Cilantro Thai & Sushi Restaurant — Restaurant in Akron

I say this with love: you all really, really need to get it together for lunch. Your food is AMAZING. But, your service? Atrocious, truly. Anemic energy from your waitstaff. The Host seemed to be flying blind and fed to the wolves. Why is she bussing tables, getting waters, and having NO help when your waiters are frequently walking around empty handed? They seemed genuinely unconcerned about pace of service or even like they had ANY idea of what tables they should be looking for. The servers are disappearing to somewhere in the restaurant for minutes at a time before returning carrying nothing. Surely that means there is time to buss your table. And, if not, you likely could have afforded a busser for the amount of money you lost by people walking out after being seated for not being served quickly A couple hundred dollars EASY just walked away, after clearly wanting to spend money with you.

Speaking of not visiting tables with any sort of regularity: you have at least 4 servers that I could tell, and they were clearly less busy than the hostess. Where was your manager? There is no scenario where you should be on a 20-30 minute wait for a table during LUNCH when there are 5/6 visibly empty tables that just needed cups removed and a wipe down.

I would say that this was a fluke, but for years I have come here for lunch off and on with the rule that to have a smooth experience, be there at 11:45. So, take it as a good thing that your product is so delicious that folks are willing to work around this rather huge shortcoming. But, you have to wonder, if you just staffed to be busy, or prepared for it in some way that is better than you are now, how much more profitable could you be? People are always there for lunch, it is in a great location and easy to walk to for a majority of downtown. Is your dinner service so good for your business that you can just ignore lunch? There is no way you can convince me that ownership/management is not critically aware of how much less time you have for a lunch service. And, this has been a problem for LITERALLY years. So, I don't know what to say other than, congratulations for still being in business and still having people come there for lunch, because I think almost any place else would be closed by now. But, that speaks to how delicious the food is...

I watched 3 tables leave because their server never came to see them. I had to cancel after waiting legitimately 45 minutes. For lunch. In the middle of the week. I'm just... my mind is boggled by this. The only person moving with any urgency at all was your hostess. Do you need to have better organized sections? Is your rotation needing work? Surely you can't be holding tables because the kitchen is so backed up. It was nowhere close to a packed house.

Listen, I am the first person to advocate for better working conditions, especially the service industry... but at a certain point, you need to demand something from your people. URGENCY, especially at lunch, ESPECIALLY for a place so close to many professionals that have only an hour for lunch... just... I do not understand. Make it make sense. I would be genuinely curious to hear the reason why you have such terrible service during a critical period for any restaurant that serves lunch downtown.

TL;DR: The food is amazing. Eat here if you have time. And, be willing to wait, if you do have the time, because it is that good... but maybe bring a snack because the line will be long for seemingly no good reason, and maybe a drink because your prospects of a refill...

Would I return – Yes. Although not superb – it is a ‘best-value’ for a downtown restaurant. Seemingly this might have been designed to be a ‘hip’ or ‘in’ place (floor-plan and dress of hostess is way over the top) – but in the end – the price tag is at or below a trip to Outback – so it’s a good bargain. SAT night (7pm) – No RSVP – 5 min wait with a crowd. The decor is chic (sheek) – a bit over the top for me, and lots of open space (wasted?). Most will LIKE it. Lighting was a bit too ‘intimate’ (artificially), but overall – it’s a NICE place. Because of the high ceilings – it’s a noisy place – but not so much you can’t talk among yourselves. CROWD: Sat night downtown – what you would expect. One note (being a parent of a young child – although not in tow) – there were some couples with kids and they were NOT frowned upon. SERVICE: Good – servers seem busier than they are – function of the layout. FOOD: Had Red Curry with Shrimp – not the most complex curry – but solid. One note – eggplant was either way overdone or way under-cooked – but it was left aside. Chicken Rama – good sauce – asked for a notch below the top on the heat – unfortunately it was on the mild side – great presentation – but the cabbage (something rather lacking on their menu) wasn’t cooked properly (its separate for presentation). What we didn't try but got to see – many of their noodle dishes looked good. PRICE: Surprised - $40 for two out the door downtown (no alcohol). PLUSES – table management (never saw anyone waiting too long – and NOTHING upsets me like poor table management) – a plus to the hostess. MINUSES: Nothing I’ve not already mentioned. One suggestion to the owners. For those unfamiliar with the downtown parking challenge – it might be a good idea for the owners to note on their website the suggested parking areas – otherwise most will stay in the burbs… Even better would be a calendar of events that suck up all the available parking – warning would be diners of upcoming ‘parking’ hazards, as we didn’t have any issue – but in the past tried once to come and ended up at Luigis as there was something else eating up the parking spaces. Had I known – would have planned a...

We reserved a table for a party of 22 for my daughter’s 18th birthday. I spoke with the owner a few times via email and phone so everything would be planned accordingly. We all sat at one large table. Come to find out we had only one server for a party of 22! Some of our food was forgotten, and when the main courses did come, some were cold even after waiting a very long time for them. No one came to clear our table throughout any of the time we were there. Dirty plates everywhere. When I addressed these issues with the owner, he offered to take only one dish off the bill that was cold. When I told him about the cold food after such a long wait, he said he was aware of the issue, but why didn’t I ask him to warm the food up? I’m sorry, but it shouldn’t have come out cold to begin with! And he was very aware of our issues all night and not one time did he approach the table to see what he could do for us; I had to find him. He also was offended when I told him we had to wait a very long time and food was forgotten and dirty plates everywhere - he said we had his best server with us, and she’s very capable of handling a party this big and he was going to talk with her. It was not our server, she was great! It was just too big of a party for one person to handle. No one ever came and gave her any assistance. Needless to say, my daughter’s birthday was ruined and she was also very embarrassed about the...