Wild Ginger Asian Fusion — Restaurant in City of Cortland

There isn't much sushi in Cortland. This is certainly the best game in town, as it's the only sushi/hibatchi focused restaurant in the whole county at the moment. It's serviceable to be sure, but there are areas that could use improvement.

The biggest issue is that they seem to be very understaffed, especially when college isn't in session. Service was a bit slow, but not terrible. The waiter was very apologetic with all diners, but from what I caught it sounded like they only had a single chef on staff for the whole restaurant (on a Wednesday night). The hibatchi table is only available during the college season according to a sign on the door (you can still get the food in the summer, just not the table experience), so I assume that they have seasonal employees come in to pick up the slack when students come back in. Still, having just one chef, even on a weekday during the summer, seems to be cutting pretty close to the bone. Hopefully it was an emergency situation and they usually have more chefs on staff.

As far as the sushi goes (I ordered the sushi deluxe), I've had better but also had worse. You wouldn't come here to impress a sushi connesuir, but it does the job if you live in Cortland and don't want to drive out to Ithaca or Syracuse. Perfectly okay. On the other hand, my wife was very happy with her sushi rolls, so maybe rolls are the way to go here. Prices seemed to be in line with average.

To address big concerns with the review section for this restaurant, I did NOT get food poisoning and the men's room had plenty of soap, so hopefully some of the worst commentary has been addressed. I'd go back here to eat, and if I get sick I'll...

Service is essentially non-existent, wait times are minimally a half hour with an empty restaurant (maximally an hour and a half with 4-5 tables), and the food is no more than decent. I’ve gotten take-out/delivery multiple times and always had a fine experience, but I would not recommend eating inside in the slightest. My girlfriend was given a roll that she did not order and was allergic to, but when we asked for it to be taken off the bill, we were refused multiple times and told that we “didn’t tell staff soon enough.” Had our server checked in with us (in the empty restaurant) I would have let him know before he gave us the check—it just so happened that was the soonest he had come since putting our food...

The food was adequate, but nothing memorable. The service, however, was highly disappointing. The staff barely spoke any words that were not required to serve us. The food was slow to arrive, which was surprising considering there were only 3 tables with customers. When we asked for items (such as additional wasabi to supplement the tiny amount provided with the sushi), the response was nothing more than a nod and then the item tossed on the table in passing. Average food can be enjoyed when the service is good. But when the staff act like you are nothing more than an inconvenience, the food better be amazing, which is not...