Banquet-style Chinese dishes & cart-service dim sum classics served in a cavernous, vintage theater.
Address and Contact Information
Address: 690 Washington St, Boston, MA 02111
Phone: (617) 482-8898
Website: https://empire-garden-boston.com/
Menu Photos
Photo Gallery
Related Web Results
Empire Garden Boston Restaurant Official Website – Menu, Photos …
Discover the culinary delights of Empire Garden Boston Restaurant. Explore our menu, view enticing photos, and read reviews to plan your visit today.
Empire Garden Restaurant in Boston | Atlas Obscura
Dim sum, served in a grand old theater. Boston, Massachusetts. S. Added By. Sofy.
empire garden restaurant in chinatown : r/boston – Reddit
went here for dumplings once and it was pretty bad. not like inedible bad but not good. the vibe is eerie and kind of off. apparently it …
Reviews
Robert
This place is really rundown and kind of gross. The staff were super pushy and the meal I had was cold and really didn’t smell very fresh. I didn’t eat most of it and then on the way out after paying, a woman basically chased me down the staircase saying I didn’t pay. I had to run and get the young waiter and he stated that I paid she didn’t even apologize. She just walked away. The restaurant looks good in photographs, but in person it’s really rundown. The place smells kinda bad and the carpets really need to be replaced. I really wanted to love the place, but I’m sorry it was really sad and kinda depressing.
… moreBobo Antares
Another failed Chinese restaurant in Boston. Food was terrible. The seafood noodle only had 4 pieces of shrimp, few scallops and lots of fish cake and vegetable. Taste was under par. Not recommended at all. They are even confused with their own name. We saw both Empire and Emperor
… moreLo
Good Cantonese food, some dishes can be improved like the fried rice and longevity noodles and the sweet sour pork chop. Very big restaurant. I’m assuming dim sum is more popular than dinner service.
… moreCourtney Grant
Went for lunch. Dim sum was excellent. Everything was very fresh, hot, and delicious. Only detractor was the carpeting, tables, and chairs were a bit run down and the entryway/stairwell had a bit of a smell. Otherwise we definitely plan on returning!
… moreOusten Singh
One of the only Dim Sum places that serve on carts everyday not just the weekends. We went on a Monday. Food delicious as always and the people are very nice. I recommend. It’s also not too far from parking garage.
… moreJess Y
Beautiful restaurant with delicious food! It is classic dim sum so you can’t go wrong!
… moreJonny Locke
The food itself is decent and some items were really good, though you certainly could get better dim sum elsewhere in Chinatown. However, this restaurant is super suspicious and provides poor service.
Price per item is high, and **the prices are listed nowhere inside the restaurant that we saw and the itemized receipt showed every single item was charged higher than the website said**. I’d love to show our receipt, but **our server chased us down as we left to take back the itemized receipt** and the customer copy was not itemized, just showing the total. Speaking of, instead of receiving a check then paying, **I only ever received a check with the total after I paid**.
On the website, the medium dim sum is listed at $4.15 to $4.65 per order; we were charged $6.50 per order we had. The Large dim sum is not listed on the site; we were charged $7.25 per order. The Kung Pao chicken listed at $16.45 was charged as $18.99. The tea is listed as a complimentary inclusion; we were charged $6 for one small pot. We certainly would not have drank the tea if we knew it was an extra charge instead of complimentary, which it is advertised as.
These overcharges took what was supposed to be a $45-50 ticket into over $70 pre tip!
As for the service, the ingredients are poorly communicated to the customer. We asked for an order of pork dim sum and asked specifically for one without shrimp, but received a order of pork and shrimp dim sum. My wife is allergic to shrimp and had to drink a large serving of water to breathe freely after consuming one dumpling.
All in all, even if the food was the best I ever had, I’d stay away due to the shady practices and poor service.
… morePrice per item is high, and **the prices are listed nowhere inside the restaurant that we saw and the itemized receipt showed every single item was charged higher than the website said**. I’d love to show our receipt, but **our server chased us down as we left to take back the itemized receipt** and the customer copy was not itemized, just showing the total. Speaking of, instead of receiving a check then paying, **I only ever received a check with the total after I paid**.
On the website, the medium dim sum is listed at $4.15 to $4.65 per order; we were charged $6.50 per order we had. The Large dim sum is not listed on the site; we were charged $7.25 per order. The Kung Pao chicken listed at $16.45 was charged as $18.99. The tea is listed as a complimentary inclusion; we were charged $6 for one small pot. We certainly would not have drank the tea if we knew it was an extra charge instead of complimentary, which it is advertised as.
These overcharges took what was supposed to be a $45-50 ticket into over $70 pre tip!
As for the service, the ingredients are poorly communicated to the customer. We asked for an order of pork dim sum and asked specifically for one without shrimp, but received a order of pork and shrimp dim sum. My wife is allergic to shrimp and had to drink a large serving of water to breathe freely after consuming one dumpling.
All in all, even if the food was the best I ever had, I’d stay away due to the shady practices and poor service.
Sweet Kitty
It is surely a out-of-date dim sum restaurant.
I could imagine its splendor in the past through its still gorgeous decoration. However, the food selections were very limited and the quantity and taste were just so so.
The service was so poor. There was no one at the front desk. After waiting for more than 10 minutes, we hesitated and just walked in the eating area by ourselves.
The waitresses took advantage of the customer’s inexperience and ignorance to sell dim sum as hard as they could.
My parents have no previous experience eating in this kind of restaurant. They didn’t know that the final price was counted by the number of plates on the table. The waitresses immediately put many many small plates in front of them as soon as they sat down. Apparently, the food were much more than two or three days consumption for my parents.
It made us feel so bad!
There were about 10 kinds of dim sums available. I asked other “signature” dim sums mentioned in the previous reviews by others. But none of them was available.
The price was cheap. This is why I rate 2 stars here.
… moreI could imagine its splendor in the past through its still gorgeous decoration. However, the food selections were very limited and the quantity and taste were just so so.
The service was so poor. There was no one at the front desk. After waiting for more than 10 minutes, we hesitated and just walked in the eating area by ourselves.
The waitresses took advantage of the customer’s inexperience and ignorance to sell dim sum as hard as they could.
My parents have no previous experience eating in this kind of restaurant. They didn’t know that the final price was counted by the number of plates on the table. The waitresses immediately put many many small plates in front of them as soon as they sat down. Apparently, the food were much more than two or three days consumption for my parents.
It made us feel so bad!
There were about 10 kinds of dim sums available. I asked other “signature” dim sums mentioned in the previous reviews by others. But none of them was available.
The price was cheap. This is why I rate 2 stars here.
Scouser1965
Really nice setting inside an old theater that still has a lot of the original features on view.
We ordered Dim Sum and found everything fresh and delicious although a couple of dishes were unavailable.
… moreWe ordered Dim Sum and found everything fresh and delicious although a couple of dishes were unavailable.
Kimbodian Speaks
My family and I have been going here for years. It’s a huge restaurant on the second floor; there is an elevator. They’ll seat you in a massive dining room with high ceilings; looks like it used to be an opera back in the day. During lunchtime, they have dim sum in a push cart. Each cart has different types of dim sum items. A few of my favorites are, fried taro balls, shu mai, pork bao buns, shrimp in flat rice noodles, shrimp dumplings, and chicken feet. I have tried their congee (rice porridge) and it was bland. They give you complimentary jasmine tea. Pro tip: if you like spicy, ask for the chili oil. Service was always good and fast. We’ve been when they stopped serving dim sum; we had general Tso chicken, fried rice, and crab rangoons, the food was decent. The cocktails were strong too. Overall, always a good experience and our go to spot for dim sum.
… more