East Moon Asian Bistro — Restaurant in Columbia

We’re new to the area from a very Asian neighborhood in Southern California and went to East Moon Asian Bistro for the first time after shopping in the area. We entered around dinner time and I saw the signage at the hostess desk about Chinese pork bun (something I loved while living in SoCal) so I was hoping the server would elaborate. Sadly, that didn’t happen and the lack of communication and customer service would be a constant reoccurrence this evening.

I liked that being seated (in a booth for the two of us) was quick and that we were given salad with sesame dressing and a glass of water almost immediately. The ambience and decor was nice too. The restroom was also clean.

I didn’t like sitting for nearly 20-30 minutes afterwards with no server returning for our order. When the server did come back around, she didn’t say hello, introduce herself, ask if this was our first time or recommend anything from the menu. She also rushed us by trying to take our menus before we had finished ordering.

We ordered a Japanese beer, an East Moon alcoholic drink, udon noodles with beef (to share and for home), a happy family entree and a Thai lemongrass meat entree. We would’ve asked for a sushi or appetizer order to eat there and a pork bun order to go BUT our server didn’t seem to want to hear it. I tried to ask a question to signal for her to slow down and communicate but she whirled away without answering. She came back to deliver the drinks, then the food and once more at the end of the meal when she asked if we wanted more water when it would have been more appropriate to ask whether we wanted dessert, to-go boxes and the check. A check-up on water and the current food should have been conducted midway through the meal. Again, I would’ve liked to order pork buns to go but wasn’t given - again - the opportunity before our server was gone again without communicating.

After ordering, I went to the restroom to wash up. I was pleased to find it was clean. Upon return to the table, I was also pleased to find these HUGE portions of food - and it was delicious!

Overall, we’re getting closer to finding delicious Asian food here in Maryland that compares to my Chinese, Japanese and Korean community in Los Angeles, California but too bad service here was lackluster (long wait til ordering, no intro, no follow-up and rushed). The food was very good and given in generous portions but the dine-in service makes take-out seem...

I've been to East Moon several times in the past and had experiences that were good. I've ordered carry out from here and the food is usually good. But today I went there for lunch with a coworker and had an absolutely bad experience. The food was fine. They were not busy at all, there were only 4 tables occupied during lunch. There were two of us for lunch. But as soon as we sat down, the waittress brought a menu and immediately asked if we knew what we want...I said, no, we haven't had a chance to look at the menu or decide yet. She came back a few minutes later and took our order. The food came, the waitress refilled our water and I hadn't even taken 3 bites / forks worth out of my dish, and the waitress brought the check and two fortune cookies, and says "Okay, thank you for coming". Me and my coworker looked at each like "huh, are they trying to get rid of us?". The waitress was not leaving for the day on a shift change or anything. We continued to eat, and five minutes later the waitress came back and checked to see if the bill was ready to be paid - again, we are still eating at this point - and I said "Are you trying to get rid of us?". She said "no not at all", but it sure didn't feel that way! I guess we didn't want tea or dessert or anything else after our meal. If we did, we weren't getting it now! Don't think I'll be returning there any time soon. Not a very welcoming experience. The sun has set on East...

I sincerely try to give restaurants several chances before I give 1 star reviews but I had to make this one. The food here is good. I’ve been to this location 4-5 times. Each time my food has been good (sesame chicken, sesame shrimp, gyoza, sushi). However, the pure disregard for basic customer service is absolutely unacceptable. Each time I’ve been here the customer service has been absolutely terrible. There is one waitress who wears glasses that is rude, condescending and quite frankly should not be working in the service industry. The first few times dining here I was rushed out by her as she brought the bill early, one time she yelled at me to hold on when I just wanted a refill. This last time I asked for a sweet tea lemonade mixed and when she brought me the wrong thing, she said “well you didn’t say you wanted it that way”. She then brought me an empty glass and said mix it yourself. While these instances may seem minimal they were filled with attitude as if she didn’t want to be there. After asking to speak to the manager, she seemed to want to be nice but did not serve us for the rest of our time dining. The manger was accommodating by giving us a 20% discount. However, the owner stood back and watched and tended to other customers instead of coming to speak to me as well. I will never recommend this restaurant to anyone and caution those reading this to...