Imperial Garden Chinese Restaurant — Restaurant in Raleigh

I must say what a disappointment from when I used to eat here. I used to work in the shopping center 20+ years ago and a wonderful man named Francis owned the restaurant. You could tell he took pride in the food he served and in the atmosphere and service he provided. I would order food regularly, at least once a week and they would actually deliver it to the store where I was working (if not too busy).

I ordered take out dinner last night and the only thing that was palatable was the eggrolls and the rice! I have eaten at the "Cheap Chinese Place," you know, Jumbo China, and the food there was at least edible. I live 5 minutes from Imperial Garden so the entrees did not age or mold on the trip home. The food was just horrible.

The Mongolian Beef was a bowl of onions, mostly mushy and overcooked with a few pieces of some brown mushy stuff that I guess was the beef.

The General Tso's chicken was dark brown, almost black where I expected a light, golden brown color with a sweet yet spicy sauce that complemented the dish. Instead, I got a dish with a bunch of round, almost black balls of very fatty dark meat chicken in a gelatinous sauce that, if you had to describe the flavor, you could only say blah! And, they had green peppers instead of broccoli, which is usually served in General Tso’s.

Finally, the Kung Pao chicken, one of my favorite dishes, was really a dish of a million peanuts, with about 6 pieces of fatty, dark meat chicken and a couple of old vegetables.

The highlight of the meal was the eggroll to start and the three containers of white rice. Everything else was horrible and I would not ever recommend anyone go there. When I picked my meal up, the piano was playing so loud; you could not even hear what you were thinking in your head.

It is so very sad to see a restaurant that was once a great place run with pride of ownership and a dedication to serving great food and providing great customer service turn into a place where it appeared the owners and the employees could care less. I am positive that the food I took home to my family and paid almost $40 for would not have been eaten or served to any of the employee's or the owner’s family.

My advice, don't waste your time. You can get better Chinese food at the grocery store and better entertainment at home on your television. Francis, I know you no longer own the restaurant and may even be deceased but, I am so sorry! Sorry that the restaurant you so lovingly created and nurtured has now turned into a place that seems only interested in scamming the "Dumb Americans" out of money with terrible food. Had I gone to dine in the restaurant myself, I would have complained to the management and walked out, not paying a dime for food that was not...

So, ordered the lunch DDtwo (a meal for two people, sweet and sour shrimp + Beef and Scallop delight). I also ordered an egg foo young because, I love a well put together EFY.

The portions were huge, I will grant them that, but just as with most things in life you can put x effort into something and that effort will be spread across the volume of work. Here, that means that the meal was a complete disappointment in taste, flavor, and composition.

The really bad: We are almost certain that the egg rolls and the 'crab' won tons were purchased frozen, maybe even the breaded shrimp. The 'crab' won tons were actually sausage won tons. Except for the sausage they were all pretty much bland, tasteless, needing a sauce -- which is what the sweet and sour was for? Well, the thick orange goo was almost certainly out of a can with a few chunks of fruit and vegetable to give it form. The fried rice was bland, dry, and I noted that there were no scallions on the third bite only to find a bit of scallion (not visible mind you but through taste and texture) and there was a bit of egg smattered throughout -- nothing else. I will try to redo the rice in the morning... The gravy for the EFY was a thick brown gravy with the classic taste of a Swanson's powdered brown gravy. That was a shame because I actually liked the construction of the pancake and was looking forward to a nice foo young sauce to go with it. The okay: The Egg Foo Young itself was not bad, if they actually made the gravy I think it might be a signature dish The Beef and scallop delight had good structure and content (big vegatables of a good variety) and the meats had good taste and were tender. The sauce was a bit salty but I probably had 4/5 ounces so it wasn't bad. We tossed about half of it and I will try and salvage the other half. This is a classic Americanized Chinese with huge portions of blandness and lots of culinary shortcuts. Now that I look at the menu I realize it is a buffet -- it is about standard for a buffet. Maybe if they didn't have over 60 items on the lunch menu alone, (folded double sided, 16x20 menu stuffed with maybe 200 options) they could concentrate on a...

We went for the first time this past Tuesday. We’ve lived in North Carolina for almost 20 years, originally from New York, and have missed good Chinese food. We’ve tried other places over the years but have never enjoyed anything other than maybe hibachi. Reading reviews, I stumbled on this place and I am so glad we decided to give it a try. We walked in around 7 PM on a Tuesday and the place was actually very busy as well as three people picking up takeout orders. I figured all of this was a good sign. We were seated promptly and our waitress Summer was friendly and attentive. Atmosphere was subdued and setup felt like you had your own little space, rather than a wide open room surrounded by a bunch of other people. We ordered the Pu Pu platter, As it was something, my husband and I had had growing up on Long Island and wanted our son to be able to experience it and have not seen it at other places. We also ordered two eggrolls and fried dumplings. The platter IMO Is the only thing that I probably would not order again they no longer are able to have the fire, It just has sauce. She did tell us this up front. The eggrolls were not as greasy as I’m used to from New York, some might prefer that. These were filled with cabbage and shrimp would’ve preferred the classic pork. The dumplings were absolutely delicious! We also ordered garlic shrimp, General Tso’s, chicken, Sweet-and-sour chicken and pork fried rice. My first bite of the fried rice immediately took me back to what we had growing up. The garlic sauce was delicious. Shrimp was plenty and cooked well. My chicken was also very good and a great portion size. Our son enjoyed his sweet-and-sour chicken, but also had the other items we had ordered as well and liked everything. For all of that food +3 beverages our bill only came to $81. I honestly wish we didn’t live 30 minutes away. We would be there more often. I plan on reaching out to them to see if they are planning for Thanksgiving or Christmas Eve would love to have something non-traditional and expose our extended family to this...