Awesome "Dinner for 3" which fed our Victoria friend for another 2 meals! The food was excellent and service was great. Do I dare mention we were the only Caucasians in the restaurant? We will be back OFTEN! read more

Save yourself the disappointment, this food tastes like actual trash. Tastes like plastic and has no flavor whatsoever.

I am writing this review because I am extremely disappointed in how the staff handled their mistake with my takeout order today. After picking up my order from the restaurant and driving back home to eat, I realized that they gave me the wrong dish for one of the items that I ordered (gave me beef and broccoli instead of ginger fried beef). So I call them to see what can be done, and I am told that I can come back and pickup the right dish in 20 minutes. So now I drive back to the restaurant to pickup the dish that I originally ordered.. only to be told once I get there that I can NOT take it because I didn't bring back the other dish.... The wrong dish... why in the world would I have brought it back? It's been opened inside of my house,, what do they want it for? If I had been instructed to bring it back over the phone, I happily would have done so - I was not going to eat it either way because I don't like that beef order. Plain and simple. So now I am leaving empty handed, the food that's still at home will have to be reheated by now, and I've wasted 45 minutes of my night driving back and forth to this place. All for nothing but frustration and a terrible taste in my mouth after going back and fourth with the lady at the front. I am extremely disappointed in how they have handled this matter at Fountain. Safe to say I will never eat here again after this treatment. And while I'm at it, the three dishes that we DID actually order were not good. The chow mein was way too hard and tasted off. The rice from the "chefs special" was way too mushy, and the lemon chicken was overcooked. Don't waste your time and money on this place. Terrible service and even worse food. read more

Ordered food by phone or in person for takeout for the past couple of years. Restaurant is usually full of sit down diners during prime times. Less diners during the rest of the time. There is ample free parking available. Staff are always busy tending to dine in & pickup patrons. Restaurant is quite roomy inside. Generous portions, tastes good and there are leftovers for lunch the next day. Food is not over salted for me so I don't need to consume tons of water after a meal like with some restaurants :) Prices are fair. Always happy with my food. Sometimes the order is not ready in ESTIMATED wait time. This is to be expected as restaurant is full of dine in patrons. Then there is the problem of staffing. This has been a common theme with businesses everywhere. Grateful that service is not a carbon copy of BC Ferries' motto!! Like to keep my liquor cabinet stocked so I will shop at the liquor store across from restaurant while waiting for food to arrive. Excellent opportunity to multi-task. read more

I have been to Fountain Restaurant many times for different reasons. Their food taste good, and the staff very mostly attentive. When it gets busy, they can become distracted. You will have to speak up if you want anything. The ambiance is not fancy, but the casual atmosphere is relaxed. read more

Ordered takeout, on the phone, I was told many of the items we wanted were not available tonight . Arrived when they told me it would be ready. Front desk told me it will be another five minutes.... it was another 20 minutes. How hard is it just to tell the truth? Then we were offered the wrong order twice.... Finally got home and not only was the food cold. it was tasteless. Sadly most of it ended up in the recycle bin. Trying to support local business, but bad food and even worse service make it very difficult. Should have stayed home and had been a butter sandwiches.... a lot better....a lot cheaper read more

I ordered a combo for one. It all came in one container. The almond chicken was very greasy and coating was too thick and not cooked through. The sweet and sour pork was tough. The chop suey just tasted like cooked vegetables and the chicken in it was overcooked. The egg rolls were very greasy And the outside was too thick and not cooked through. All in all it was very disappointing. Will not order from here again. read more

Yesterday was my birthday so my daughters order takeout from the restaurant The seafood chow mein was very disappointing overall we will not go back again read more

Worst Chinese food I have ever had.... as soon as we got it the smell of it made me not want to eat it then I opened it and the almond chicken meat was brown. The deep fried wontons we disgusting. The veggies were greesy will never recommend this to anyone. Would Rather eat at Ming's if it was still open with the bad health records lol that's how bad th read more

This place I was hoping it would be good but unfortunately did not have a good service to good food ratio. To start we were the first people to come to the restaurant. Our party was large so we took two tables and ordered separately but turned in our orders at the same time. In our order we ordered 3 dishes off the normal menu. The first issue was only one table was getting all their food and the other table was taking a long time to come out. The second issue was coming out so slow we felt we were waiting forever for each dish to come out. Next issue was the extra dishes we ordered they never put in and we asked an hour after putting in our original order and they never put it in. We were basically full at this point and we asked to see our order to see what they forgot. Some of our dishes were coming out so late we had all finished eating. We even had to cancel a fish dish we were looking forward to eating. I really enjoyed the food but the service is something to be worked on. Our server maybe was new(?) lacked communication so he never even told us he canceled the fish for us so we had to ask another server to ask the kitchen to cancel. I would only eat here again because the portion sizes were amazingly large! read more

The 6 dish dinner meal is a great value and the food is really good. Portions are fair. We have no complaints and even had enough to bring home some leftovers. Would recommend the hot pots. read more

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Worst Chinese food I have ever had.... as soon as we got it the smell of it made me not want to eat it then I opened it and the almond chicken meat was brown. The deep fried wontons we disgusting. The veggies were greesy will never recommend this to anyone. Would Rather eat at Ming's if it was still open with the bad health records lol that's how bad this was read more

Waited a long time for this expensive foot . 104 bucks at 9 pm and that's ok. It showed up at 11:23 didn't even tell us it was at the door but we suspect 15 minutes . Wor wanton is cold chow main has no chicken. Everything about this place sucks keep away. Let us be your waste of money there's much better places read more

The food is wonderful, I just wish I could say the same for the service, which is lacking to say the least but since my buddy likes it and it's the only late night Chinese place in town, i'll probably keep eating here read more

Honestly a surprise to find real Chinese food in Victoria, done pretty well. They have your standard Chinese menu and then your typical Caucasian style menu (chicken balls and that stuff). I only tried the Chinese menu and it had some very nice dishes and selection. I like that you can order a number of dishes from a certain list for a better price ( like most real Chinese restaurants). Prices are pretty reasonable too. Ordered the Peking duck, and it was pretty good, not great. Overall I like the place and so far I'd recommend it. Staff is nice and the manager seems like a good guy. read more

First restaurant I have been to where you have the option of ordering from a menu for a full course meal or choosing to have the buffet option. When we arrived we were undecided as a group, but later on we all decided to have the buffet since my aunt had already went ahead with the buffet. They had about 15 to 20 food items to choose for the buffet from crab, shrimp and your usual Chinese buffet items. The one I liked the most was the barbeque duck. It was very tasty and wasn't dried out like most buffets when it has been sitting out in the heating lamps for too long. They also had a very good tapioca dessert which I have tried many times, but never at a buffet. They did a good job in replenishing their buffet items when it was starting to run out to as most people eating there was choosing the buffet option instead of ordering from the menu. Overall a decent buffet, but I wish they would have had more fruit options as they only had put out a honeydew as the only choice. You also have free choice of soda drinks which is included with the price of the buffet. I would come again just to try ordering a meal next time instead of the buffet to see what they offer on their menu. read more

Currently some of the best legit Chinese food in Victoria

Some of the food is pretty good and authentic Chinese, such as the sliced pork hock and jelly fish salad. In addition, they have a sea-cucumber dish, goose, and pigeon, which is uncommon in Victoria. The lady that handles the phone deliveries is insane. I asked if there was a mushroom dish that she could recommend on top of the other items I'd ordered and she just plain lost it and went berserk. Shouting and yelling about mushrooms wasting her time and money!!! Then she hung up!!! I called back hoping someone else could handle the order, then she hung up again!!! I called to reorder, but she just kept hanging up the phone... I will find out who the crazy mushroom lady is next time I visit and ask her what the hell her problem is. I wish there was another gatekeeper between me and my Chinese food order... read more

Now closed and looks like it's being renovated . . . --------------- What? No buffet??? Me and my friend walked in to find a dining room with chairs in sateen covers finished with bow ties, like it was a wedding. This is different, but advised there is no longer a buffet we stayed . . . We ordered the lo fun "dinner for two" ($13.50 per) because we were hungry. Complimentary black tea was served (swampy taste) and the won ton soup came out eventually. It was lukewarm, but the 3 wontons were big and meaty, broth not too salty with fresh sliced green onion. Next came sweet and sour pork, same lukewarm, with red sauce. Boneless, overly battered, crunchy and fried, definitely tasting like its not made in this kitchen. Almond chicken was mostly celery, with some small beaten up chicken pieces and cornstarchy sauce. We advised the almonds were missing, so the server brought a small plate of dry almonds! Finally, the chow mein came out, primarily noodles and bean sprouts. Boring. A-ya! Service was lackadaisical. It was us and another table of two during the lunch hour. A number of others walked in and walked out when they discovered there was no buffet anymore. Maybe we should have too. This is a "no" . . . . read more

A very disappointing lunch. A friend and I stopped in here for lunch after seeing their large banner advertising a "New Buffet including Dim Sum". It was a large buffet with plenty of choices, including some typical dim sum items such as fried taro root cakes, shrimp dumplings and steamed stuffed buns, but the quality left a lot to be desired. The fillings for the buns and dumplings was stingy and tasteless and many of the other buffet items were not hot as their steam table didn't seem to keep the food warm enough. Even the simple chow mein and sweet and sour pork were under seasoned. The atmosphere is very casual, with loud music of various styles playing and big screen TV's showing chinese news broadcasts. It didn't help that the front desk hostess spent the entire 45 minutes we were there arguing loudly on the phone. She was still at it when it was time to pay our bill and finally put the phone down when it was time for me to sign the credit card receipt to quickly whisk us out so she could get on with her call. I've been to the Fountain for dinner and had a reasonable experience ordering off the menu, but I definitely won't be back for their lunch buffet. read more

Parasite in fish. I am a regular costumer for the last 2 years. And i wont be going ever again. Last time my girlfriend told me and i said its probably just a bean sprout. Today i saw it with my own eyes and i threw up cause i ate at least half of the dish. I do not know the english name but direct translate from chinese is "water cook fish", its basically fish cooked in chilli oil with bean sprout. Goodbye Fountain! read more

Fountain Restaurant - Parasite fish! - Chinese Near Me - Victoria, British Columbia

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One of a few decent Chinese Restaurant around Victoria. Dim Sum is OK but not great service are hit-and-miss. I love the convenience and the parking you never have to wait in line like you would at Jade Fountain. My favorite is the Rice in Hot Pot with Chicken and Mushrooms be prepare to wait for 20 minutes but it's so worth it. read more

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Fountain serves the best Chinese food in town. Hands down. Fresh, colourful and NOT overly sauced The service was excellent read more

I hadn't been to this restaurant for a long time, it's changed hands a few times. We walked in around 5 and there was empty and then after being seated and served tea with menus. The hostess asked us if we had a reservation...which felt weird, there was no patrons in the restaurant! Meal was fine, service was meh...2 waitresses to 10 tables. My father went to pay and was rudely told that the price was with tax and acted like there wasn't enough for tip. What bothered me was the way she stated it. My parents are in their late 80's, I'm sure if my parents where going to tip they weren't now. I grabbed the bill and put it on credit...I was a bit cheesed that they would be so rude over the bill. I've worked in the restaurant business for 10 years, you get a good tip if you give excellent service not for crappy service. I wouldn't recommend this place just on the service alone. Maybe if you want Chinese food from this place do a pick up. read more

Open 'till 3am! They lost a star because they have televisions in the restaurant and they are lacking a stylish feel that you get from, say, a late night Richmond chinese restaurant. Also, their bubble teas are not fresh fruit (at least not in the winter). Some of the food was a bit bland. Okay, they get 3.5 stars, rounded up to 4. Their menu is incredible, full colour pictures for every dish. Very fun to browse and many options. Maybe I'll flesh this out a little later. read more

Real cheaply run. Refused to replenish buffet because they said they were closing in 1 hr. had no problem taking our money though. Stuff like this sticks In customers heads not the way to run a business. read more

Food is good but be prepared to WAIT a long time. Don't bother going to this place during a special day like New Years, Mother's Day, or any holiday because the food is SLOW to arrive. I was here for Mother's Day and ended up waiting an hour after we ordered and the waiter told us that they ran out of our food and won't be serving us. Why make us wait for an hour for no food! I have been here during a quiet weekday for lunch and food is still slow to arrive(waited 30minutes) even though it was only 2 dishes. Service was average but kitchen efficiency needs major improvement. read more

It took them over a minute to seat me in a restaurant with only 2 other parties on a friday night. After they seated me and gave me the menu, it was like watching a telethon with 4 waitresses who only cater to the two parties and continually ignore me as they walk past me (im also pretty sure they gave me a stink face). Absolutely no pleasantries, no courtesy, no respect. Its actually okay to have no respect, but theres a difference when it is disrespect. They took over 15 minutes to even come to me to take my order. In the meantime they seated another party immediately, continously spoke glowingly to them and catered to their every wish. When they came to me they acted like it was unintentional. They are really pathetic disgusting people. They took my order and then immediately took the order of the party they just seated. It definitely makes you think how rude these people are. After no more than 5 minutes, the party after me, gets 3 or 4 dishes immediately. After 20 minutes I began noticing that the party has finished eating. How ridiculous is this? After 10 more minutes, I catch one waitress who rudely says my food is coming it takes time. WTF....the party after me has already requested doggie bags... I had told her that I was leaving because I havent gotten my food yet. I never yelled, raised my voice, or exploded. After another 5 minutes, they serve me my food and boy was it disrespectful. If its going to take 40 somewhat minutes to give me food, one simple dish, and still manage to skimp....there were 5 measley pieces of chicken and a boatload of rice...wtf is this??? I finished my food quickly and just went up to the counter and requested to make payment. If I could I would have not tipped at all but the machine had no option not to tip...seriously these people are racist, awful, disgusting people. Dont go here. You were warned read more

I had combo d which is for vegetarians. I'm not a meat fan so I ordered this one. It was absolutely amazing. I'd never imagine any kind of vegetarian food would be so great as this one. Also my fiancé had wonton soup which is good value for 2 people share it. By the way .... The server proved really great service. I had been the restaurant a couple times before; I can tell things changed quite much, not only the decoration in the restaurant but also the food and service quality. read more

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After the change in ownership, I gave them another chance. My thoughts have not changed. Around 2 months ago I came for dim sum/lunch at around 1:30pm on a Saturday. We were a table of 2 and got seated fairly quickly and ordered our food. It took roughly 5min for our first plate of dim sum, which was bbq pork flaked pastry to arrive. We then waited for another 50 minutes and our remaining dim sum dishes still hadn't arrived. We kept asking the waiters about it and they informed us they'd check on the kitchen. At this point we didn't want to wait any longer (it took them roughly 1 hour+ to deliver our food, which is ridiculous) and decided to leave for another restaurant. I understand that it's busy and all, but we should've at least have gotten an apology or an update on our food after sitting down for 20+ minutes. I am floored by the service we received. read more

Not good Chinese food. The beef in black bean sauce was way too salty, the sweet and sour pork was sickly sweet and an incredibly artificial purple colour, the chicken in the chicken chow mein had a texture like processed chicken loaf.... Their menu proudly boasts "No MSG!" Well, how about cutting out all the other artificial and processed foods as well. Come on, it's not hard to make decent Chinese food and we've moved on from the 80s. read more

We used to go fountain a lot because they open until 3 am. They have so many choices and averagely the food are pretty decent. Recently they have changed their price, so the dishes are quite expensive now . read more

Overall, the value is actually good, you get ample portions for the money you pay. However, in some cases, the customer suffers at the expense of "economizing". For example, I felt just a bit peckish and didn't need much. The chicken chow mein, which has an excellent price, didn't actually have any chicken in it! I understand that the amount of chicken may be "skimpy" in a chicken dish that is only $6.95 + tax, but to not include ANY is an insult. it's a good thing I like chow mein all on it's own! I'm a "forgiving" consumer, and realize that this may have been a "late night oversight". It happens... people get tired or sloppy (this order was placed around 1am or so), but a complete lack of the ingredient that is actually supposed to be the "signature" of the dish...? Well, you can imagine how that feels. On the positive side? I find their deep fried chicken wings to be most awesome and good value, and in previous orders, they've never messed one up, The deep fried prawns are light and crispy, the breaded almond chicken is also light and crispy with lots of almond topping and in the end, you get overall good value for your money portion-wise. If you are looking to feed a family AND have some decent leftovers to snack on the following day (and who doesn't love that??), this is simply great. The restaurant area is rather low key, no frills. It is what it is. Sometimes you just need a place to fill a basic biological need (eating!) and don't miss the trappings of glitzy decor, the type of which is handed down cost-wise to the customer anyway. In conclusion; great portioning for the cash, you get what you want (for the most part) and it's fast and easy. The prices are very reasonable for what you get and the lack of frills and shiny things is actually a plus when you just want to get yourself or the family fed and be on your way. read more

This place is open late but I only went once with friends and another times for buffet. I ordered some maopao tofu, chicken balls and i forgot what the rest ordered cause i was distracted among their chitter chatter. It was weird the second time because there is a saying that if they offer buffet at restaurant that business may not being doing so well...or something like that. The buffet was alright but i did not enjoy the chicken and duck so much. Would have rather ordered from the menu but whatever got some nice sides and fruit/desserts. I almost felt like giving it a 3 rating just cause i did not like the tank full of ??? at the counter and the weird carpet.....but its like a 3.75 for me. Also the restaurant should really have like a big sign you can see from the road i think a lot of people pass by this place even if it open late. read more

Been to Fountain restaurant a few time. Food is good and they change the buffet selection sometimes. Couple of things that we didn't like was that the staff would keep coming back to check if your plate was empty so to take it away and at one point the waitress picked up my plate while I was still eating from it. Also the restaurant is over crowded with table and chairs so it doesn't give much room to walk around other tables much. But the food was great. Totally worth the money. Guru Shitka read more

I called to place a delivery order at 11:30pm on a Saturday night. I placed an order for a dinner for two as the lady on the phone couldn't understand me and I definitely couldn't understand her. I had wanted some deep fried prawns as well as a few other items but it didn't seem worth trying to explain. I said for delivery 3 times and each time she said "you pick up" "10% off" I said no I can't pick up delivery but she hung up without taking my address. I called back 4min later and spoke with a different person who took my address. At 12:48am I called back to see where my order was as by this point I was just ready to go to bed. At first they said they didn't have an order for me and then said he was on his way. The driver was very nice but the food was horrible!! Bottom line don't advertise delivery if you don't want to and don't order food here because the service and quality is awful!! read more

I was in the Fountain Restaurant March 9 looking over the menu when a man with a dog was greeted by the staff and seated, with the dog, at a window table. I did not stick around to try the food. The dog was not a service dog. read more

Went to check out this place for dim sum on a Sunday. The menu isn't the greatest, limited selection and not easy to make a decision on dishes without better discretion or images to provide aid. Did I mention how pricey it is? we ended up spending 30 dollars on 5 choices between me and a guest and still had to go somewhere else afterwards as it was not enough food.For the small amount of people that were there, the service and the time it took to get our 5 dishes was sub par. One dish came at least 10 mins before the others, not to mention that the dish was two shrimp rolls which between two us us was gone in under 3 minutes. Not sure what thold up was, but unfortunately will not be returning for dim sum. I would recommend Don mee over this place. read more

My mother has been to this location several times recently and suggested this place for lunch. It is funny how Chinese restaurants in Victoria go in and out of favour ... the Chinese community tends to share experiences with each other. Unfortunately, this place was not as good today. It was busy and not enough staff. My mother ordered at the counter, my son had to go up to staff to get drinks/ water, and I had to go to the counter to rush our food. At least one table got up and left. Once I asked the staff about our order ( had to catch a ferry), they got our food out quickly. Everything we got was good other than the deep fried pastry which was cold. We got chow mein and Yee mein. The Yee mein was a bit under cooked and small, but the chow mein was good. The congee was good and the potstickers and beef balls were on par with the norm. Other than the issue with service, we did enjoy the food and managed to get out in a reasonable amount of time. Will have to see if my extended family has good or bad experiences in the future. read more

Normally I'm too nice to write a bad review about a restaurant no matter how bad the food or customer service, but what I experienced last night was SERIOUSLY RIDICULOUS. I went to Fountain Restaurant with a group of friends who recommended it because it was super cheap and we're all broke. When the waitress came, I ordered the number 11, "Salt and Pepper deep-fried Squid" and pointed to it on the menu, which was advertised as $6.95 and the waitress wrote it down along with every one else's orders. The menu didn't have descriptions of the items; all it had is one picture of the dish, one price and it's name. When the squid came, I took a bite and instantly had to swallow 2 glasses of water (including other people's water) because it was SO spicy. Nowhere on the menu did it mention that the squid was spicy. It had red, hot spice all over it which was obviously not salt or pepper. I ordered the dish a second time and asked for NO SPICE because I really wanted the squid the way it was advertised... you know, "Salt and Pepper". I soaked my lips in ice water until the second round came. Once it came, it was bland and flavorless (which I assume is why they put spice on it) and I didn't eat more than 2 or 3. This part was fine with me because I asked for no spice and I guess the spice was their way of giving it flavor, so that's why it was bland. At the end of the dinner, we all went to pay, and somehow my original $6.95 dish came to more than $27. I expected a $13 bill because I had to order the dish a second time (which in my opinion I shouldn't of even had to pay for, since they gave me an extremely spicy dish that had no mention of any spiciness), but definitely not $27. When I asked why it was this price, the waitress/cashier said I ordered 2 FULL sized dishes. Umm... What? There was NO mention of a second size of the dish nor a second price. I literally just pointed to the "6.95 Salt and Pepper Squid". It was ridiculous enough that I had to order a second dish because of their wrong advertisement, but to give me 2 $13 dishes without mentioning it or asking, when I had ordered and POINTED AT a $6.95 dish is seriously fucking ridiculous. The girl didn't care that it was obviously her mistake and made me pay full price anyway. I came to the restaurant because I'm a broke student and it was supposedly cheap, and I ended up paying more than I would at a quality restaurant for a full course meal. Needless to say, I was pretty upset, paid for their mistake, left and bawled my broke, student eyes out. I'm writing this review not because of the shitty food, but because of the shitty people. read more