Emerald Chinese Cuisine Reviews

The first time we went there the food was great. We had a great time and tasty food. The second I went to do take out and the food was awful. I also did not realize how expensive this place is. Vegetarian chow mein for $16? A whole ginger chicken for $26? A Thai Tea for $5? Why don't they just rob me?

We waited about an hour for a table for two. Just made our table and ordered our food in time, dim sum expired at 3:00 p.m. and transitioned to dishes only. Had dim sum dishes, and one noodle dish. Two issues: one was poop on the floor of the only sit-down stall in the men's room. I had to spend 10 minutes afterward to clean off the bottom of my shoes. I alerted one of the wait staff, he was so busy I don't think he did anything about it. The second was that the server was very grouchy...even for Chinese restaurant standards she was very curt. I understand that as one of the few restaurants open on Christmas Day they were smashed with customers, but you would think they'd know that and plan for it. She mellowed out by the time we finished our meal and was even pleasant as we were leaving (and it slowed down considerably by then), but no excuse to be so huffy when you know you are in the customer service business.s Food was great, saved them from a one-dot rating. Loved the shrimp dim sum, noodles were great.

I had heard a lot about it, but I have never had the chance to go until last night. I was amazed by the quality of the food, the service and the size of the place. Also something that it is a little strange in San Diego, it closes late at night, so you can get there after the movies or a nice time spent with your partner/family/friends and keep on with it. The area is not the best in town, but it still is worth it. Try the duck !!!!!

They are open for business and again one of the best place to get dimsum in San Diego. The food taste good and there are plenty of choices. The best time to visit is on lunch time, their lunch special is great.

Nothing too fancy but very good authentic Chinese food with plenty of choice of traditional Dim Sum. Including a great selection of Premium tea with my favorite Chrysanthemum. The service is fast and attentive which is always a plus for your average Chinese place. You receive a card with several Dim Sum options fried, non fried food that allows to cover your basic rapidly and order from a menu instead of waiting for a cart to come by. The food is fresh prepared a la minute. My son loved the deep fried sesame balls! Some of my favorite include the shrimp rice rolls, the Fish Congee with Lettuce. The Steamed Shanghai Pork Dumpling are also decent but I have had much better ones in New York. The stuffed eggplant are really great. Overall a very positive experience with good service. One of the waiter helped us packing the rest of the food in boxes which was also very helpful!

Since the remodel have been in twice to be fair. This visit, on a Sunday, we were almost totally ignored. We were seated after waiting only about 10 minutes. The waitress handed us a dim sum menu and a pencil and left. No water, no tea, nothing.Another server with a cart offered us a pork dish which we accepted but did not eat since we needed our tea or water and chili to mix with soy. We waited another 10 minutes and not a single person would even look at our way. They would walk by and not look. We tried to get their attention. But to no avail. Once we got up someone came by and asked if there was an issue. I asked for a manager. I was sent to a cashier where I asked for a manager and was ignored at first until the server at our table said something in Chinese. She then looked at me and asked if there was an issue. At our last visit I met one of the managers and I asked for him. She ignored my request and asked if she could help us. At this point my wife and I decided to leave. I explained what had happened and that we had decided to leave. Asked to please not leave but we had made our minds up and said that we felt that we had been ignored and that we were leaving to visit another dim sum restaurant just down the street that has always been good to us. What was nice is that at Jasmine Restaurant, which we had not visited in about a year, While being seated , one of their managers came over shook my hand and welcomed us back. He mentioned it was nice to see us after so long. We don't think we'll be back to Emerald after being ignored.

My husband and I love dim sum and have tried several restaurants in Las Vegas and California, as well as in Vancouver. Of all of the places we have tried, Emerald takes the prize! There will be a wait on Sunday for lunch, but it is well worth it! This Dim Sum restaurant has the biggest selection that we have ever seen! And coming from Las Vegas, we expected the prices to be more expensive, but were pleasantly surprised to see our bill was about $10 less that what we would have spent in Vegas! The service was really nice. We didn't see chow mein on the carts, so we asked a waitress and she personally went and brought them out fresh for us! Everything was super fresh and hot. The place was very clean and the food was exceptional! Now we have a favorite Dim Sum place for our San Diego trips and will certainly be back!!!

Pretty tasty dim sum, though the language barrier is an issue almost every time we go. It gets very busy, so go early to avoid the rush, or be ready to wait.

Great food, instant gratification and a lot of people. Mt wife and I come here often for the great dim sum.

We went with another couple for the lobster special. it was $10 for a lobster dinner as long as you bought a cocktail or craft beer. We also ordered rice, pot stickers,and spring rolls. The food was OK, but we had great fun with the staff. For whatever reason we all got into entertaining interaction, which was great fun. My experience was not the same as recent reviewers.

I've traveled the US quite a bit and take pride in being positive 95% of the time but this place may not get my best review. I've enjoyed Dim Sum for 30 years, but the service & high price takes alot of the enjoyment out of this place. I ate by myself for $30 and was still hungary. Though the recent remodel was done well, they need to lower prices & get friendlier quickly. The food is very good. This was my second time there.

I ate there at lunch today. I almost swallowed a half piece of rubber band in my dimsum. I showed the manager the other half of the rubber band, she took it away and brought it to their cook. I asked for it back, she said she threw it away. Very awful customer service--maybe because I don't speak any chinese. The manager could only say "sorry" without meaning it, she even looked mad at me for complaining. Who knows what else do they put in their dimsum!

New remodel!! Very pricey for Chinese food. Below average service. 95% of my reviews are great, menu hard to follow. I had lunch for $28. Not sure I will go back. Of course the Dim Sum was great!!

The food here is second rate and extremely expensive. We got a dish that was so gummy and bad that we refused to pay for it. The server said that we had to pay , but finally a manager (?) who actually understood us said he would take it off the bill. You never know how much you are paying for each item and you don't really know what it is because the servers don't speak English. If you are vegetarian, DO NOT go to Emerald thinking that it is a good choice. There are very few dishes that you can eat that don't have meat. (One was the gummy mess!) I ended up ordering a noodle dish off the menu which was only ok, not great and all it had were noodles and very few vegetables; it cost over $15!! Never again!

had a few items from the dim sum menu and it was delicious. good service to compliment it. well designed interior.

My girl friend and I went to the remodeled Emerald. According to AAA, it was the first Hong Kong Chinese restaurant in San Diego when it first opened. My friend was born in Hon Kong. We had a delightful time and for a modest price. We were pleased with the quality of the food and came away quite happy. The tea was hot and fresh, the custard tarts were hot, and the food fresh and hot as well.

First of all, the food itself is not that bad. But the staff is just disinterested and service is just poor. After we finished our meal, we noticed that one item was missing. We waited and waited and finally, we asked for the check and asked the waiter to cancel the order. They would not. They brought over the dish (Chinese vegetable) which was cold. The waiter had the nerve to say that they had just cooked it. When we showed it to him, he stated that it is served that way... Please don't insult our intelligence by trying to say that Chinese broccoli in oyster sauce is served cold. Or something that has been sitting on the counter for the past 30 minutes is freshly cooked. Congratulations, they just got my vote for one of the worst restaurants I've been to this year. So sad since this place used to be pretty good.

Nice recent remodel, great selection off menu makes this a place to enjoy. Not cheap to eat here. Located on the edge of China Town's places to eat.

Really fun for dim sum.

Good service and the restroom is a lot cleaner than the other Chinese restaurant!!

I do not know the name of the fish, they fried the whole flounder, then removed the loins but left them in place (I assume to help those that are not familiar with eating fish) garnished with barely stir fried crunchy veggies. Outstanding, awesome. Service could have been better but the food more than made up for it. I went on a weekday night and the place was at 10-15% capacity. Not the last time I am going but I am afraid I am not going to experiment and I will get the same dish.

It was remodeled recently, so decided to have a birthday party hoping better food and service, but ended up with full of disappointment. Prices went up 30-40%, but service was worse than before. Servers were really annoying by pushing high-priced food, alcohols over and over even we refused the drinks. My favorite duck dish was supposed to cut at the table, but prepared at the kitchen with less pieces. The server did not even try to listen to our complaints about it. Beef with asparagus was served with few stems of asparagus. It was rip-off! Emerald ruined my B-Day.

The food is not bad, but not too great as well. But if you are craving for a good dim sum, this place is not bad at all.

I found the staff friendly and the food tasty and fresh. I am not an expert in Chinese but it was a pleasant experience to dine there.

A must try if you love Chinese food, its pictures in the menu appear smaller than the actual size. 👌

These is the best chinese restarurant I have try in San Diego. Although I stay in down gaslamp hotel, is worth it to take a taxi to go there. Dim sum, fired noodles, empress chicken are delicous. Staffs are very polite and efficient. I will come back!

We agree with the August 11th reviewer. We (my wife and I) were regulars at Emerald, but hadn't been since the remodel was completed. The food was still excellent and the service good, but prices were now higher, selection far more limited, and, worst of all, no carts! The atmosphere was just not what it used to be. We hope Emerald will bring back the carts, but until then we'll, I'm afraid, no longer be regulars there.

Spacious. Quick seating. Wide variety options on carts and on menu. Go with a large group, so can enjoy as many of selections as you can.

Restaurant is too big for personal meal service. Most of the foods are too salty for good health, and others are too fatty.

Chinese cooking is all about 'Wok Hei'. The essence of this technique of cooking has never been perfected by any other nation; that is the use of very high temperature with little oil to break down the tissues of the ingredients and release the molecules of the aromatic elements. This is all done in a very short time so as not to over cook and kill the ingredients' natural flavour and texture. It is then served to the customers while the release of the aroma and heat are on-going. This makes the so call 'Fusion cuisine' ltaste like it had been left in the fridge and forgotten for a day. Emerald's cooks have done the Wok Hei cooking technique justice and for those with discerning taste, this is the place to eat. For the recently initiated ones, the servers will be glad to suggest the right choices to suit one's palate. The quality of food was very good and fresh. It has to be in order to ascertain the right Wok Hei. The service was warm and efficient. The portions were generous. Overall experience of the dining was very pleasant and enjoyable. Definitely will re-visit again next time in town.

Menu is not as good as it was before they started limiting it, but food still very good. Always enjoy going here. They have a sister restaurant (The Pearl) in Rancho Bernardo which we also like a lot.

The best and most consistent dim sum in San Diego, they have great seafood options. The earlier the better here and at the sister restaurant Pearl. Try the soy sauce noodle, it seems to be a favorite!

We were disappointed as most of the food wasn't very hot, and some of the sauces thst typically accompany dim sum (e.g. oyster sauce with turnip cake, vinegar & ginger with Shanghai soup dumplings) weren't provided, and servers were not attentive or around to request them. We were also charged $15 for a teapot for 5 people.

My family went to Emerald for our dinner in Christmas. We had a reservation and everything. As soon as we sat down we asked if they were out of anything. We ordered the Peking Duck, the reason we went there, before anything else knowing it often takes longer and wanting to be reasonable and accommodating. Well we got the rest of our food and waited and waited and waited. Finally after an hour and a half passed, we confronted the manager. Basically they admitted to giving our duck away to another table and had "run out". No apology was offered. They never planned on telling us. We had been sitting, having finished the other food, waiting in the duck that wasn't coming for 25 minutes (entertaining a toddler too!). The manager offered to comp our drinks...which we had none. He then proceeded to tell us that there was nothing he could do for us. As we were packing up to leave, out rolls a duck, and the manager sends it away to another table. NEVER EVER GOING BACK. My family of 8 won't patronize a restaurant that lies to and disrespects customers.

Went there for lunch hoping to order orange beef off a lunch menu, but they only offered dimsum. I was told I could order off the regular menu if I would like, but after reviewing the prices ($17 for an entree at lunch), I ordered spring rolls and Shui Mail. Both were delivered cold after a long wait! The spring rolls probably would have been good if served warm, but the Shui Mail was not flavorful (and doubt it would have been even if served warm). The service was slow and the staff was not friendly. When I ask if I could pay my bill, someone took my money, but didn't return. I had to "hunt down" the person that took my tab and money and then was told to proceed to the cashier. Not sure why they didn't just tell me to do that in the first place rather than making me wait an additional 10 min. It was not a pleasant experience and I will not return.

Did not go for Dim Sum and Dim Sum ends at 3. Menu is more traditional then a american chinese restaurant. They seat 200 in one big room. Lo Mein ginger very oily. Cod filet ok. Roast duck again nothing special. Corn soup not up to standard. Not worth another trip. Staff was attentive

Very different from the normal Chinese Restaurant where you might go to get take-out. The menu here is extensive, very extensive, and offers a very wide range of items, many of which I had never heard of before, which, of course, are the best ones to try. We started with Shrimp Egg Rolls and, of the items we tried, these were our favorite and the best. The serving includes 4 of them, and they are delicious. We also had Pork Shiu Mai, Delux Shrimp Shui Mai and the Fried Sticky Rice. I did not care for the sticky rice because, to me, it tasted like it had been cooked in grease, but the other items were good. We also tried both of the deserts they offered, the Mango Pudding which was nice but not outstanding and the Creamy Egg Bun which really was good. Service was attentive and pleasant, but seemed rushed and like they were rushing us. In fact, before we had even been seated, the server was asking for our drink order. Prices seemed reasonable.

I've been here often. They have ok dim-sum!

I had read about Emerald Seafood Restaurant 3709 Convoy Street, Suite 101 San Diego several times and expected great things from them. There were four of us and we ordered the pu-pu platter ($18.00) and was given a flaming pot over which to cook our own pork (8 pieces), had 2 spring rolls, 2 pieces of breaded shrimp and 4 won tons (cold). At this price I really didn't expect to have to cook my own pork, but it tasted fine when it was finally done. We ordered peking duck which is for two people - in two courses, the first is the skin sliced thin served on top of steamed bun that sort of looks like a taco with cilantro, green onion and duck sauce. The second course was the duck meat diced in a nice light sauce served wrapped in lettuce leaves. I believe that this was $36 for both dishes. One of our party ordered sweet & sour pork which came out not very crispy and the bite I had didn't seem cooked thoroughly. The carrots, onions and pineapple were great. Another dish was kung pao chicken - very hot! (we were warned). We were told that all dishes were ala carte - did not even come with rice so we ordered chicken fried rice which was very good. The dishes took forever to come out - we didn't get the rice until the 3rd dish, Service was ok but I think that if we were Chinese we would have gotten much better service (as evidenced by the large table of Asians near us). The waitress made a point of mentioning that the tip is split between all staff and then looked at the final bill to see how much we gave (15%). I wonder if we would have been allowed out of there if we gave any less- half joking. Overall I am disappointed but am interested in perhaps going back to try their dim sum...maybe that's better.

Always good and fresh. Great place to get a quick lunch or enjoy a long visit. Restaurant is quiet and service is great.

Emerald Chinese Cuisine is one the oldest & better chinese restaurants in San Diego. Located in Kearny Mesa area which has 2 or 3 Asian restaurants per block.Chinese, Japanese, Korean & Vietnamese . Most are all quite good. We prefer Emerald although the service is sometimes slow because it is so busy. The space is very large with a huge fishtank to pick what you would like. We have been going to Emerald for many years and always have a deicious dining experience. Weekdays they also have Dim Sum lunch. See you at Emerald.

Okay, so I am not Chinese and didn't grow up eating Chinese food. Maybe someone else can speak to the authenticity of the cuisine here. But for me, it doesn't get any better! Order the green been plate and a plate of the beef rice noodles! So good and with an appetizer (we had spring rolls), there is enough to feed four people! Without drinks, our bill was $37.... good price, good food, check it out!

My daughter and I went to this restaurant upon a recommendation from a friend; went Saturday evening. We were seated quickly, but then sat there for about 20 minutes until someone gave us menus - there were only 4 tables occupied. We finally ordered, and then noticed others being seated about 15 minutes after we ordered; then started noticing the others getting their orders, we still had nothing. After 45 minutes of NOTHING, we finally decided we were going to leave and go somewhere else; just as we told the waiter, they brought one of the dim sums we ordered, then about 10 minutes later another - finally stopped paid for our 3 small dim sums and left about 90 minutes after we arrived - we went elsewhere to eat.

After reading the reviews and finding ourselves in San Diego for a few hours (80 miles from home) we decided to have dim sum at this restaurant. First impressions, the rest rooms were appalling and could do with some renovation, the ceilings of the whole place could do with total replacement filthy dirty. On to the service, one or two waitresses were somewhat attentive but overall service was quite quite bad and that is with 2 Cantonese natives in the group ! On to the Dim Sum, so very disappointed, the food was cold, flavorless and overall just bad. We spent $ 80 on 4 people for Dim sum overpriced for the appalling food that we received. Maybe we are more critical because we are Cantonese and expect real food not food made for the mass American market You can always tell a good dim sum restaurant from their sui mai and there's was bad. The only positive note was that for a Chinese restaurant serving dim sum it wasn't too noisy like most of them can get !! We can recommend a place close to Irvine where the service is excellent, ambiance great and the food is fantastic and price and variety great. it is called the King Lobster Palace in Orange, close to Anaheim.

Glad we went with a larger group of people who had been here before. Our friends made reservations in one of the back rooms. We had 15 people. My mistake was in the ordering. I wanted to try lots of different things. I'm not afraid of much. But the menu says like 1,2,3,4. I'm thinking pieces. Well, it was servings. So 2 orders of 3 or 4 pieces. Anyway, we left with a lot of food! We had a whole pig, which will make great tacos later, and even jelly fish. I didn't know you could eat that. It was served chilled, like a seaweed salad. They give you real chop sticks, not the disposable wood ones. Problem for this white person is that they are kinda slippery! I asked for a fork lol sorry! Oh, parking is a nightmare too. Good luck if you have a big truck like we do!

We went here to satisfy our dimsum cravings after years of not going. We were surprised that the dimsum carts were replaced and waiters just got our orders. Sadly, the quality of the dimsum have suffered with the changes. It no longer tastes like truly authentic Cantonese dimsum. And we were really surprised that we spent quite a lot for just a few dishes . Wouldn't go back unless had no other choice.

Dim sum is all about the carts, the bustle, the discovery. The revamp at Emerald sadly has taken all that and replaced it with a 'picture menu', cocktail bar driven concept where the quality of the food has plummeted and the price of the food has rocketed.

I’m going to start this off by saying that usually I am very lenient about issues, but this was really something to remember. I truly wish that there was a 0 star option. Our group consisted of 16 people, and we had made a reservation beforehand. When we arrived, they said that they had not heard of any reservations under any of our names. We ended up waiting for about 50 minutes before being seated, even though the restaurant was half empty. When we were seated, one of he waiters informed us that it would be about an hour and a half before we got our food. We thought that would be fine, considering that we would be spending lots of time with each other. Three hours had passed, and it was about 9:30 at night, when we finally got all of our food, plus many other dishes that even the waiters didn’t know of! Most would be greateful of this, but it ended up tasting horrible. Even the staff were joking about the fact that we had been there for so long! One of the dishes that one of our group members had ordered was a vegetarian eggplant dish. She asked one of the waiters what it consisted of after she ate some of it, and it ended out there was pork in the dish! When we were finally set to go, they charged us a bucket load of a service fee, when we thought we should be paying less then normal, because of the quality of the service. We tried negotiating with the manager, who kept leading us to the same conclusion over and over, which was to call the owner, and that he had no control. All in all, do NOT go to this restaurant.

With the just completed renovation, nothing is the same -- no more carts, less selection, smaller portions, higher prices and poor service. Everyone around us was clearly disappointed. For years, the Emerald had the best dim sum in San Diego. Now I would rate it the worst!!!

This was once a pretty good dim sum place. Not any more. While it has been slowly declining over the years, a recent visit made us determined never to return. The dim sum experience here includes ladies bringing around carts with dim sum that you select. Unfortunately, the dim sum we ordered was tasteless. The service was neither helpful nor unhelpful. Food is prepared well in advance; by the time you get to eat it, it is often cold. It's not particularly expensive, but then it's not very good either.

I go nuts here, the Dim Sum is the very best. Service is superb, this is the San Diego Center for real Dim Sum.

My good old friends treated me and my wife for dim sum. It’s the 4 of us but he ordered so many varieties that were good for 8. We liked the Har Gow, Siu Mai, Chicken Feet etc. The beef fried noodles were excellent. It deserves 2Q - quality & quantity. The atmosphere was great. Also the tables were not closed together. We love this restaurant.

My family has been going here for tears. With the renovation and the change in the way of ordering( no more pushcarts), it us much better. You order the food you want by marking the paper and they serve it to you. No more waiting for the carts to come around. This place is a must go for me, you'll enjoy it.

Went there at lunch time I ordered beef balls, fried rice and shrimp balls. Everything was served hot and fresh and shrimp balls I had never had before Redecorated a year ago it is nice atmosphere and wonderful food Don't hold back because it occupies the bottom floor of an office building Convienently located off Aero and highway 805 I will come back again

The brunch is the best in san diego, and I always went there with my family. It is not easy to occupy a table in holiday

Crowded as hell but there's a good reason why. The dim sum at this place is wonderful in an atmosphere that is fun and classy at the same time. The service is pretty friendly, given that you know chinese. But hey, isn't that the case at any chinese restaurant? Definitely a great place for those who are new to dim sum and are weary of the super greasy foods.

I have eaten here about 30 times in the last 10 years and have always made it a point to at least once every visit. Always for brunch except once for dinner. This visit was around 1:00 in the afternoon on a Saturday. I felt that Asians were given preferential seating and had to search out a section manager to get a pot of Tea and chili oil. The cart girls were great and even spent more time introducing some dim sum that were new to us. However some of our usual treats were oily and there were a few items that weren't hot. This is not typical of this place so.I am not sure if it was the time, a change in staff, the holiday week or just bad luck. I will be back a couple of times before we head home and report back.

Emerald is one of the oldest Chinese (Hong Kong) style restaurant in San Diego. Actually it helped to make Convoy Street the Asian street as it is now. It's also one of the best Chinese restaurants in town, together with its sister restaurant Pearl in Rancho Bernardo. The restaurant was remodeled under the supervision of its 2nd generation management, and added a bar area to attract younger patrons. The environment feels very clean and neat and chic. The food is pretty good, and the service is very good. Come for dim sum or regular Hong Kong style entries. You won't be disappointed.

Between 15 and 20 years ago I had eaten at the Emerald Chinese restaurant many times and found the food excellent The restaurant was always very busy.Iit was at the upper end of the price range for Chinese food but I considered it well worth the price. Tonight, finding ourselves in the area, we decided to go to Emerald. The first clue that something had changed was a large sign on the door announcing a change in ownership, the second was that the restaurant, on a Saturday night, was practically empty. We were seated by a very nice and attentive gentleman and ordered. Rather than staggering the delivery of the food, everything-soup, and two main courses all arrived at once and with less than 10 minutes of placing our order. The portions were more than ample especially the hot and sour soup which I suspect I will be eating for at least 3-4 more meals. The orange chicken advertised as "spicy" was not and the chicken was actually rubbery. The seafood and pan fried noodles were stocked primarily with several pieces of some type of white fish , 2 scallops and 2 small shrimp. The prices had not really changed much and are still high. The waiter was delightful and helpful apologizing for the rapidity of the delivery of the food and helping to box the leftovers. Over all I think the restaurant has really gone downhill and I can not in good conscience recommend it anymore.

A waitress at Sushi Ota referred us to Emerald for dim sum. The reastaurant is easy to find and large. The dim sum was excellent and varied and reasonable in price. It was so good -- by New York standards -- that we returned later in our vacation for dim sum again and then for dinner. If you want to find a chinese restaurant that fits between a Las Vegas 6 star and a 2 star Pei Wei, then Emerald is for you. The wait staff is pleasant and somewhat conversant in English.

Our Favorite Dim Sum spot

We are “seasoned” consumers of asian food including dim sum varieties and many other Cantonese style dishes. The food quality at Emerald is very good, but one would expect this in a major west coast city. Service is also very well done. The atmosphere is pleasant as well. Value for the money is really the only problem at Emerald. Our lunch consisted of five standard dim sum items and one noodle dish. Total bill with 20% tip was $85 for two people. Compared to most other Cantonese restaurants on the Convoy St. strip, that is pricey for lunch. If you’re not hung up on “atmosphere”, look around this area for a better value at half the price.

Great selection of Dim Sum. Perfect for a weekend brunch. While the lines can be long, they will get you in pretty quick. I'm always happy there.

One of the original places to get dim sum in the area. Often hard to understand exactly what your eating not because of the language barrier more some server's attitudes. If you know your way around the place it can be a fine experience.

It is a popular Chinese restaurant. There were a lot of customer, so the staff tried to fit in everyone. We had a small table, not ideal, but the food is great. I enjoy my meal very much.

We just have to go to Emeralds to get our Dim Sum fix!! We are never disappointed and always leave fully satisfied and Happy!!! And Julie our favorite Server is a delight!!! We always have to have her, she takes great care of our family no matter what the occasion.

Went to Emerald yesterday. Ordered Wonton Soup and Whole Flounder. Received fish soup instead, and when I got the bill, it showed the Flounder at $32. I asked the waiter to see the menu, and he went to his station, he looked through 2 or 3 menu before bringing me one where the $26 price was crossed over and a new $32 price was handwritten. To my complain, he rudely replied $32 is the new price, too bad some menus have not been updated yes. Needless to say, I will not go there anymore, there are plenty of good Chinese restaurants to choose from in the same area in San Diego

I have found that I love being able to order dim sum from a menu, instead of waiting for the right cart to roll bye. Although it is a different experience, it is much more efficient, and allows for a wider variety of choices in a short amount of time. The food here is fresh and delicious, and the service is attentive. The baked pork buns, sticky rice in tea leaves, and pot stickers are my personal favorites, but they have all the usual dim sum items so you are sure to find your own favorites.

Its the best!!

When served, the kung pao squid looks exactly the same as black bean cod. They are both filled with celery and onion. Then we picked into them, we found 10 pitiful smelly squid pieces with some stale peanuts. The cod fish dish is smelly with amonia odor. The ginger clam is stinky and sandy. We did not care about the unfresh seafood they served and just walked out of there.

On even of January 21, 2012, I made a dinner reservation for my family of eight at Emerald Gardens for Chinese New Year. The food came out so fast that the waiter and waitress stack the entrees on each other causing them to spill. They even left my pan fried noodles with seafood on a stack of appetizer dishes tipping of the edge of the table. When I asked the waitress to slow down so we could enjoy the food, she responded you should have told waitress in the beginning. I was applauded with the response. The serve was extremely poor (horrible), only came when they had food to serve were nowhere to be found when needed. They never even came around to if we needed anything. The food was so terrible...bland as hell. The soup tasted like plain water, seafood noodles were plain and greasy, cold appetizer was skippy, orange chicken tasted like fast food, the flounder saturated with oil. I complained to the manager with no satifaction. This place use to be good years ago but not now. Certainly no customer serve here, save your money and go elsewhere. Take it from someone who had worked at my family Chinese restaurant in Philly for over 35 years. This place SUCKS!

This restaurant is very traditional to Hong Kong style of meals. There are many choices on the large menu and every dish is fresh and very flavorful. I have been dinning here for many years and watched the staff service many dinners with amazing efficiency.

We went there fro Mother's Day Dinner. There were no Dim sum at that moment so we did a la carte. Foods are all I said all Oily , (what do you expect on a Chinese restaurant). The service is so slow, even though when we came, there were not much of customers. Asking for a glass of water will make you wait for roughly around 10 minutes and you have to remind all waiters that are passing by near around our table that we need some glass of water. Price of foods are kinda on the expensive side. The ambiance as they said, the place was kinda bit of a run down. They need a major renovation. The parking is tight. Overall , the service, price, ambiance is on a minimal. So do not expect a great service when you drop by.

I have had lunch here several times and always enjoy the experience. Waitresses with steam carts circle the diningroom , stopping by to offer a wide variety of steamed delights. Shrimp, lobster, dumplings, chicken feet, cakes, potstickers,vegetables, etc. be sure to try the sticky rice with mushrooms and pork.

This is one of the finest. Fine menu, and they roll around the dumpling carts. My, my- this is good. Pricey, but worth it. Atmosphere and deco is excellent. The one thing they are really good at is- SERVICE. They want you happy, so you come back. Nice location, but if you didn't know it is there, you would not find it. Word of mouth advertisement works for this one.

Best Dim Sum in town. The food is good and definitely authentic. The service is so bad that you have to laugh at it. They just don't know any better. Decor is typical cheap Chinese decor.

Just had dim sum lunch there today and came away extremely displeased with the service, food quality and price. All dim sums were not hot, especially the broccoli which they charged $8.99 for! We ought to have walked out from our first impression....our daughter lives in San Diego (we're from LA) and this was the only Chinese restaurant on Convoy Street she hadn't tried so after having parked our car in the basement, we walked into the restaurant and stood by the reception desk to be assigned and taken to a table. The surly man behind the desk barked, "Not here...the entrance is over there!" pointing to his left. This was the most unpleasant greeting we have been on the receiving end of and should have been our cue to leave. Service was poor. Had to wait for waiter to see us so we could order tea and request some chili sauce. After 5 dim sum orders that were so low down on quality, taste, texture and temperature, we called for our bill and left. Never going back there again.

We went here late on a Friday. Heard great things but seriously disappointed. Slightly upscale which only translated to pricey and not good. Service started out poor and got worse. Waited ten minutes while the hostess was on the phone. About to leave when the water service guy said(in Mandarin) ' do you want to sit down?' Fancy but dirty menu with several dishes listed as market price. We ordered a small lobster and beef chow fun for dinner and chicken feet and pork dumplings as the appetizers. Brought the lobster first....??? Realized because it was already cooked and getting cold. Not good. No utensils to eat it. Brought the chicken feet and the chow fun. Menu did not say sweet and sour chicken feet. Yes, like Americanized sweet and sour chicken. We didn't eat it. No one eats it this way. The chow fun, thin sliced beef stir fried with scallion and cabbage with wide fried noodles, was the best dish of the night. Asked about my dumplings again. Instead of apologies for forgetting he said they have to steam them. Oh, the customer is an idiot who eats his fried dumpling steamed. When the dinner was nearly finished the appetizer dumplings show up. I have had a hundred different dumplings in my experience. Some good, some not so much. These were the worst ever set down in front of me. I am guessing they discovered they forgot to make them so scraped some off a dirty dish and served them. Blown out, cold, nasty, mushy, giant globs of disgusting. Yeah, I tasted one. Sorry I did. Don't go. Eat at one of the local dive joints. This place has no charm and no honor. Service was poor to bad and food was done by the guy who washes the pots and pans. The second star in my review is for the busser. He put his tray of dirty dishes down on our table and got the packaging for our leftovers. Because there was no wait staff. A full hour before closing. The only thing served in a timely manner was the bill. No, wait. We had to wait for that too.

We were looking forward to dim sum after having really good dim sum in Las Vegas. We were hopeful after seeing dishes served at other tables. The food looked better than it tasted. The dim sum we ordered didn't have the right taste. Something was missing.

My wife and I were staying at a hotel close by and decided to try Emerald Chinese. We were glad we did. It's a very large restaurant with white table clothes and friendly people. We both had soup Won Ton and Hot and Sour that were excellent. We then had the Sizzling Seafood plate and the Five Spice Soft Shell Crab, again both we very good. I thought the Sizzing Seafood could have been a larger portion for what they charged, but it was good.

This is my favorite dim sum restaurant in San Diego. I used to go to Jasmine and China Max, but there are so many more options at Emerald, and we rarely have to wait. The food is excellent.

The atmosphereis very nice and the sever did an excellent job. All the dishes we ordered were excelent especally the shrimp and chicken ones. We were not disappointed at all in fact we have returned twice since our first visit. We have taken our daugther and son in law and they loved it. We got our daughter a birthday dinner on us and she loved all of the choices.

This party of 4 Mandarin-speaking adults and 3 kids found this restaurant to be mediocre, 3 of 5 stars. The food style was a mixture of different provinces and not too Americanized. But the five spice squid calamari legs were rubbery and the chow mein noodles were greasy and undercooked (closer to Cantonese style). The Szechuan cod fillet was very tender and very spicy, more like Hunan style. The honey walnut shrimp and the seafood clay pot were decent, but the white rice was a bit dry. Service was not up to par: they forgot one dish, so it came too late. Requests for cold drinks were also forgotten. Surprisingly, most of the tables in the restaurant were occupied, primarily by Cantonese customers. Both the interior and exterior of the restaurant shows signs of aging, but was tolerable.