Empire Garden Restaurant

We decided to check out Chinatown, and stumbled in. Up dirty stairway– this cavernous former theatre was completely empty at 7 pm on a Monday. I sat down, my wife went to the washroom and came back saying «let’s get outta here»
Urine on toilets and walls. There was no way she would eat here. No wonder the place was empty.
Needless to say, we have no review on the food, but I’m surprised the health board allows this place to stay open.

As I walked in trash and garbage were every where pretty much a trashy place. People were rude. They slammed dishes on the table and gave me a dirty look every time they served. Some food dish were definitely cold. What kind of dim sum restaurant if I have to asked for more food and soy sauce? I definitely felt they talked behind my back. In and out within 20 minutes. DO NOT EAT HERE when there are so many other options!!!

Rating: 2.5÷5.
My friends chose this place for breakfast:
— Décor: 3.5÷5; The highlight was the charming and clean theatrical décor: high ceiling, chandelier, huge TV screen, etc.
— Food: ²⁄₅; We shared a vast array of dim sums family style. All dim sums on carts were standard. Each serving was three or four pieces.
The dim sums with shrimp were bland. The rice wraps were too thick.
The large portions of standard food were $ 11 pre-​tip per guest.
— Service: ³⁄₅; our party of six was greeted immediately by a hostess. We were seated immediately at 10:30 a.m. this Sunday.
It was challenging to park. Despite our best efforts, we ended up at the pricey Stanhope private parking. It was conveniently located a short walk from the restaurant. $ 25 parking fee for the $ 11 pre-​tip per guest for the food wasn’t a good ratio…

Empire is a large restaurant that used to be a Chinese theatre. You can definitely see the that when you go up the stairs and enter the restaurant. It is located on one end of Chinatown (opposite the Chinatown gate) — easy to find. Parking, however, can be difficult in the area. I would recommend parking farther (like by Mass Pike Towers or Shawmut) and walk over or take public transportation.
The overall restaurant looks pretty run down, but you can tell it is part of old Chinatown. When you go in, the space is very open and large. There is plenty of seating, especially earlier in the morning — a lot of older Chinese men and women eat in the early mornings, before the normal dimsum and lunch rush. The food is great. The dimsum (Chinese tapa-​like style food) comes around on pushcarts and you can ask or see what is available. It is definitely my favorite dimsum place in Chinatown — I think the food tastes good, is made correctly and in good portions. I would normal recommend any out of town friend to this spot. However, I may be bias because it’s my grandpa’s favorite place too!

Empire Garden is one of the best dim sum options in Boston. The converted old theater interior is a really fun space, and the dim sum cart service on the weekends has a fairly wide variety of options.

Very disappointed … Went for lunch today and service was terrible. My party had a reservation for 1 pm and we weren’t seated until nearly 1:40 pm. We ordered a few dishes, and the chow mien was brought out right away but we didn’t receive any thing else we ordered for nearly 40 minutes when they brought our one more item. After another ten minutes we went up to a server and cancelled the rest of our order. Extremely disappointing, will never be back.

I’ve been going here for 5 years and when I first started going, I would have given it 4 stars. In the last 3 years it seems to be in steady decline, which is too bad because the ambience of the old theater is great and the food was great too! These days it seems like a lot fewer carts, food that isn’t what it used to be and sub-​par service. The upshot is that it’s not nearly as crowded as it used to be on weekends.

Wow this place has definitely gone downhill for sure. I remember how crowded it used to be 5 – 6 years ago. How sad (but not really for the reasons below)
Food– lacks flavor. I only saw two carts going around for the same two-​three items they serve. We wanted to order noodles and rice dishes off the menu but apparently they don’t serve that until «after 12:30».
Service– TRASH. The real problem I had was with the lady (i think she might be the owner) at the front desk. I walked up to pay and she looked up at me and looked back down on her phone texting away. I stood there for another minute until she finally took my card, swiped it and then went back to her phone texting/​scrolling through pictures. She wasn’t even trying to hide it.
Obviously they’re doing SOOOOO WELL they don’t need to ensure customer satisfaction to stay in business!
Please don’t even bother or waste your money here. I’m looking forward to the day they go out of business. It’s a beautiful space and its unfortunate that its under such poor ownership.

Cool place. Full of locals. Great tasting food. Love the dim sum carts going around. You’re only charged for what you select from them. Lots of variety. Can order from menu as well.

I would like to start out with the food, it’s pretty decent but a little on pricy side. The service was whatever, but what mad me mad was the waiter that calculated my bill! He came back with my change and informed me that he doesn’t have small bills and demanded I should put $ 4 tip on my $ 20 change! At first I was confused but later got what he was trying to say! He literally demanded 15% tip on his bad service and if he doesn’t have change for me why does he even ask for $ 4 minimum out of 20 $? I seriously does not get what he mean by that! I was mad it seems like he wanted the full 20 $ tip since he doesn’t have change and if I also don’t have change I’ll be forced to put the whole 20 $ as tip! It’s unbelievable for a place to demand tip with bad service! I will never ever step into this place again for their food is not that great plus horrible servers (bloodsucker) no thanks! I rather go elsewhere!
Ps: I have to add this his gesture of not letting go my change made me feel and assured that he wants $ 20 tip! He literally waited until I put down $ 4 he demanded and grabbed it off my hand and left! I’ve never been to a horrible place like this before w this type of service!

Located in an old theater, which is pretty awesome décor, Empire Garden does a pretty fair job at dim sum, with all the standard fair dim sum foods of dumplings, chicken feet, egg quiches, and all assortment of rice paper dough dishes.
I will say I really enjoyed their tripe. Like the trip was really good. But in terms of everything else, it was quite standard, and satisfied my asian hunger cravings.

Came pretty early for dim sum on a weekday with the parents and friends. The restaurant only opened up about half their space. The push cart ladies came by pretty quickly and we ordered all our regular dim sum goodies. Ugh! wish our friends picked another restaurant to eat. The food was not good. The skin on the shrimp dumplings were really thick and chewy. The chicken feet and steamed spare ribs lacked flavor. Those were the only dishes I managed to try before I just let everyone else finish what we ordered. I give the food 1 star. We did end up eating there for over 2 hours and the waiters never once pushed us to leave and constantly refilled our tea. That’s the only reason for the extra star. There are better dim sum options in Chinatown. I’d go to those other places before I choose to come back here again.

Really liked this place. Went in for a late (late) lunch at around 3 pm — and they still had a bunch of carts of dimsum. Wait staff were super good — and we had 10+ dishes for our starving party of 5 within just a few minutes.
The dimsum was really good — comparable with some of the best places in Philly and NY. The place looks grand — the ceilings are amazing.
Would definitely go back to this place when we are craving dimsum

I had dim sum over weekend, the food is average, inside a old theater is unique, a good experience. However the food is just ok. China Pearl and Hei La Moon are better and more choice.

Sigh. Having lived on the west coast my whole life, dim sum just isn’t quite the same here in Boston. But having said that, even when the dim sum’s not the best, it’s still pretty damn good. My girlfriend was visiting for the weekend so we came here for a lazy Sunday brunch. I liked the atmosphere a lot actually, it used to be an old theater and the whole restaurant feels very secluded once you’re inside.
Their menu includes all the essentials of dim sum fare. We ordered about 5 dishes, felt stuffed afterwards, and paid $ 20 for the whole meal. Can’t argue with that!
Overall I think 3 stars is about right, but nevertheless I would gladly come back here whenever I get my next dim sum craving.

If you are seeking out a good Oriental experience, then this restaurant will exceed your expectations.
The eatery is located in an old theatre in the center of the Chinatown district and is easily accessible by the MBTA’s orange line. Upon entry, you are greeted by one of the restaurant’s friendly staff members. Upon my several visitations, I have never experienced a wait that exceeds thirty minutes, even on the most crowded days.
As for the food, numerous options of American Chinese style foods are offered at very reasonable prices. I ordered steak cubes with vegetables along with a side of pork and shrimp dumplings and a Sprite (refills are free)! The steak was very flavorful and well seasoned, and the vegetables were a nice addition to the meal.
I would recommend this location to EVERYONE. You won’t be disappointed!

Not sure if food quality has gone down. The recent few times that I’ve been here, service has been slow, and the food is just alright. I like a lot of the dumplings and baos at dim sum, but every time I get these from Empire, they stick to the paper lining and everything just falls apart. They’re pretty skimpy on the sauces they use too. The past couple of times, I’ve left here hungry unfortunately. Sometimes I’m sitting at my table waiting for them to push the carts around, but I see a bunch of the servers standing idly around.

Giving this place 3 stars because I wouldn’t quite say «YAY I’m a fan!» with the experience we had. Woke up Sunday morning at The Revere and found our way here. The entrance and the stairs that led up the restaurant smelled like moth balls, which worried me, but they were reminiscent of good old Ocean Seafood back at home, so I was also hopeful.
This place is SO pretty! In an odd, old school, asian, theatrical way. It used to be an old theater before it was converted and that was obvious. I loved it!
Service: No bueno. The carts were barely coming around and I just had to be THAT ASIAN WOMAN that would wrangle down the carts and have them come over to us. Pretty typical for a dim sum place. The women who pushed the cart also had no idea what I was saying. «Shao mai?» «OK!» «How long?» «COOKING!» «5 minutes?» «5 ORDER!» «No… just two orders»
Sticky rice: Good!
Pork ribs: 5 stars! These are one of the best pork rib dishes I’ve had at a dim sum place
Siu Mai/​Shao Mai: MEH, really tasted like the ones you can microwave, plus the skin just came right off
Har Gao: TOOK FOREVER AND 3 YEARS FOR THEM TO MAKE THESE… unfortunately since they took so long to bring these out to us, I was already full and couldn’t eat them
White rice paper with the wittle shrimps and sweet sauce inside: Sorry, I never know what these are called. The rice paper tasted a little stale, but they had good sauce so imma let this one slide.
All in all, I would be back if I needed dim sum in Boston, but I wouldn’t go here without first scoping out the other places on Unilocal

When it comes to dim sum, Empire Garden is a good, middle of the road kind of place. It’s interestingly located in a repurposed theatre and as such, it looks absolutely beautiful (albeit a little dated) inside.
We came in around lunch time on a Sunday morning and as was expected, this place was packed. However, we were still seated fairly quickly. The food also came out quickly. We got a bunch of items, including shumai, rice noodle rolls, sticky rice, turnip cakes, and fried dough (forget what it was called). While they were good here, it wasn’t a revelatory experience like some dim sum places I’ve been to in other places.
The tea here was really on point though. Delicate, fragrant, and went perfectly well with the dim sum.
It’s probably a 3.5 star restaurant. I wouldn’t mind going back if my friends were going… but I also wouldn’t mind checking out other places as well.

I was somewhat disappointed when I came here.
Friend picked this place and I thought why not since I’ve always walked by it but when I walked in, I thought I was apart of a Rush Hour scene.
Food was okay and nothing spectacular. Pork spareribs were interestingly flavored with a dark black pepper sauce.
I WAS REALLY DISAPPOINTED THAT THERE WAS NO TURNIP CAKE!!! WHY?! :(
Prices on the other hand were fair. Around $ 10 total each person in my group.
Atmosphere wise, it’s a nice old theater that they’re using but it definitely needs an update on the décor.