Peony Garden — Restaurant in Walnut Creek

Some of the worst service I've ever had.

I've been here twice. Once many years ago and once a few nights ago.

My first experience there, I was with a large group (approx. 20 people). We had ordered ahead of time, but our friend forgot to order for two of us. We didn't discover this until we arrived. Still, we quickly chose our dishes and sat with the rest of our group. Everyone else's dishes began to come out (after a reasonable 15 minute wait), and we sat there, knowing that ours might be a little delayed because we hadn't ordered ahead of time. That was fine. After everyone else had been served and about 15 minutes had gone by, we got up and asked when our food might be ready, because we were the only ones in our group still not served, and dinner was approaching being half-way done. They said it would be out shortly. We sat back down. Another 15 minutes went by and our dinners did not show up. By this time, everyone was done eating and sitting around talking. We again asked when our food would be ready and again they said it would be out soon. Skip 30 minutes ahead (at least a full hour since the last other member of our party was served), and they finally bring out our dishes. By now, everyone is getting up and getting ready to go to the next thing, we're starving, and only a handful of our friends are sticking with us as we quickly wolf down our meal. They made no effort to get us our meal even remotely near when everyone else in our party was eating, then lied to us when we asked when our food would be ready. I realize they might have been understaffed for such a large group, and not getting our orders in ahead of time may have made logistical difficulties, but our dishes should not have taken more than 15 minutes longer than the rest of the group, max. There were 20 of us, and they were able to make 18 dishes in order, but apparently not the last two.

When I was there again the other night, the service was dreadfully lacking. After asking the waiter if the iced tea had refills (and he said yes), yet none of our iced teas were ever refilled. None of our waters were ever refilled, until near the end of dinner, we finally asked (they had been empty for 15 minutes or so). When they finally delivered us our check, I put my credit card inside it, set it on the edge of the table, and it sat there for another 15 minutes before someone could find the time to pick it up. We started making bets about when they would finally deign to take our money. We were having a good time, and weren't in any hurry, but it would have been nice to sign the bill and put my card back in my wallet. Overall, service was pretty abysmal. The one redeeming factor was that they checked my id against my credit card, which I am appreciative of. I took them from a 10% tip up to a 15% tip just for that.

Also, the Pad Thai is absolutely terrible, and Pad Thai is a safe bet almost anywhere.

If 0 stars was the lowest rating I could give, I would give them 1 star, for decent food and for checking my ID. As 1 stars is the lowest I can give, I'll bump them up to 2 stars, but I feel like with my experiences, they're quite lucky I...

Food was okay. Portions was small. We ordered duck, rice, soup, cream cheese wonton, siu ma, noodles. I feel like we got scammed for the duck. There was barely any meat, looks like there were even bones without meat thrown onto the plate. I feel very disrespected while eating it, however I didn’t say anything. Restaurant was not busy. There were two other tables. This guy that seems like the owner came to our table and asked for our order, we were about to tell him our order, but he stopped us and said “I come back,” he left us to go to another table that was leaving to immediately pick up the checkbook. My boyfriend and I felt second hand embarrassment, we assumed he must be the owner and afraid his other staff will take the checkbook so he left to get it before his staff. After he got the checkbook, he came back to us to take our order. Sometime later, we received our food. We also asked for straws and napkins and he said “ok” but never brought it, we remind him, but he forgot, so we asked again for the third time. While we were eating, the last table left and another staff was coming to the table with a cart to clean the table. And the guy that took our order speed walk to the table to get the checkbook because he was afraid of his staff touching the checkbook. The guy cleaning at the table didn’t say anything but we can see in his facial expression that it’s not the first time he did that to him. Service was very bad and seems like he has no trust in his employees. However when we asked for the check, he immediately brings to us. We thought it was very interesting. We left no tips. My boyfriend paid in cash and kept the change. When we got up from our table and was leaving. He speed walk to the table and immediately take a look in the checkbook and said, “you left no tips!” My boyfriend felt bad and gave him a few dollars. Yet he continue being rude and said, “you need to tip if you eat at restaurants, if you don’t tip, go to McDonalds!” I told him, “the service is really bad here, we asked for the straws and napkins three times to remind you to bring it to us and you keep forgetting to bring it to us. Why are u forgetting to bring it to us? It’s not been busy here.” When we were leaving. Every other tables has left, so I think that’s why he felt comfortable being rude to us. This is the last time we...

DON'T GO. THIS PLACE IS DISHONEST AND DISCRIMINATING.

We went there for lunch on Saturday between 11am and 3pm. Their web site clearly stated that they serve the luncheon specials lunch every day from 11am to 3pm. We were initially only offered the regular items menu. We then specifically asked for the luncheon specials menu, but the waiter said that it's not available Saturday and Sunday. THAT'S DISHONEST!

Okay, we choose to not argue with him (for food safety reasons) and go on and order from the regular menu. By the time we were about to finish our lunch, I saw another non-Asian customer, at the table in front of us, was offered the luncheon specials menu!!! He ordered an item from it, by which the same waiter gladly taken!!! Obviously, they do not (want to) offer the luncheon specials menu to Asian customers (both I and my wife are Asian Americans). THAT'S RACIAL PROFILING AND RACIAL DISCRIMINATING! We are also considering filing a discrimination complaint with the State Government.

We live locally and thought we have found one good Chinese restaurant nearby. No, not anymore, will never go back again. I don't care how good the food is, a dishonest and discriminating restaurant will never earn my business. Yes, they made several more dollars from us this time, but that's at the expense of much much more potential future business they are losing. They thought we were stupid, not knowing that the only ones who are stupid are...