat had been refrigerated and then microwaved. I am 99.999% certain that it was old meat that they reheated in the microwave. For anyone who is familiar with Chinese Roasted Pork, the skin SHOULD ALWAYS BE CRUNCHY CRISPY. Otherwise, it's a BIG FAIL to serve wimpy chewy limp skin yesterday's UNSOLD merchandise.

Spouse's Barbequed Pork (Char-Siu) was bland and lacking in smoky flavor. My Roasted Duck leg was tender BUT bland - LACKING in Five-Spice flavor. We COULD NOT finish our meals - packed them to go to feed our dogs. We have TOO MUCH self-respect than to ever return to this terrible restaurant. I consider this restaurant to be BELOW MEDIOCRE - TERRIBLE. Apparently, from reading the other reviews just now... my experience coincides similarly with other people's.

For those who actually thought this place is terrific and kiss-a$$ good, I applaud your LACK OF TASTE-BUDS and appreciation for AWFUL restaurants.

Lastly, From the time we stepped in to the restaurant and till the time we left... my spouse and I were the ONLY diners. The place was EMPTY of other diners. BIG RED FLAG.

P/S I neglected to read the reviews before dining at this place - my bad. I will not err...

So I really do like this restaurant and normally I have a good experience, but after today I'm hesitant to return. Hopefully the owner reads this review and changes things. When we finally were able to order food (all the servers were giving most of their attention to whatever soap opera was on TV), my friend tried to order soup and add extra wontons to it. There was miscommunication as to why her order could not be fulfilled, but instead of politely explaining the problem, he actually yelled at her and everyone in the restaurant looked over to see what the commotion was all about. After being publicly embarrassed, we decided to try to move on and forget about it. One of the main dishes we ordered never came, and finally when we were able to ask, they had to make it to go since we were almost done eating. When our waitress came to refill our water cups and tea, she was so engrossed with the tv show she actually poured water into a tea cup, realized she did this, but made no effort to fix it or apologize (she just walked away). While we were eating our bill was rudely put onto our table, and it felt like they were trying to get us to leave. (Mind you, we were not being difficult customers nor did we try to make a big deal out of anything). When we finally went to pay, one of the servers was talking and cussing about us to another server in Chinese, and unfortunately for them, my boyfriend knows Chinese. So when they asked why he didn't tip, he responded in chinese "what did you say?" And they quickly realized their mistake and left it at that. I almost always give 20% at a restaurant unless I get bad service, and even then I will tip 15%. But I found it hard to even hash out $2.00 because I felt very uncomfortable and unwelcome. All other experiences have been great, so Im not sure why were treated this badly. But Im not so sure I want to...

We had early dinner for 3 with the following choices. Won Ton soup, Peking pork chops, Broad noodle chow fan and TouFu hotpot and to go Roast Pork. They used to be among the best around Atlanta in terms of food quality. Over the past few occasions (2-3 years) I have been here, we have experienced extremely low levels of quality rivaling worst than those at a typical mall chinese food. Which is totally unacceptable. Paid over $100+ for it. First the Won ton soup was luke warm, soup was extremely salty on a scale of 1-10 being salty and 9, meat within tasted like it was not even chopped nor tasted great. The others like the Peking pork chops was also dry and extremely salty. The Beef Chow fan which was their staple dish which usually satisfies most was not even fried well. Noodles were clumped together with parts being warm instead of hot and the sauce was even more saltier than the won ton soup or more making it hardly edible. The roast pork we ordered to go which we often was a a great dish was extremely dry and skin was completely clammy and soft unlike the typical crispy crunchy juicy taste. A total disappointment! Anyone can recommend a better Cantonese cuisine to me is deeply appreciated. We should have went to Bobo garden or some other Asian places.

I understand Covid and all but at the level of the prices being charged at least you would expect a certain level level of quality. We have been to many asian restaurants and food places in Singapore (Hawker foods), Malaysia, Bangkok, Hongkong, Korea and Japan for 20+ years every year. Even those in Europe which we typically do not consider great...