Maple Garden — Restaurant in Great Falls

ONE YEAR LATER AND $36.45 WASTED** So, I'm back in Great Falls and returned to order the same thing I did last time and raved about for freshness, quality and service. Not this time. I mentioned to the younger lady who took my order that I had left a rave review that had been viewed 1,300 times. You'd think she might say thanks to someone who recommended her restaurant to that many people-or would say anything. She said nothing. So I asked, "Do you look at your Google reviews?" She answered, "Not really." So they won't be bothered by this review, apparently. Yet another business who does not get that there are millions of people who won't go to a restaurant without reading reviews before we choose where to eat and spend our money.

Today, I ordered the #C Combination Plate and the Pu-Pu Platter. $36.45 for 2 dishes. The Pu-Pu Plater was basically dried out, overcooked shrimp, etc with so much oil-soaked, breading around the various items they were inedible. The egg rolls were so oily, upon applying pressure, one could watch the oil drip on the plate. The Combination was utterly disappointing. The portions were not generous, the Lo-Mein was nothing more than a cup of dried out spaghetti with zero flavor with some chicken kibbles that were too small to taste. The Almond Chicken was an infant sized portion with one raw, chunk of green pepper, 2 raw pieces of carrots, pieces of Almond that were so hard they were unchewable, 3 tiny pieces of chicken in an over-corn starched, slimy sauce. The "Chicken" fried rice was a child's portion of rice with minute pieces of dried out meat kibbles that I guess was supposed to be chicken. The fried shrimp was inches of oil-soaked breading with dried out pieces of rubber inside.

The equally irritating insult was the 2 packets of soy sauce we were given. TWO packets-like 2 tablespoons for all that food.

We didn't even bother after trying everything and ascertaining we just paid $36.45 for oil, breading, cooked to death meat, 7 cents worth of spaghetti, and a couple of chunks of raw vegetables. We threw it away and I went to the grocery store and am now cooking something edible, with care and attention to detail-unlike the cooks at the Maple Garden today.

We'd hoped to have a day without cooking, but Maple Garden let us down and took our money.

You decide if the risk is worth it-you may get lucky and get a cook who cares about the customer.

BELOW IS FROM A YEAR AGO-QUITE THE CHANGE TODAY*

To address other reviews that complain about price… Yes, everything is around $17. That’s life-I bought an $18 burger here last week that was inedible. Food is expensive and this place is no different than anywhere else in that regard. Now, the review.

Absolutely Fantastic! I ordered take out last night and unlike every other restaurant here, we were thrilled with the meal and the service. I ordered when I arrived and it was less than 15 minutes before it was ready in a full restaurant. I ordered the no 4 and the Pau Pau Platter and talk about fresh-it was obvious care was taken to ensure we were given high quality ingredients served fresh and the portions were well worth the cost-mom will have three or four more meals to look forward to from the leftovers. Now one needs to keep in mind this is Montana Chinese food, prepared for this population. This is Americanized Asian food. If you are wanting authentic Chinese as we would enjoy in San Francisco or Seattle-this is not that. But the owners may be the friendliest, warmest people I’ve ever met and I’ll guess if you ask for authentic Chinese preparation and seasoning they would make it happen for you. Highest praise for a non-pretentious restaurant serving generous portions with fresh ingredients and smiling faces...

Been going for years. Sometimes the food and service are very good, but other times the service is so bad it runs the entire experience. Tonight was a very bad night and a very sad situation. They are now involved with Door Dash which means they were very busy with customers inside the restaurant and equally busy with their takeout orders. However, they seemed to be neglecting their customers seated at tables. We waited for 45 minutes before even receiving our appetizers. We asked the owner to get our waitress, but waited even longer for her to arrive at our table, she wasnt attentive to our needs at all. There was no rush, care, or concern about the long wait. They do not try to rectify or apologize for any inconvenience. When the food finally arrives 60 minutes later, we are told they have been 45 minutes behind trying to get caught up with takeout. When we asked our waitress why we weren't informed of the dining room wait when we arrived, she said she wasn't told to do so. When our food order finally arrived, it was inaccurate and they acted like it was our fault. They do not take responsibility for their mistakes, they do not put their customers first, and they are not nice people. The owners are rude and do not care if your experience is subpar. So unfortunate, especially when trying to support local businesses, which we have done for years, in spite of...

Not my cup of tea. Wasn't the most welcome reception however we hung in there and finally got served. Everyone has bad days, our server may have been in one of those moods?

We ordered Hot and Sour Soup, small. Shrimp with vegetables and chicken curry. The taste is okay. We live in Thailand and for me, I spent the last thirty years traveling Asia, I try not to be too harsh on Asian food in America. However there are good places and bad places. This was kind of in between.

Negatives.

Don't order the tea! I'm not sure what we got. My wife thought it was coffee. Sure looked like coffee, served in a tea pot with little tea cups. Hideous taste. I mean dump it down the sink sort of stuff.

MSG. If you are sensitive, do not eat here, you will get a headache and drink a few bottles of water before you recover. They must dump the MSG on heavy.

One dish kinda tastes like the other dish. Thick with sauce.

Salty. Curry way too salty. But heck, maybe I am being over sensitive.

Positive

Restroom was super clean. Had a clean smell. That's always a plus. It means they have good standards.

Good size portion. The plates are filled with food

Good price.

Vegetables seemed fresh not mooshy or soft.

Dishes...