Good dim sum and slow service at times. The best servers are the young lady with the shoulder length hair and the young tall man with the glasses. When I have one of them as a server, the service is a 5+. When I don't have them as servers, service can be slow.This is the prettiest dim sum restaurant I have visited and I've seen hundreds. Empire Garden is set in an old theater.Excellent ambience. Great drinks selection. The Mai Tai is fantastic. Limited dessert selection.In April 2022, one of the cart ladies, the one with stamp number 4, charged twice for a dish. I don't think it was intentional -- she punched on a different line and then stamped again, had a weird look on her face, then walked away. Clearly, though, she knew she made a mistake and instead of correcting it, she obviously hoped I didn't notice. However, due to the look on her face, I looked at the tab and saw 6 stamps, but I had only 5 dishes. Thankfully, none of the plates had been cleared from the table (this non-clearing of the table is usually a negative, but it helped my case in this situation), so I got a hold of a server immediately and showed him 6 stamps punched for 5 dishes on the table. The server corrected tab.There was one time when I paid for the tab and then I got stopped by Management, asking me if I had paid. I showed them my credit card receipt and I said I even gave them a great tip of over 20%.I've eaten at Empire Garden over a hundred times.I would rate them a 5-star restaurant for most of the times I've been here.June 10, 2022: I've changed the rating from a four to a five, but I've left the comments above.
Dim sum here is served all day but cart service is only until 3pm. After that it's menu service only.We came here for some late afternoon dim sum on Sunday and had a great experience. The cart service was slow at times and they didn't have certain staple items on the cart, however just request it and they'll make it fresh. The lava custard buns and turnip cakes were excellent. Everything had the perfect amount of flavor and balance. Not too salty or bland. The dishes were still hot (except for the fried glutinous dumplings but they were still very good) - much better than the dim sum places in Philly. Will definitely visit again when I'm in Boston!
Dim Sum is a great a place to go with a party of 3 or more, so you can enjoy more items without having to eat too much or having too much left over. I'm not sure if it is because I went to this place when they just opened their door for business. There are not much to select from, but they all tasted delicious. I liked that they added fried dough to Kanji and jasmine tea was served on the house.
An authentic Chinese restaurant with an open plan seating area. The customers were majority Chinese which is a good sign. The hot and sour soup was fantastic and the sweet and sour pork was one of the best I have had to date. For some reason service to order off the dine in menu was a bit slow, but once the order was placed the food arrived all in good time. Wonderful!
Wonderful selection of all the dim sum classics, we were eyeing the progress of certain rolling carts with rapt anticipation. The dining area is so big you don't have to worry about a table even if they're doing a brisk business. This was our favorite meal in our Boston trip.
I've been going to Empire Garden Restaurant for over 20 years and I'm always delighted by the service, food, and atmosphere. My most recent visit was after a show, my group was pleased that the restaurant was open late (until 11pm) and I commend the whole staff for being kind and attentive after what must have been a long and tiring day. A great way to end a Boston adventure.
Nice place to get breakfast dimsum, as they open at 9am when we visited.Standard dimsum offering, push cart servers, keeping it old fashion.
Dropping our daughter off at South Station to get a bus back to college, we realized that we hadn't had dim sum in a long time. Both of the places we used to visit are closed now, so we decided to try Empire Garden. The atmosphere is amazing if you like old theaters. The food was fresh and delicious and the service is perfect; many offerings but not overbearing. Very friendly and welcoming staff. Will definitely visit again. ?
The food was actually pretty good but the service was horrendous. They would slam the plates down while giving Chinese people the tea as soon as they sit down because it costs money. This combined with the fact they kept coming pressuring us to order more, won’t be coming back again
Terrible experience... Male server was rude at the very end with our ticket cash out. We felt extremely rushed. Place is very dirty. Needs an upgrade IMMEDIATELY. Drinking water in glass was murky. Food was decent but overall experience is not worth the return. My friends barely ate anything because they did not feel comfortable. Also the smell is horrible