Rai Lay Blakeney — Restaurant in Charlotte

We wanted to try Rai Lay as a new Asian restaurant is always exciting, and we used to enjoy Asian 18 at this location. We ordered delivery which we rarely do, and the food was such a disappointment! Maybe their sushi is good so can’t speak to that, their Thai food/chinese entrees are subpar.

I got the Tom Kha Gai (coconut chicken soup) which I’ve had numerous times at numerous restaurants, and Rai Lay’s coconut broth was ok flavor wise but the chicken in it had the texture of slime. Also it had about two sprigs of cilantro that were grey and not green in the slightest, clearly old and not fresh. The chicken in the soup was basically a blob of cooked cornstarch not even like real chicken. It was inedible slime.

I also got the Pad Woon Sen glass noodle dish with chicken, I have eaten this Thai dish at other restaurants more times than I can count, so I appreciate different chefs have a different style or spin on this classic. The clear glass noodles were a weird dark brown color, and the veggies (celery, onions, scallions, tomatoes even,) were the same brown color. I wish I’d gotten a picture because the veggies look like they’d been boiled 2 weeks prior to making the dish! When tomatoes and green onions lose their coloring in a noodle dish it’s not a good sign…. The sliced chicken breast was missing entirely! I bravely did try one bite despite appearance and gagged, the noodles had the weirdest flavor. Almost like yellow curry and five spice powder and too much fish sauce or something. Again this was inedible.

My Spouse got the Seasame chicken which seems pretty basic and hard to get wrong, alas, his entree was also inedible. The sesame chicken dish was just tiny dark grey fatty pieces of meat that consisted of 95% soggy breading and barely any actual chicken. Like if you bite a chicken nugget and all you get is the fried breaded coating and not meat, it was like that- but so soggy and not even slightly crispy. We threw all the food away, it was that bad!

Idk if our experience was a one off but at this point we won’t return to try their other dishes, I’d have eaten better fresher food from the mall food court for 1/4 of...

Love the food.

Not happy with the service. The adults who came after us, were seated first. We both needed 4 chair table. I had a toddler with me. No cutlery, napkins on the table Staff took forever to take our order and to deliver it. When we called to cancel one of our order, immediately they came with our dish... Nobody came to check on us at any point.

It is holiday time across all restaurants in Charlotte and they are all short on staff. We are very much aware and have lots of patience even though we are with a toddler. Every other place has treated us with respect, giving us a table when its our turn and not to the family who came after us. Everywhere we went our table was set up with cutlery and napkins. Here we had to ask for it (after the appetizers were put on our table, we requested for it). In spite of shortage of staff, we didnt have to wait 45 minutes to get red curry anywhere. This was given to us only when we said please cancel. Also, the waiter never came and asked if we need anything (100% positive). Rai lay in south blvd gave us such good experience and a great service, so we decided to try this location as well (not sure if its the same management).

TIPS full form "to insure prompt service". Everywhere we went in these crazy holiday time and especially after pandemic, we have ensured to give tips for the service provided by the waiter/staff. We were super patient till we left and didn't create a scene or ruckus. There was no necessity to...

Giving this place the credit it deserves! Just tried it for the for time tonight (take-out). I got the Volcano roll and the Heat the Night roll. Holy amazing. I have been so incredibly let down the last few years by sushi places around Ballantyne/Fort Mill. They aren’t consistent and it’s just not good. This is the best sushi I’ve had in years. Heat the Night was my favorite but both were great. It’s got a very unique flame torched taste on the salmon. So so so SO GOOD. This is my new takeout spot!

Editing to add: I’ve eaten here probably 6-7 times since first posting my review. EVERY time has been CONSISTENTLY amazing. I cannot say the same for many other sushi spots I used to frequent. It was always hit or miss and I was HOPING this place would stay consistently good and they have. I am a mom of toddlers and this sushi is something I seriously look forward to every week. Heat the night and tsunami are my go-to rolls now. And my toddlers love the Cali roll. Once again, I thank you for making great sushi!

ETA again: okay I love this place because I love the sushi and it’s consistent and wonderful. But my husband doesn’t eat sushi and he got pad Thai and it was probably the worse we’ve ever had. It was so insanely dry, we ended up adding some Asian sauce from our fridge because it had no flavor. So maybe just stick with sushi here from now on and he’ll get pizza on my...