Wild Ginger Asian Bistro — Restaurant in Cincinnati

You never get a 2nd chance to make a first impression. Visited for the first time a few weeks ago. I ordered the Spicy Pad Char, with chicken, which is, "Mixed vegetables in a brown chili sauce with garlic, wild ginger, kaffir lime leaves, Thai basil and pepper." My dish arrived and looked like vegetables in a sweet, orange sauce, with red pepper flakes. I tasted the dish and it tasted like orange chicken. I asked the waitress if there had been a mistake in my order and she brought me the wrong dish. She confirmed that it was the Spicy Pad Char. I pointed out that there was no ginger, kaffir lime leaves, or Thai basil anywhere in the dish. She said, "the chef said he's out of those ingredients." So they basically tried to pass off a completely different dish as though I would not know the difference, which is very insulting. I did not eat it, and had them take it back and off my bill.

My partner ordered the red curry, which is, "Eggplant, carrots, bell peppers, bamboo and Thai basil in a red curry sauce." He did point out that they substituted zucchini for eggplant in his dish, without telling him they were out of eggplant at the time we ordered, and it also contained no Thai basil. He ate his because he was hungry, but was also disappointed.

If ingredients are not available and substitutions will be made, the customer should be informed, not surprised with something the chef threw together.

Waitress was attentive and handled the situation well, so I will give a 5 for service, but she should have neve been in that position.

Will not...

This place has changed a bit. The last two times I went, I didn't see the manager who used to come to our tables. Also, the server and other staff were rude, and our server last night was more than a bit rough. The food was great, but not as good as I remember. Also, for the first time, I got Shirley Temple, and the server refused to refill it for free, claiming that it never had free refills when the other servers I had in the past never refused. Shirley Temple (sprite with cherry syrup), not free refills, is something I have never heard of, and I order that at 50% of the restaurants I go to. Also, by the end of my visit yesterday, I felt unwelcomed -- yikes.

For reference, I put the review I had about six months ago:

Rated 5 stars | 5 service | 5 food | 5 atmosphere This place is a really nice restaurant! I have been here 3 times and each time I have gotten great service. The food here is absolutely delicious. I especially recommend the Pad Thai and the Pho. It's also got a wide variety of food. It's got sushi (whole page of that), Chinese, Japanese food. It's also decently priced. Just a couple dollars more expensive than the Skyline on Madison road, but can come with much bigger proportions and so you might get a lunch to follow it. Plus the service is much better. The people there are very polite, won't let your drinks empty, and the manager will sometimes stop by to make sure you are satisfied. They truly care about your enjoyment and the manager is so nice! The atmosphere is...

My family and I , party of 8 were there celebrating a birthday. The service was horrible. We had a reservation for 7pm, we were told we had to be out by 8:30pm, because another party was coming. The chef who served us was really good. It was the service we experienced. They did not want to serve us drinks, though we asked four times before they actually brought them. Our bills were stamped with 20% automatic gratuity, which the server just threw on the table verses handing each one of us our bills with our CC's. We were rushed to finish dinner. Once 8:30p came, the bartender came stood by our table (like a bouncer) with his arms folded, we ignored him until he and the servers began to ask if we wanted them box up our food, we weren't done eating. Disatisfyed with service we left. I was the last leave, once I got to my car and looed back and noticed there wasn't another party. We were not loud or boisterous, we celebrating our son's birthday. It our first ty there and based on our experience our last. The most horrible service we ever experienced, definitely will not be returning and...