Ling Wu at Lantana Place — Restaurant in Austin

We came for dinner earlier this week and were greatly unsatisfied with the customer service, and the food was subpar. Per the hours advertised, the restaurant closes at 10:00. We came in around 9:30. We were immediately told by the man at the host stand that the kitchen closes in 30 minutes, which we were fine with and agreed to order by then. As soon as we were seated, the server came over to us and told us that it was last call for drinks/dinner/dessert and that we had to put our order in right then and there. We were informed that the kitchen and bartender LEAVE at 10:00 pm, not that either stop receiving orders at 10:00 pm to then begin their closing duties. We complied and put in our entire order within seconds of being seated. During our entire experience, the staff scowled at us, including the kitchen. Nothing was coursed per our request, everything was just placed at our table as quickly as they could get it out, such that our table was overwhelmed with all of the plates causing cramming at the table. The kitchen turned off all of their lights at 10:00pm, despite us still being in the open dining room. When I went to the manager to discuss my concerns, he did nothing to remediate our terrible experience and just re-enforced that the staff leaves at 10:00pm.

I have been in the food and beverage industry for over 10 years, as a hostess, server, and bartender. For every restaurant that I have worked in, if your hours list that you are open until a certain time, then you should expect to be taking orders (food or drinks) at least until that time. So, if someone walks in at 9:59 pm and the restaurant closes at 10:00 pm, the expectation of service, food, and drinks should be the same as if someone coming in at 7:00 pm. Perhaps I have just worked at restaurants with different standards than Ling Wu. Nonetheless, if the kitchen is expected to leave at the exact time that you close the restaurant (keep in mind the time it takes to clean the kitchen at the end of the night), your hours should appropriately reflect that. Or, your staff should aptly communicate that last seating was at 9:15 pm (or whatever time) and you are not able to adequately serve us.

We felt like a burden, despite spending hundreds of dollars on dinner and being done less than hour from when we entered the restaurant, and that is not how a patron of a restaurant should feel. We were utterly disappointed in our experience at Ling Wu and likely will not be returning for...

We were excited to try Ling Wu after enjoying Lin so much. Overall, we had a very good dinner. The issues we had are pretty typical for a new restaurant that is still finding its rhythm.

We went to dinner on a Sunday night and they were packed. The service was a bit slow. We ended up waiting a tad longer than we would have liked for drinks and water refills, but it wasn't a deal breaker by any means. I picture this getting resolved as the restaurant spends more time open.

Our group of 4 had 2 drinks each which included cocktails, wine, beer, and sake. I had the Victoria's Secret (which I enjoyed, especially with the crunchy smoked sea salt rim) and the Taiwan Old Fashioned. I highly recommend the Old Fashioned if you haven't tried Taiwanese whiskey.

Moving on to the appetizers/dim sum. We split Ling's Soup Dumplings, Crispy Chicken Potstickers, Scallop Caviar Sui Mai (not pictured), and Lobster Cheese Puffs. We all enjoyed these dishes with the scallop sui mai and soup dumplings being our favorite. Something to note is they come in various numbers. For example, the soup dumplings and potstickers came with 5 pieces while the sui mai and cheese puffs came with 3 pieces. Kinda weird for our group of 4 but we made it work.

For entrees, we split the Curry Ox Tail, Shishito Akaushi Beef, Mei Choy Pork Belly, and Baby Gai Choy with Shiitake Mushrooms. The shishito beef was the unanimous favorite. It had a great flavor with just enough spice. The curry ox tail was our second. It had a really tasty curry sauce with a nice heat level. The pork belly is called "melting" for a reason as it literally just melts in your mouth. I really enjoyed it while others preferred pork belly with a tad more firmness. The gai choy with mushrooms were covered in a savory Chinese gravy. My only complaint on that dish is that there was a bit too much of the gravy.

I'd love to come back in a few months for the Dim Sum Brunch to see if the service issues have leveled out. But I definitely recommend giving this...

Well worth the short drive off Southwest Parkway. Get your reservations early, this place fills up quick. Walking in it calls out to some of the familiar classic Asian restaurants themes. But with beautiful Chinese symbols adorning the walls, lanterns, birdcage lighting and lavishly adorned chairs with hand embroidery. This is Lings flagship...well done. We had and early reservation and were greeted and seated right away. The decor is perfect. Old style meets fun and new but all Asian thru and thru. We stared with cocktails my love had the Lychee martini and I had the Lingapore Sling a gin based cocktail punch. Bitters forward but good. This is family sytle..so they get your whole order and it comes when it's ready snd you go. We started with the Beef Bao, very good. Then the trio of dumplings...they were gluten-free so not perfect but tasty. Then the scallion pancake with the most amazing chicken curry dip...the curry was the best thing on the table. We opted for a glass of Red wine with our air dried duck with foie gras pate, hoisen sauce, and thinly sliced green onions. The individual bao for the duck were perfect but the duck was a bit dry. The sauces and pate were amazing. We also order the book choices snd mushrooms..it was not good. Overall worth it...we ended with the yuzu ice cream and it was ok, just trying too hard...but we had a great time. You know it's funny, when you sit down and have a meal and there's hits and there's misses, there's home runs there's strike outs, there's all the wonderful analogies to the game of baseball but what always makes it so much better is when you're sitting across from the table with the person that you know you're gonna spend the rest of your life with and she's exceptionally beautiful, empathetic, humble, strong... just a perfect partner that's what I get to do everyday For the rest of my life. Thank you my Love for a wonderful day, dinner, night, and weekend. So many more to come. Love you now and...