Joy Garden — Restaurant in Meridian

DO YOURSELF A FAVOR AND ORDER FROM GOLDEN STAR. AVOID THIS PLACE AT ALL COST. We had a terrible experience with our food, the management and the staff. The sweet and sour pork was sub par, dripping in grease, soggy, full of gristle and more connective tissue than actual meat. The mandarine chicken was mostly fat. Thigh meat is great but not when its that fatty. The fried rice was the only saving grace. I should have known better than to order anything else besides rice!!! I usually order from Golden Star on Orchard. But i took a chance because I really like the pork fried rice from Joy Gardens. Ugh what a mistake. I placed a very large family order with 5 boxes of chow mein. I did not want soupy vegetables in clear gravy, so I specifically asked for "fried noodles" The girl taking my order (who was very sweet) heard "dry noodles" and I ended up with, you guessed it, 5 boxes of vegetables with clear gravy. All 5 boxes went into the trash can. This was a birthday meal for my 17 year old and these kids wanted chow mein. This order was well over $100 and we left a $15 tip on a "pick up" order because we have much respect for restaurant staff and it was quite late. I called to tell someone about what happened and they immediately started arguing with me. Telling me how I ordered incorrectly and giving me a lecture on the different types of chow mein. Apparently when I said I dont want a box of mush, I want crispy fried noodles, it was my mistake. I was simply trying to differentiate betwen the mushy stuff and Firm Pan Fried Noodles. I just thought we were on the same page and we werent. Ultimately, this was never about money, I was just hoping that as a business, they would care enough about good customers to offer a gesture of kindness or at the very least, not disrespect and blame me. I work in customer service. I get it. Dealing with an upset customer can be tough but this was next level. They jusy kept talking over me, blamiing me, and telling me how it was my fault and I got what I ordered, how is that their problem?" No "I'm sorry that happened, no offer to correct it, not even a "hey I'll throw in a box of chow mein with your next order, Im sorry about the confusion" After I asked why as a business owner, they wouldn't want to at least acknowledge me or extend any kind of gesture of kindness, I was offered the pan fired noodles if i wanted to pay $2.50 per person for the difference? So did I want to pay another $15 for some chow mein the day after my meal when they just treated me like garbage? It wasn't about the money. Just show a little humility or remorse or something 😔 I would have been a lot more understanding. Super disappointed all the...

Food: Low quality meat and ingredients. Portion sizes are large, but the quality of ingredients is very poor. I wouldn’t return to this restaurant. Here is what we tried:

Broccoli Beef: VERY rubbery meat, sauce was okay (lacking in flavor), veggies cooked well. I don’t know what they used as a tenderizer but it’s super gross. We ate the broccoli from this and left the rest.

Mandarin and Orange Chicken: placed together on a plate so unsure which was which. It’s chicken thigh and pretty fatty. How they bread huge chunks of thigh together so lots of it is over cooked. It’s kinda chopped up in massive chunks which makes it rubbery as well. One of the sauces was okay flavor wise, but not which one. Again, large portion but horrible quality of meat. I’d be okay with half the meat portion if they used chicken breast and did small bite size pieces. The breading itself was tempera style and not bad, but the execution just killed it. Majority of this left on the plate untouched.

Fried rice: okay flavor, but extra oil added (greasy). We ate this because we had to eat something.

BBQ pork and seed: What a joke! They put 4 teeny pieces of dried pork on the plate. No sauces or anything making it pork and seed. Just the dry pork. Hard pass on this one.

Crab Rangoon: The only decent item we had. As you can tell food was an utter disappointment.

Service: It was okay. About what you expect, but expecting $5+ to just drop off food and not check in with guests is outrageous.

Price: Overall prices are decent but poor quality and NOT worth perceived “savings”. As for our check the price seemed high when we were checking out, but so didn’t have the menu to reference. We just paid for a shitty meal and left. Over half the food was not eaten (2 people) and they didn’t bother to ask how the meal was. Note to Joy Garden. It was nasty and we won’t return. Anyways … on the drive home I pulled up the menu online and they overcharged us $5 which just pisses me off further. Spending $30 for us to leave home still hungry as your gross Chinese food still sits on the plate means loss of business. We LOVE supporting local, but not...

I've been coming to Joy Garden for a couple months, I've practically become a regular. I've recently decided to no longer go because of the frustrating experiences. I would write it off as minor issues, but when there is always a minor issue, it becomes a major issue. The service takes away from me enjoying the restaurant. This isn't a slander on the food because i do quite enjoy it, but when i have to constantly wait just to get my drink order, the flaws start coming up. I sit down for 5-10 minutes, i tell them my drink order, i wait another 5-10 minutes for the drink to arrive (which is just water btw) and it's a constant cycle of this unnecessary time wasted. At a minimum, I would be there for an hour just from ordering their lunch specials. My water would never get refilled either. They're not good with managing time. A few other quick remarks is that i almost got charged more while i was eating during lunch time. I arrived at 2:40, their lunch is over at 3, and as i was about to pay, i almost got charged their dinner price which luckily they changed back to lunch price (rightfully so). I've gotten takeout during lunch, and i was upcharged more than when i would dine-in. Their website didn't state an upcharge when picking up an order, but delivering i know they upcharge. One final thing that i felt was unnecessary is that if you order from their lunch special and you pick 2 of the same items, you will get an upcharge. Apparently, you must order different items in order to get the full benefits of the lunch price. My order, for example, was 2 spicy orange chicken and lo mein, i got charged more for having 2 orange chicken. They told me if i would have ordered pork instead, i would've gotten the original price. They got me with the "read the fine print" method, which i felt was a low blow. So long story short, food good, service...