Joyful Garden Watertown — Restaurant in Watertown

PAY SPECIAL ATTENTION BEFORE YOU EAT!!!!!

We ordered shrimp w/ Chinese leek dumplings (without pork) here, but we were served pork w/ coriander dumplings. I'm allergic to coriander, and my family doesn’t eat pork. The other dishes we ordered didn't contain pork either. We were very offended when we received a dish with pork in it.

When we told the waiter we got the wrong dish, he didn’t realize it was a big problem for us. He shrugged his shoulder, showed his hands and said:” OK, I’ll give you another one. You can keep the pork dumpling for free.”

We felt that it was not easy for everyone during the pandemic, and we understood that everybody makes mistakes. Even though there were just a few guests this morning. So, we accepted the replacement. Do you think this is the end of the story? I certainly hope so, but it was not.

When we received the bill, the waitress requested us to pay cash rather than card. And she told me:” We gave you a free dish as a gift.” Her tone of voice showed that we should have appreciated her generosity.

EXCUSE ME???? EXCUSE ME???? EXCUSE ME????

I was offended that the restaurant had served the wrong dish first, and then she told us that it was their kindness that got me a free plate of steamed dumplings. What kind of robber logic is this?

This got my nerves and made me feel like I had to talk to their manager. But after a long wait, the manager did not show up. Another waiter pushed us for payment, so I told him about it. He eventually apologized, but I don't think he would have reported the situation to the manager.

In the end, I still tipped them 18%, hoping they would get through the hard time of pandemic. But I also have to say to all of you who come here to eat. If you have any food allergies, beliefs or taboos, make sure you look at your food carefully before you eat it. I've been feeling sick from...

Disappointing :/. We live nearby and had been meaning to try this place. We ordered Peking ravioli, double-cooked pork, and Chinese broccoli with black bean sauce to start. After a fairly long wait (not a huge issue for us) we received our dishes. Instead of the Chinese broccoli, we were given two double-cooked porks (not sure why…one person was ordering for the table..why get two of the same entrée?). Before we noticed this, the food runner had vanished. At the time, we overlooked it just assuming we could have the leftovers for lunch the next day and we’d just order more food to have some variety. Well, that seems impossible here. We were totally ghosted for well over 30 minutes (from the time we sat down to the time we left was around 90 minutes). Try as we might, no one from the service team so much as looked at us…even after we set aside dirty dishes/made it clear we need attention (I hate having to wave people down, but I don’t think that would have really worked anyway). We kept trying to make eye contact, but everyone was too busy doing sidework to pay attention. This also involved an army of staff throwing dishes into bus buckets to clear after a large party left, filling the dining room with an unnecessary clatter. It’s important to keep the dining room clean, but it’s also important to tend to seated guests. Our plan had been to order another bottle of wine and at least two more dishes, so something like another $80, because what we did receive was very good. But we cut our losses and just left instead. Part of me would like to give them another chance, but the other part thinks the same thing would happen again. If we had the chance to try a few more things, we could have easily forgiven the oversight, but being ignored just...

I had been to Joyful garden many times, usually with a large group (6+). The food was to our apptite and we liked the serving style. However, I stopped going there since a few months ago. That time only my husband and I went there for brunch. Thinking that from noon there usually is a long line, we set out relatively early and we arrived there around 11:50. We were given the small device which flashes when the table is ready, and were told the waiting time should be around 15 mins. We sat in the hallway and waited. 30 mins passed and our little device did not flash and we even saw people who came later than us were called in. We went in and asked the receptionest why we were not called but people who were later than us were called. The receptionest shouted to us "who? which one did you see arrived later than you came in?" We were a little frightened. Thinking that maybe we saw wrong, we returned to the hallway. Another 20 mins passed and we were still not called. We saw clearly that people arrived later and were called in. We went to the receoptionest and told him we were sure of what we saw and asked why. He has a notebook in which he was crossing the numbers that he had called and we saw there were more than 10 numbers beblow ours were crossed already. We asked "WHY sir?" Then he said, "those are large tables and you are only two". We threw the device which still did not flash on the counter and left. That was my last trip to Joyful Garden...