Lemongrass Fusion Bistro — Restaurant in Columbus

My wife and I went here last night for a late dinner. Overall, the food was decent, but not great. Would I go back? Yes, but really to give them a second chance and not because I'd be anticipating a spectacular meal.

We got there a little before 9:00 pm and though we had made a reservation it wasn't necessary as there were quite a few tables available. We were seated quickly and our waiter was very good (polite, attentive, etc.). We had already looked at the menu before arriving, so we were able to go ahead and order after just a few minutes.

My wife ordered their cocktail "The Sakura", which was cherry blossom infused sake I think. Anyway, she really liked it saying it was refreshing and not overly sweet. Towards the end of our meal however, she discovered a piece of what looked like a sponge stuck to the outside of her glass. Not a big deal I guess, but not a favorable impression to find something you can't readily identify stuck on what you're drinking out of either.

We shared the Tuna Tar Tar as an appetizer, and despite the favorable comments on TripAdvisor, ours was a bit disappointing. The tuna itself was tasty, the sauce and avocado was good as well, but the mango they used was totally green, as in not ripe. So, not only was it not sweet, all the mango pieces were actually rather hard.

For dinner my wife ordered the "Black Widow" sushi roll. It didn't seem like anything to write home about, but she said she liked it well enough. I ordered the Bento Plate in order try try their sashimi as well as some nigiri. It came with Miso soup, which was good, the tofu in it was well-prepared. The BBQ Eel Nigiri (2 pieces) was good as well. The tuna and salmon sashimi were tasty, the portions were generous and they were served in the shape of a flower or rose, which was nice. The Bento Plate also came with grilled shrimp with teriyaki sauce. The sauce was okay, nothing special, but the shrimp, to be honest, were just not good. I don't know if they were not fully-thawed before being grilled, or if they were grilled and then sat around while the rest of the meal was prepared, but by the time we ate them they were fairly rubbery and room temperature. Lastly, as I was finishing the tuna sashimi, I discovered a gnat in it. I don't know if the gnat had been in the sashimi itself or if it had been on the big, green leaf on which it was served, or maybe it just flew in there at some point during the meal, who knows. We didn't order any dessert, so nothing to say on that point.

As for the decor/ambiance, it's clear an effort has been made and it looks decent. In other words, you could go on a date here, dress up a little and not be "out of place". However, that slightly more upscale appearance tends to raise your expectations for the meal itself (or at least it does for me), but in this case they didn't deliver. In other words, the place looks nicer than it actually is. I didn't make it into the restroom, so no...

The short review: DO NOT RECOMMEND. AVOID. Poor food quality, poor service, hot food served cold.

The long review:

1. Long wait times. 10 minutes for server to greet us at table. 10 minutes to get "Iced Tea" (more on that that later). 30 minutes to receive food.

When we arrived, the restaurant was 3/4 full. There were 4 servers (at least from what I could tell). Our server was handling 4 tables, maybe 5.

2. Poor food quality:

For $13 "The Bowl" is supposed to have the following: Udon noodles, beef, shrimp wontons, rangoons, cilantro, green onions, beansprouts, special sauce

I received it without the shrimp wontons and rangoons. The beef portion was laughably low. Probably amounted to 1.5 ounces.

It was also tepid, i.e. room temperature.

The taste was OK, but I can get a bowl of pho anywhere else for $9.50 that is HOT and has more meat in it.

For $13 the "Cashew with Beef" was gross. The beef itself was not tenderized, i.e. not velveted. The vegetables were not stir-fryed correctly, extremely underdone. Severe lack of seasoning and taste. IT WAS SERVED COLD.

The iced tea was completely lacking in flavor. It was like some type of GFS no-name dehydrated power from a can. No flavor. It was like drinking brown water.

3. The service was bad. Excessive wait times.

The server performed the unforgivable sin of allowing food to wait under a heat lamp (if it was even on for how cold it was) for more than a couple of minutes. I literally watched our order be placed in the hot area, and sit there for 15 minutes.

This resulted in all of our food being pretty much cold. We had waited for so long by this time (30 minutes) we decided to just choke down what we could and leave.

We ordered iced tea, and it took 10 minutes to get to us. We never received a refill during our "meal", even though the server said they would get us one.

The server worked a order for a 6 top before our order, even though us two ordered first. They received their food before we did.

4. Completely Overpriced.

For what we received, it wasn't worth it. I can go anywhere else that serves similar food (such as the many family owned Chinese or Vietnamese restaurants) and get more food that is tasty, hot, and filling for LESS MONEY.

The "iced tea" is a joke. They charge $3.00! I only got a single serving since it took my server way to long to get back before I had finished eating.

Overall: Do yourself a favor and go somewhere else. We literally just wanted to get out of there as quickly as possible once we saw the quality of food and service.

BTW, I did tip the minimum 15% since Ohio still has the server wage at $4.65/hr. I wasn't going to punish someone who was working, however they didn't do a good job. The biggest issues were allowing the food to wait under the heat lamps (again, not sure if there were any to be honest, they covered the plates with bowls), and the lack of attention when it...

Beware!!!! The first time we went here during happy hour was decent. But don't dare ask for anything to be customized! The second time we ordered for pickup and it was a mess. We ordered several things one of which was chicken fried rice but they made it with chicken, beef, and shrimp even though we ordered it the first time only chicken (no problem) but peanut sauce was all i er it even after asking for it to be put on the side and specified when ordering pick up only chicken, and we couldn't tell it had shrimp by looking at it. It wasn't until my face started to swell and then dug through the rice that we found the shrimp. (You would think they would gladly abide a costumer asking for the 2 most expensive ingredients being left off especially when they still charge the same amount for it) For someone having a shell fish allergy this can be FATAL. If you want to order a dish that has rice with it, they absolutely will not make it fried rice even if you offer to pay extra. They tell you that if you want fried rice you can only get it by ordering the $18 (dinner price) fried rice meal, and then they won't cook it correctly anyway. The fried rice is good but at $18 and requests being ignored not worth it at all. Also if you do have allergies most meals include a peanut sauce, just be aware of this, and know that you must be diligent to make sure it is not on your food if thats whats been requested. Pretty much if you have any allergies DON'T GO HERE, unless you enjoy going to the ER immediately afterwards. So disappointing because I thought we may have found another good place to eat when in Columbus. This place had potential but the lack of caring about the customer is concerning and sad bc I really wanted to love this place. The bartender was nice enough but restricted on how he could order things from kitchen bc of computer ordering system and restraint policies, at least that'show it appeared. Oh that's another thing they won't tell you but if you go in for happy hour you HAVE to sit at, eat and order at the bar or you will be charged normal price not given happy hour discount. After trying quite a few different items on the menu I can say the only thing I would eat again would be the Mr. Po Roll. The fish did not taste fresh either time, very fishy and warm. Overall I guess if your out late and have been drinking this may be better than some options (unless you have any food allergies) but can't say I would ever waste money here again.They did refund the fried rice that should not have had shrimp but don't think that will come close to hospital bills caused by their negligence....