Emperor Garden 穿越

Decent place overall, I'm glad we tried it. Almost everything is family style which I understand is common practice for this type of cuisine but it does make dining a little difficult if you have differing tastebuds than your companions. I appreciated the "American Chinese Food" section of the menu, they know how to captivate all audiences. Our server was nice and accommodating. It wasn't too busy as it was St. Patrick's day so we were one of the few tables but regardless the food came out very quickly and we didn't want for anything all night nor did we ever feel rushed even though we were there until closing.

Very satisfied with the authentic Sichuan dishes. The spice levels were something we really enjoyed. The dry hotpot was a good amount for the price. The service was also fantastic. Alcoholic options were on the higher price side so we avoided. Vibe was great and the restaurant is beautiful.

I was shocked that the menu did not contain more single portion options. I had soup that should have been for a service of 4. The king crab was on the menu for over $500 !!! No other option. It's a beautiful restaurant and the food was delicious but I was the only customer. If they reconsider the menu and possibly create an all you can eat buffet or salad bar they would do a lot better to attract customers.

I had no clue this place would end up being such a stellar find! It’s god great food and it’s beautiful inside, the service is so kind and warm and welcoming. Incredible prices especially at lunch. This place is my new favourite Asian cuisine spot. Who’d have thought! I’ve worked in food industry for over ten years and I whole heartedly recommend. I’ll be back any chance I get. Originally wanted take out but so glad I decided to stay. Ask about bar.

We were very pleasantly surprised with how good the food is at Emperors Garden, given its location inside Crossgates Mall. The first thing that’s important to understand is that this is fairly authentic Chinese food. While they do have a Chinese American Takeout section on their menu (we didn’t order from it), most of the dishes are traditional Chinese cuisine. This means that some dishes have bones and pieces of chili or whole spices that aren’t intended to be eaten. If you aren’t familiar with traditional Chinese cuisine, and if you aren’t adventurous, then maybe stick to the Chinese American section. We ordered pan fried pork dumplings, dry fried squid, mala peanut crispy chicken, and seasoned green bamboo. The pork dumplings were fine, they seemed like they were frozen/commercially made, but everything else was spectacular and well prepared. As other reviews mentioned, the service is a major issue here. Everyone we dealt with was friendly, but nothing seemed to flow smoothly. The food never comes out all at once in a Chinese restaurant, but usually it comes out with enough pacing that the dishes are all enjoyed together. In this case our first entree dish arrived before our rice and our vegetable dish arrived so far after our entrees that we were already done with the meal. All this said, the restaurant is newly opened and hopefully this is just a growing pain and gets resolved as they develop better routines and train staff. It won’t deter us from going back. A final note to management- the menu situation is unnecessarily confusing. The tablets aren’t great and took more work than a paper menu (our server struggled to get them set up and then mine crashed while I was browsing the menu). The organization by cuisine is also inconvenient, most other Chinese restaurants organize by categories like pork, vegetables, rice, noodles, etc. It’s much easier for the diner to plan a balanced meal when you can look at the vegetable section to find a vegetable, rather than have to flip between the different cuisine sections looking for vegetables. Just something to consider 🙂