Garden Restaurant — Restaurant in Garland

Ended up here via family when in Dallas (or Garland to be exact). Apparently this is a go to spot for them so we let them do the ordering.

I was a little iffy based on ratings and by looks of the place. We walked in at luckily not a busy time on a Saturday afternoon. (I did my homework with reviews and most negatives were related to service so... still promising?) To add to the ambiance there was a 20 person party of gentlemen drinking beer and whisky, cheers-ing, singing in another language, obviously celebrating something... or who knows - maybe just having fun at dim sum.

Much to my surprise everything was tasty but wanted to shout out to my faves:

Eggplant w/ shrimp - speaking to the eggplant in general - you always make me ponder at how to cook you. I always feel you're hard and then all the sudden soggy and mushy and hard to tear a bite off. This place had you down. Back to not speaking to a vegetable lol - I've never had an eggplant with a perfect medium cooked consistency that you could bite easily and eat until this day. And the shrimp in the middle of the eggplant bite - nice contrast. Added tip, the sauce on this dish is worth saving to put on some white rice.

Seafood Fried Rice - delicious! Perfectly seasoned with umami seasonings (not just "soy sauce") and seafood included calamari and bay scallops. Could have eaten the whole platter of this.

Fried Fish - don't usually like my food looking at me but... The fish spoke for itself. Perfectly thinly battered for crunch and even better had a clean fish taste (not sure how to explain not fishy without saying not fishy since technically it is a fish).

So.... teaches me not to judge a book by it's cover. Shout out to my Dallas family for a place...

First and last time here. We were excited to try this place out, too. Food was just okay (not the best dim sum around) and they made the mistake of kicking us out rudely after we have been there for only ONE hour, and wanted to charge us to stay and finish our food. He started cleaning up abruptly and repeatedly yelling at us to leave saying two hour only. We have been there for only ONE hour. 1 (ONE)! Hour Only. I understand it’s Mother’s Day and they are busy, but to rudely and mistakenly kick us out early without an apology? He shoved my nieces iPad in my face to take and go away. He kept hollering at us and I kept telling him he’s mistaken and it was getting ridiculous. The guy ended up “maybe” realizing he made the mistake and frustratingly said okay then walked off, with NO apology, NO acknowledgement that he had done anything wrong. Very disappointed and ruined the experience for us. This guy right here 😡 If you cannot handle the holiday rush or anytime the restaurant is busy, then he should find another job. Management needs to RE-evaluate his employment. Check your cameras to see that we sat down at about 10:34am. I know because I sent my sister the location as we walked to the table at that time. It took maybe 10-15 minutes for carts to come to our table and they never came by to refill our drinks. We didn’t complain and just enjoying the day. Then about an hour later, this happened. This guy out of nowhere came and ruined our experience. We were finishing up and getting ready to leave anyway, much under 2 hours that he was going crazy over. So so...

Just wanted to repost my respectful review as it seems to have been deleted.

We are genuinely disappointed in the service provided here. My family has eaten at this restaurant for over 10 years and have referred family and friends here, who have also referred their families. We were seated by a waitress, who seemed disinterested in serving us and did not provide plates nor silverware. After getting up to retrieve cookware to eat our dim sum, we ordered more food. After sitting around for nearly 30 minutes, we went to the front desk or a status update since our waitress neglected to check-in with us after “taking” our second order. We learned that our order was never put in. Of note, our waitress continued to seat guests around us while we aimlessly sat there. After another 15 minutes of waiting, we voiced our concern to a waiter, who stated he will check but never came back. Instead, he served nearby tables and ignored us as well. We decided to pay for our food and leave. When paying, staff did not care nor attempt to reconcile the situation when we voiced our concern. We will not be returning and will be sure to inform our...