Mia Restaurant — Restaurant in City of Ithaca

While I generally expect a certain level of service when a 20% gratuity is included by default, my experience with our server, Will, was beyond disappointing.

The interaction started off fine, but before our main dishes arrived, he asked, "So we won’t be sharing, right?" I confirmed and then politely requested some small plates in case we wanted to take a bite of each other’s dishes. His attitude immediately shifted, responded in a noticeably sarcastic tone, "So you WILL be sharing." This response caught us all off guard and made the entire table uncomfortable.

When he brought us the check, I asked why he seemed upset. He said, "Well because the table is small, and you said you won't be sharing but then you said you would. I'm SORRY if you're upset." The passive-aggressive tone made it clear he was upset, and while I tried to clarify, I felt there is no point arguing with him.

First off, if the table is small, that's not our fault. We were sat at the table that we did not even pick. If it was too small for our party, you could have had us moved.

Second, I don't understand why asking for small plates would be an issue, especially since we didn’t request him to set them up—just to leave them on the table. Even if I had slightly adjusted my request, it hardly warranted such a reaction, especially at a restaurant that charges 20% gratuity.

We ended up paying the 20% anyway. However, I hope this feedback is helpful in ensuring better training for your staff, particularly in handling customer interactions with professionalism...

We had an exceptional dinner! Pros were the food and flavor of everything, cons were the environment/atmosphere.

We got there around 6:30 and the place was packed. While being busy, we did not have to wait and were seated right away. The tables were super close together and not only was it too loud in there to be able to hear each other across the table, but we also ended up moving because the person next to us open mouth coughed on us (which is not the restaurants fault, but made worse by how close we were.

That said, the staff was really accommodating and moved us to the bar when we asked.

We ordered the sweet potato truffle fries and they were amazing. The fry was perfect, texture was fluffy and crunchy and they held their shape. It also came with a Sriracha aoli that was an incredible pairing.

I ordered the yellow cherry seabass and my partner got the ribeye special (the photo I'd blurry because we were so excited to eat I rushed and forgot to look at it). Both of the proteins were cooked too perfection. The fish was soft on the inside with a crispy skin, covered in the next curry I have had in Ithaca.

The steak was another level. The fat (which was not an overwhelming amount) was perfectly rendered and melted in your mouth. The cook which he ordered medium-rare was perfectly pink and the curry again was phenomenal. It was so flavorful and did not hide the flavor of the meat but instead enhanced it. It's only unfortunate quality is that it is not always on the menu.

We will...

My wife and I had dinner at Mia during our visit to Ithaca at the end of June 2023. We are very fussy about where we eat so the fact that we ate there on each of the three nights we were in Ithaca speaks for itself. All the food that we ate there was delicious, flavorful, and simply outstanding, much better than some of most fancy overpriced restaurants we have tried. The menu items are a masterful fusion of various Asian cuisines, so they have a trace of the original inspiration yet have their own identity, such as the duck samosas made in puff pastry. We were pleased that there were numerous small plate tapas offering, so we could try various things and eat light when we wanted to. This was also interesting since the tapas was Asian and not Spanish. The restaurant has a very pleasant and modern ambience, and the music is not too loud. The tapas offerings and the entrees are reasonably priced and definitely a great value. If you are in Ithaca, this is a great place to go if you like Asian food.

What we ate: Pork shank marinated in five spice Thai yellow curry w/ fried bun Chicken satay with peanut sauce Roast duck puff pastry samosa Prawns in southern Indian Kerala curry Jasmine Rice Lamb & beef kofta kebab with mint yogurt raita & mango chutney Homemade Vegetable Spring Rolls Thai Mussamund beef curry with cashew nuts, etc. Mango...