New Asia Restaurant — Restaurant in Germantown

We booked New Asia restaurant in Germantown TN for our son's wedding party months ahead, to be held on 9/29/2019. The booking was for the whole night as well as for the entire restaurant for we have over 180 guests and the restaurant will be jam packed. We told the owner, a month in advance, guests will be arriving starting at 5:00 pm and be ready. The owner only allowed us to do decoration and set up equipment starting at 3:00 pm. We have the equipment and everything arrived at the restaurant at 3:00 pm, expecting the restaurant to be swept clean and tables in place. When we entered the restaurant, we thought we entered the wrong place. There were still customers eating. The owner was not at the restaurant at the time and the waiter/waitress told us they could do nothing. We frantically tried to call the owner multiple times but she did not answer. In the mean time, the restaurant was admitting new customers. We became distraught and desperate for this could ruin the wedding party. She (the owner) showed up at 3:30 pm and told us that we could do our decorations and set up while customers were eating. No, we could not do decoration and set up with customers still eating. She said it is her policy to admit new customers until 5:00 pm.

We reasoned and protested strongly, she kept arguing but then backed down by not admitting new customers and ordered the workers to start cleaning and arranging the tables. The result was that our guests had to stand and wait for 20 minutes before the tables were ready. Without the strong protest, the situation could have been worse. We were embarrassed for making our guests to stand. But this is not the end of it. The restaurant was apparently accepting takeout orders and rudely told our guests to not blocking the entrance for the takeout customers. These were our guests who were made standing at the entrance waiting for the tables to be ready. Sadly, the worst is yet to come. At around 7:50 pm, just about finishing the food, some guests left their table, the waiter/waitress immediately cleaned the table, removed the white table cloth, and lifted up the big round table top in front of the remaining guests who were still sitting at the table. This sent a strong signal to our guests that it is time to leave. As a result, our guests started leaving at around 8:00 pm. Our guests wondered why the party ended so soon and many thought it was our schedule to end the party at 8:00 pm. After the party, she kept arguing it was her policy for what she did and even blamed our guests arriving too early.

We paid very good money to the restaurant for the party. After the party, we paid the bill. The owner requested us to split the bill into two and write two checks. She specifically requested us NOT to write the name of the restaurant on the checks and leave the "pay to the order of" entry blank for her to fill out later. We did not comply and wrote the name "New Asia" on the checks. The food was not particularly good nor bad.

We do not understand the behavior of the owner. We regret...

Been eating Memphis-area Asian cuisine for 50 years, and this is arguably the best Chinese restaurant found. Every restaurant has occasional problems with staff, food, crowding, etc., but all taken into consideration, you normally won't find any better authentic (emphasized) food within a day's drive or more from Memphis. The owner (head chef) is from China, and he brought many great recipes here for people to sample and expand their knowledge of Chinese cuisine. Those "in the know" don't let the wait-staff hand you a green menu, but instead ask for the red menu (the "good stuff", or authentic Chinese dishes), because here is where the hidden-gems lie in wait to be found and savored. The wait-staff are all from Asia, and it is sometimes comical to find that even they have problems trying to understand each-others' dialects while still trying to get the job done as quickly as possible. That also sometimes hinders their work, as they may not fully understand what you are requesting. Don't let a small lunch-crowd fool you... This restaurant is very popular with Memphis Asian crowd, typified by the often large birthday, wedding, New Years, and other holiday celebrations, which sometimes get so big that they completely take-over the restaurant. This ought to tell you something about the place. Okay, there are and always will be some examples of a bad food experience, or lack of perfect service, but the fact is that even after having been an explorer for the "perfect" Chinese restaurant in the Memphis area, in the past 20 years, New Asia has been as close as it gets... and is likely to get. Try it, you will likely be surprised, especially if you have the guts to try something new, and head on over to the red-menu :). It's...

It's a shame that they got the flavorful food with horrible services. I called to order a carryout order. They open at 11. I started to call them every 5 minutes since 10:30. No one answered the phone until 11 (why you don't answer the phone when you have already started to prepare for the day?). I ordered the stir fried green beans (干煸四季豆) and seafood tofu pot(班腩豆腐煲). I said I would be there in 15 minutes but was told the order wouldn't be ready in 30 minutes (how can these two simple dishes take that long?). Upon arrival, I noticed that there were only two groups of guests there (about five people in total), so they were not busy at all. When my order was ready, I asked for an additional pari of chopsticks (expecting they put only one pair inside). It turned out they did not put any chopsticks nor spoons nor folks inside when I came back and opened the bag (do you expect your customers eat by their bare hands?). What was worse, they used the cheapest white foam container to pack the seafood tofu pot (which had soup in it), and the soup leaked everywhere in the bag (it is 2021 now! who else is using the white foam box? Is it legal in...