I came to this joint a few years back. I remember the experience being decent. I had Mandarin chicken that time. I remember being amused at the amount of rice that was served to me, it was served in a ramekin. Service was ok. I wasn't all that impressed and haven't been back since. Well, here we are today. I'm hungry, I was in the mood for Chinese food and this joint is right by me. So, I decided to take my chances and give this joint a shot again. I made my way in and saw that they were busy with quite a few tables. Even though I didn't care for it the first time around, it was nice to see others still supporting our local businesses. Got myself situated at a little table. My server was handling a bigger table but finally got to me. I got my hot tea and lunch ordered. I didn't notice the first time that they have a build your own combo meals. That's such a fun way to be able to try a little of everything. I didn't want to be daring today. I wanted the classics. I ordered pork chow mien, mandarin chicken and fried rice. My plate came out hot and it all looked fabulous! The first thing that caught me eye was the fried rice. The rice had color to it! Most of the fried rice I have had lately has no color to it, this fried rice was properly seasoned. You can see nice bits of char su and onions through out my portion of rice. A nice portion I must add. The char su on top of my chow mien was bright and colorful. The chicken looked nicely fried and properly coated with sweet and sour sauce. My first bite was the Mandarin chicken dipped in hot mustard. That hot mustard is mandatory! Man was it good! The rice was soft and savory. I enjoyed it every much. I let the hard noodles soak up the sauce from the veggies in the chow mien. I normally have to add salt or soy sauce to the veggies but not today. The mix of veggies were flavorful and nicely seasoned. I like that they added cabbage to the veggie mix. Once the noodles softened, it was such a good bite with the veggies. I ate half of my plate and am planning to have the rest for dinner tonight. Honestly, today's meal was a 180 from my first meal. The food was so good! The service was the same though. It was pretty base line service. I am ready to give this childhood classic meal 5 stars but I have yet to try their hot and sour soup. That will be on my next visit, I must try the hot and sour soup cause I'm still in the hunt for the best one in the valley. I'm happy I stopped in today. I'm looking forward to coming back very soon, even if I have to drive clear across town to have it. read more

Joy Garden - Chinese Near Me - Meridian, Idaho

I'm amazed at what some people consider good Chinese food. I'm sorry to say this, but this place is not one of them. Never in my life have I ever walked out of a restaurant until this place. We ordered the egg roll (which is not a typical egg roll), it was huge with a lot of stuff inside it and was so big it could be an entree. That was the "better" item. We also ordered the spicy orange chicken. We could not figure out what parts of the chicken it was from, the meat looked so strange I honestly questioned if it was chicken. The breading was greasy & gross tasting (and I'm not opposed to greasy things). We had also ordered chow main at the same time as everything else, but after receiving our chicken dish & waiting 15 mins, we decided we wanted to just leave at that point. While we were waiting to try to get our check, the chef came out to go to the bathroom & his apron was disgustingly dirty. I'm scared of what the kitchen looked like if he was that dirty. When we got up to pay, we talked to the couple next to us & they agreed the place was terrible but they keep coming there (why?!). Writing this to try to save others from the disappointment (how is this a 3 star avg?). read more

This restaurant needs to be inspected. I don't think it's ever been cleaned. As I am picking up my food for takeout, I watched the cook through the service window and he is handling the food with his bare hands and put it into the to go container, wipe his hands on is dirty apron, then cut up chicken and again uses his bare hands to transfer food to plates. There is so much cross-contamination, hands not being washed in between and with the dirty filthy kitchen it's amazing nobody has gotten extremely sick or died eating here. This has to be the dirtiest restaurant in ada county. read more

DON'T GO HERE. One star is too much. Called and got two entrees for delivery that said they were 12 dollars. I asked specifically if it comes with fortune cookies she said yes. She didn't tell me the total before she hung up, or how long it would be. When it got here the receipt was $47 dollars. I called and said how does that work, she said the delivery FEE WAS 14 dollars. I said 14 dollar delivery fee is crazy, she then replied with "ya well next time you can save yourself that 14 dollars by coming to pick it up yourself" I said or you can inform the customer of how much the delivery fee was when i'm ordering it? Then when I asked about the fortune cookies that weren't there she said I put them in the box. I said well they arent in there, she said okay i'll look at the cameras? Like I would make that up? Totalllllll B word read more

J ust horrible O ne of the worst places to eat. Y ou need to go someplace else. I've come here twice. Twice is too much. First time I ordered appetizer and a meal. I took one bite out of each and paid and left. Second time, the lady was on the phone the whole time and didn't even pay attention. Food was so salty, it have me a headache. I didn't even finish. Two bites and I was done. No more unless you like salty bad food. read more

Joy Garden - Chinese Near Me - Meridian, Idaho

Horrible restaurant! This restaurant is very dirty. Dirty streaked windows. Cobwebs above the door and in window wells. The curtains were dirty and had food stuck to them. The seats are cracked and the tape they used to repair them was peeling. The Chinese lanterns are dusty, carpeting in disrepair. The greeting upon entering was a young woman yelling across the room for us to seat ourselves anywhere we'd like. The young man who was our server was wearing a hoodie and jeans. He took our beverage order. The food: crab pops, they're supposed to be crab Rangoons. There wasn't any crab! They consisted of a quarter tsp of cream cheese and a piece of scallion. The chicken fried rice was soggy. The pot stickers were under cooked. The lemon chicken hardly had any lemon sauce . The egg rolls were huge but dry. The meal was awful. Our check wasn't itemized. This experience cost us $60.00. Within 30 minutes of leaving the restaurant my daughter was in the bathroom vomiting. read more

Just tried Joy Garden as a replacement for Lucky Palace that closed down recently and OMG. Better than Lucky ever was, and their egg rolls are the best ever. $12 for soooo much food. read more

Don't order the Mandarin chicken unless you want orange chicken because that's what I got. And when I told the waitress that's not what I ordered and that I won't eat the orange chicken she told me for 15 years they've been in business here, the Mandarin chicken and orange chicken have been the same thing. I told her we were from out-of-state and had never eaten there before. Another table near us also ordered the Mandarin chicken and complained when they received the orange chicken as well. The waitress didn't even offer to exchange it for something I could eat and basically ignored our table after that, not even offering drink refills. The pork chow mein also had an off taste to it that I couldn't put my finger on, but I couldn't eat that either. The booth seats were very with and all taped up. This was not a pleasant experience at all. read more

I've dined at the Joy Garden at least 3 times in the last year due to its proximity to my work place. I will note that I have tried to eat here at least 2 other times where they were not open at their designated start time or at all for the day. Each time the staff has been friendly, but slow. One day the cook was taking the orders and then going back and cooking the food. My go to is General's chicken and it has always been good. Their food is relatively inexpensive and they have some lunch specials. Would I go out of my way to eat there, definitely not. But the food is good for the value. I have not experienced any type of over-charging that some of the other reviewers have experienced. I would say if you are overly concerned about an older musky ambiance then this is probably not the hole in the wall chinese restaurant for you. read more

Pros- Good parking, convenient location, clean restaurant, fast service. Cons- Tofu available, but hard to locate on menu. Interior needs a design refresh. read more

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The food was delicious! Prices were great and the service was good. Definitely going back again.

Take out order: We decided to try this restaurant as our neighbors always talked about it. And sadly it wasn't our favorite. The food was ok, the menu wasn't as detailed as I thought (I should have asked more questions) we ordered the egg rolls, thinking they were your basic egg rolls but not! they were mini burrito size (which can be great) but they had meat in them and some of our party doesn't eat meat/pork. so that was a bummer cause they went to waste. One of our orders was the honey walnut shrimp and the "battered" shrimp was soggy and not great. Unfortunately, the only thing that was liked by our family was the garden noodles and the egg drop soup. so based on the food alone, we probably will not be returning. When i called to order I was told 20/30 mins for it to be ready, when I showed up 40 mins later, it still wasn't ready, so we waited longer, which would have been fine but there wasn't much of a place to sit to wait. The atmosphere of the place was ok as well but again, was hoping for a little more. read more

The food was way too oily. I tasted oil more than flavor. Tried 4 different entrees and all were 1 star. Service was terrible the waitress didn't even fill up my water glass once or even offer chopsticks read more

4 of us stopped in around 3 on a Sat afternoon.6 other customers.No one payed any attention to us or seated us.Waitress finally took our order.It awhile for food to arrive,one plate at a time,the 4th meal hadnt arrived as the rest of us were almost finished,we went to ask where is the 4th plate ? "Cooking it ".Mandarin chicken and chow mein.Pretty much same as rest of us.So no,not eating here again.However the Mandarin Chicken was great,wonderful crispy coating and very tender. read more

The only good thing was the taste of the food. The service was non existent. We had to ask 3 times for chopsticks... My companion received his meal before I did I think they only have one wok. The waitress never checked to see if everything was good, she dropped off the check without seeing if we needed anything... Including refills... When we were able to get her attention to ask for a refill, she didn't ask if I wanted one as well. The hallway to the bathrooms was not lit at all. I don't think I'll be back especially given looking at the CDC website for food safety inspections. read more

Reviews are right. Good food, large portions, great prices, and terrible service. They only had 3 tables full & it took 15min to get menus, another 10 for water, another 10 to order. 3 meals came out together & the 4th took an additional 20min & a side of rice for a meal that was already dropped off. You'll only get 1 glass of water & the restaurant needs a good deep cleaning, especially up high. Order your food to be picked up & give them an hr. Waitress had very broken English so if you're hard of hearing, good luck. read more

Wow! WORST service we have ever had at any restaurant. The food was actually delicious but the server was so terrible that it pains me to call her a server or waitress. We had no silverware, not once did she return to check on us. We had to go find her at the counter for plates for us. We had no water or anything except 1 serving of tea. We needed boxes at the end and we had to go to the counter and call for her to get us some. It's a shame that such good food was overshadowed by such a terrible, rude person. Again I can't even refer to her as a server or waitress definitely not a host. She was annoyed by our presence and made our meal uncomfortable . If you hate your job then quit . Also she didn't clean the left over plates from the other family that left. And they too had to go find her to get their check and a box for leftovers read more

Slow service, and they don't charge you correctly. They tried to up charge us for soup when it literally says it's included. And they argue about it! Terrible customer service! My soup came cold, and we weren't given plates and forks until we had about 3 of our food plates. read more

I read the review about egg foo yong and I think it's completely wrong. It is so good and so flavorful the gravy is a little salty, but I absolutely love it!! The spicy orange chicken taste like fried chicken with the orange sauce on it. It is so delicious. The prices are so reasonable for the portions that they give you. We are regulars that love joy garden! read more

Sorry, I really wanted to like to food. The egg foo young is made like a deep fried fritter, not sure what style that is but it's very heavy and bland. The other items were all deep fried and the oil was old and made everything taste sour and burnt. Fried rice was decent but it was unable to mask the other flavors. read more

I have been passing by this restaurant for over a few months now and had a curiosity to check them out. It was past lunch prime time so they weren't busy. The food here is pretty delicious and not bad at all with their portions, flavor and price. The place looks like your typical casual diner. Started off with hot house sake and beer. Then for food, we tried out their Chinese specials where you can choose a few items from their selections. - Kung Po Beef, Spicy Orange pork, pork fried rice and pork chow mein. This combo was a lot! All of the food selected were delicious and tasty! Noodles has a great bite to it. Not soft. We also ordered: Shrimp Pea Pod - shrimp and veggies, you can't go wrong if you love shrimp like me. Veggies cooked to perfection and not soft or mushy. Special Fried Rice - I love the variety of ingredients it has in here and delicious! With this much food, we had more left over to bring back with us. This is definitely a place to come back to if I want some Chinese food. Of course, I would want to try other dishes they have on their menu. read more

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Just recently discovered this place after my usually Chinese restaurant closed down. Great classic Chinese American food. It's my new go-to.

There's nothing exceptional about Joy Garden. It's very similar to every other Chinese-American restaurants in the Treasure Valley serving up greasy, over-salted, super unauthentic food (Panda Garden, Golden Star, Mandarin Palace, etc). That being said, the food isn't bad! Just don't expect anything special. I called in an offer for delivery for Combination Dinner No. 1 ($9.05). This included Pork Fried Rice, Mandarin Chicken with Sweet & Sour Sauce, Egg Foo Yong and Fried Shrimp. I was in the mood for a hefty meal so I also included BBQ Pork & Seeds plus Special House Salad ($6.90 for both) to my order. Delivery was speedy for being rush hour. I only waited about 30 minutes and the food arrived still hot! The food tasted just like every other Chinese-American restaurant I've tried but I enjoyed every single bite! The fried rice didn't taste like it had made in grease as old as the sun. It was delicious and a lot of flavor. The egg foo yong, while quite unappealing at first glance, tasted great! Again, very flavorful and freshly made. The chicken and shrimp combined well with the sweet and sour sauce. I love these dinners because you can rotate between choices and every bite is different! A bite of chicken, now rice, and salad, back to chicken, it's so much fun especially when it all tastes good! Overall I would order from Joy Garden again. Yummy food and impressive delivery! read more

Joy Garden - Full plate - Chinese Near Me - Meridian, Idaho

We were there for 3 hours (2.5 before we got any food). At the end they charged me $1.25 upcharge for one of our soups, which I took issue with because a. They never said there was a charge, just "which soup do you want" and b. The soup came 2.5 hrs after we ordered and after most of the food came. I did not even touch it and my wifes soup was cold. So its a really stupid thing to argue over $1.25 on a $102 bill but they stood their ground and argued it, even admitting that they intentionally don't tell you how much the upcharge is. So it cost them their entire tip which I am proud to say I left a big assed zero for, and I am normally a pretty heavy tipper, especially on a holiday night but this is bullshit and I will never be back. read more

Very disappointing experience! Food was pretty good, but service was slow. It was a Friday night. Two employees. Our waitress was the cook as well. They seem to have a lot of to go orders. Counting our party of three, there were two other tables with small parties. It took 20 minutes to get our water. We ordered a family style dinner and were asked if we wanted a crunchy or soft noodle for one of our choices and ordered the soft, not realizing it was an upgrade. She didn't tell us that and our bill was $10.50 more than we expected. When we brought it to her attention, she didn't say anything. We won't return. read more

I have eaten here several times and keep hoping it would get better because I live near by. The food is plentiful; but, not high quality and the worst thing that could easily be corrected, is the amount of sodium used. The food is way too salty. If you want to go lower price/quality, at least go more sweet and sour; not salty. read more

I grabbed a to go order to bring it back to my hotel. It was not at all what I ordered but it was delicious. The fried rice was not good. It was the thing that ruined the meal. It was dry and crunchy rice. The other item was suppose to be Mongolian beef but it was not. It was a noodle dish and was wonderful. read more

Small & nice atmosphere .. Kind and welcoming . Food was great & large portions .. I Relaxed while eating .. Definitely will return for another Great meal .. read more

I have been eating with my daughter and residents of Park Place AL at Joy Garden. The food is the best! The service is always good! We all look forward to eating there every few weeks! Prices are very reasonable! read more

I wish I had read all the reviews.. and the Health Dept report. !! This place is not only filthy on the surface it's violating safe food practices in the kitchen! Yuck! the same thing that they all describe is what we experienced as well. BEWARE. To start.. BAD BAD service. In fact, it's really stretching it to call it "service" service. Horrible inedible food, and being OVERCHARGED. Apparently this place is notorious for padding the guest check. We were overcharged $12. Others here have also been ripped off. Basically robbed. Waited over 5 minutes for the waitress to finish wiping a table before she even waited on us. The place was empty except for us and one other man at a corner table who actually answered my question about do we get waited on or do we order at the cash register. That was ridiculous and rude to have us sit and wait for her to finish wiping a few tables . Waitress barely spoke or understood English. Plain instructions like "just a bowl of noodles" not soup, not vegetables, not meat, just noodles... she didn't understand! I kept trying to explain to her my granddaughter only wants plain noodles then, I ordered moo goo gai pan with slightly underdone vegetables. Leave them a bit crispy. Crisp slightly undercooked vegetables.. is that hard? Must be because I got raw vegetables.. Language barrier ordering the food.. then about 20 minutes later our food arrives. Well, some does. Over the course of about 8 -10 minutes our food trickled in. By the time we got all we ordered the first dish we got was cold. In fact, when the noodles and sweet and sour pork finally made it to our table we then had to wait for a fork and napkin. That's how it arrived. She placed 2 forks on the table and 2 napkins. They weren't wrapped in the napkin, and you got no knife to cut the food. I wanted to ask for extra napkins but couldn't get her attention This food was just as terrible. Had it all been cooked as we requested, if they cut down on the salt (the beef and broccoli was so salty it reminded me of getting ocean water in your mouth) if their sweet and sour sauce didn't look like motor oil and tasted I'm guessing like motor oil, if they either increased portion or lower price ($10 for fried rice with .50 worth of rice and I'll be generous and say another .50 of onion and vegetables) and maybe if they had real waitress who speaks and understands English.. maybe they would have more than 3 people in their restaurant. I asked for boxes because I was tired of being ignored by this so called waitress and later warmed it up for my husbands dinner. He took a few bites and threw his in the garbage. I finally got a chance to eat and I did the same thing. Threw it in the garbage. They overcharged me $10 but I was so frustrated with this place I just paid the bill (it should have been $43 and they charged me $55) and stupid me I still tipped her.. but it went in the trash Unless you don't care about customer service or good food I suggest you find a different Chinese restaurant We will never go back read more

We've been looking for a goid Chinese food restaurant ever since we moved here and I can honestly say we have found our favorite place. The food was spectacular all of the ingredients are fresh and the portions are large. We were only 1 of two couples in the restaurant and felt the service was very slow however the food was worth of the wait we will definitely be back. I highly recommend Joy Garden if you are looking for a great authentic Chinese food. I would also recommend the ginger beef dish which was amazing read more

Joy Garden - Chinese Near Me - Meridian, Idaho

The reviews made us hesitate checking out Joy Garden. Few choices near us and we are tired of Ben's Quik Wok, Panda Express, Red Pavilion, and Rice Works inconsistency. Joy Garden is excellent!! Highly recommend going out of your way to try them. The dining area is out dated otherwise the service and food quality is outstanding! We visited on a busy Friday lunch hour. Our server was solo and working every table like a champ. The most popular dish was Beef Tomato Chow Yuk. We didn't order it but our neighbors did. Our neighbors also said they've never had anything they didn't like. We had appetizer plate, general Taos, sesame chicken, and some other items. We will be back and hope Joy Garden shows consistency! read more

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Love this place. Food is delicious and they deliver to your home. Delivery service arrives promptly. Highly recommend.

Been here a few times The mandarin chicken usually is fabulous but this time the chicken was cut then put in the fryer It was dry and crunchy. Most of the time it is chicken deep fried and then sliced and served with orange sauce meat is still moist with a crispy coating. The fried rice was overcooked and dry But the sweet and sour pork ribs were absolutely like I love them . The original pork chow mein was a little overcooked. But still great flavor . Probably won't get mandarin chicken for awhile read more

The food and portions here are delicious and HUGE!!! We stopped in one night for dinner and couldn't believe how much food we got for $11 each! The service was really good too. Can't wait to get back! read more

Joy Garden - a table with a menu on it - Chinese Near Me - Meridian, Idaho

I was really disappointed with my order - I had ordered the Appetizer Plate and it was cooked with too much oil and very greasy/oily My mouth was filled with the oil and I could not finish the Platter and Had to discard it I was so looking forward to a good nibble and could not stomach the Saturation of OIL soaked in the breading and other items in the Platter read more

DIRTY RESTAURANT!!! Dirty plates from previous customers sat on 5 other tables and in the 35 minutes there not one of them was cleaned up. I ordered the Won Ton War Soup which I never I got. Someone in ordered the Kung Pao Chicken. and they were so stingy with the white rice. The rice came in a little soy sauce dish. Everyone received their food and still 15 minutes later I still had no soup. The restaurant was empty only 1 other customer. As soon as I told the employee I didn't want my soup because everyone else was done she became unfriendly. Wouldn't even do a refill on tea. read more

Our group of 5 felt unwelcome the minute we walked in. The server seemed like he was so bothered by us. Unhelpful with questions on the menu. Egg fu young was cold in the middle making it inedible. The food was ok, nothing special, lacking flavor and colorful veggies. We wouldn't go back and I would not recommend. read more

Place is filthy. The food is actually decent but terrible service. There was a discrepancy on my bill and the owner was extremely rude and dismissive when I asked her about it. She started arguing loudly and making a scene in front of other customers. Made the whole experience extremely uncomfortable. Never again. read more

Terrible food and rude cashier/waiter. The restaurant was very dirty. Tables with plates of food sitting for over and hour. Couldn't find anywhere to sit that didn't have crumbs all over the table. The smell of the food was so bad, I couldn't even take a bite. It looked horrible too.. cashier was extremely rude to me and rushing with my order. This is some of the worst Chinese food I have ever had. Just terrible. read more