Ginger Restaurant — Restaurant in Zurich

We arrived to an almost empty restaurant around 7PM. We were just two of us and we love to sit next to each other, as opposed to opposite each other so asked to sit that way at one of the many entirely empty tables outside. This was not at all happily accepted by the staff and several staff members tried to tell us that it was not possible, until one came and said in that case we‘d have to accept other people being seated across from us, which we gladly did. At that point he was confused and had no arguments left.

Kindly enough, they brought us a welcome sake. Sadly it was not an enjoyable sake but a very entry-level sake variety that we didn’t end up consuming.

We then noticed how other guests who arrived after us were also treated similarly, and not welcoming at all. This caused some of them to get up and leave before even ordering.

For context, the outdoor seating is arranged in the following way: several long garden tables where people of different parties are seated directly next to each other on uncomfortable garden chairs.

Over the course of the hour we were there, barely any new guests arrived, and none of them were or needed to be seated at our table.

The food concept is such that you have a choice between sitting at the revolving sushi bar or at a table for a la carte service. However, sushi is not part of the a la carte menu. If you want to have anything sushi/sashimi-related, you have to go inside to search for your choice at the revolving bar. And wait for it to appear. There is no option to select and order what you specifically want if you want sushi/sashimi. This means even though you opt for a relaxing a la carte dinner in the a la carte section, you actually have to go inside to wait to see if there is any food that may or may not come along on the revolving counter. Therefore can’t actually sit and enjoy your time with the other people at your table.

The edamame we ordered were cold as if they came from the refrigerator. Any other proper Japanese restaurant usually serves them piping hot.

The miso soups were extremely ‚cloudy‘, there was so much miso paste in the soup that it was not enjoyable anymore.

The sashimi was cut very thick. The fish quality was ok.

The avocado radish seaweed salad was, though edible, not enjoyable, bland and just not a successfully crafted dish.

The vegan hosomaki was not enjoyable either.

Lastly the hamachi sashimi was not actually sliced sashimi as we‘d have expected, but diced pieces of fish. The menu states that it is „Kingfish sashimi with green chili, pickled kohlrabi and sudachi-dashi shoyu dressing“. I have a nightshade vegetable intolerance, so I ordered it without chili. It came full of bell-peppers (these are not mentioned in the menu, as visible above). No kohlrabi to be seen though. When asked to bring it without bell peppers, they just brought a bowl with fish in some oily sauce, strongly resembling just raw fish in olive oil. Once again, not enjoyable.

Less than an hour and 130++ chf less in our pocket later, we left. Hungry, unsatisfied, and disappointed.

If only I could remember who recommended this place to me, I would ask them what the heck.

Not...

Just left Ginger and I never felt so mistreated leaving a restaurant, if you don't speak german, RUN. We were struggling to decide for what sushi lunch place to go to have a nice lunch to celebrate our first vacation in Switzerland. We ended up deciding for Ginger for because of the reviews. We were "greeted" by a guy (I don't know if he was having a bad day or not?? But he had such a "I'm bothered" expression) said that the restaurant would be closing the kitchen soon we arrived at 13:30 and the whole ambiance of the restaurant was kind of like a lounge... If I want to take my time and appreciate the food I wouldn't want to leave so early but ok... the house makes the rules and if he tells us they are closing we would go away, however he asked if asking directly from the bar was ok since we wouldn't be able to ask a la cart and we said yes, at this point communication wasn't amazing since we are fairly recent to the german language ... he guided us up to the bar mumbled something in german to the chef and proceeded to try to talk in german with us again. We said we didn't understand and the guy stormed out. Another employee came (this time smiling) and started talking in english, she re asked the same thing and we replied in the same way and we got a positive response. We asked where to sit and the chef promptly advised us something. Sushi bar chef and the girl serving were ok they served us to the best of their abilities. The food was good however we didn't get to try much because 1st piece of sushi long this guy started having a heated discussion, raising his voice and gesticulating. Mumbled some words in English and some words I could recognise. After being so rude to us, in my mind that whole spectacle was about our late visit. Well at that point I just wanted to leave, we asked for the bill finished what we had in the plates and left our lunch. I never felt more uncomfortable in a restaurant in my life and I couldn't ever enjoy any food after...

What a shame, this once great Japanese restaurant has really completely sunk... I was there Saturday night with my wife, in the main room not the sushi bar, we were very happy to return to a restaurant where we had been many times in the past 7 years and where we had our first date, sadly the experience was shocking. We ordered as a starter the large sushi plate for 150 chf, it was only 26 pieces which for the price is not that many so expectations for quality and diversity were high. Appart from a few schrimps it was only cheap cuts of salmon, tuna or bream (perhaps som other white fish) which were lukewarm and did not feel fresh, we could not even finish thats how bad it was. Then the main courses arrive, I had the entrecote which was overcooked and dry, you could tell it had been sitting on a super hot plate for a long time, my wife had the veal which was very fat and barely eatable, of course there was no side dish, again shocking for the price. In the meantime, just behind us, a waitress or cook walked once carrying a massive garbage bin and another time actually dragging a large garbage bag on the floor. I could not believe my eyes as this was just behing my chair in the seating room of the restaurant. I complained about our disapointment regaring the food to the waiter, no apologies nor any commercial gesture were made. You could sense that the staff there did not care from their unfriendly attitude, from the fact you could actually see them drink and eat stuff... (I did not even mention the fact that when I was talking to the waiter ordering the host interrupted me to give an order to the waiter, if you have something to say to your staff thats fine, just dont interrupt a customer in the middle of his sentence...) I will sadly never go back there again....