Tiger + Lily — Restaurant in Columbus

Eaten here many times before, the food is good with a decent variety of items on the menu. It’s Asian fusion with a lot of ramen items. For the most part we’ve been happy with them but we had a bad experience recently and I don’t think we’ll be going back here anymore.

I put in a pick up order for several ramen entrees and some appetizers along with some bubble tea for me and friends, the order total came out to be around $100 with a tip. We went to pick up the food and take it back home. When we got home we realize they had packed the broth for my order without the noodles chicken etc. Unfortunate but not a huge deal, I’ve worked in plenty of kitchens before and mistakes happen. It’s a busy time of year too so it’s totally understandable. The location’s close by to our house anyway.

Here’s the bad part: when we called about this issue, we spoke to a woman who put us on hold for a few minutes. When she came back on, she said that she’d talked to the kitchen staff and said “they were sure they had put the noodles in” and they weren’t going to do anything about it. I want to be charitable in my interpretation but I can’t help but feel like I was being accused of lying and trying to scam them into giving me free food. In any restaurant I’ve worked at this sort of issue would have been taken care of immediately no questions asked. We had to argue for a while and be put on hold a few times but they did eventually agree to give me the noodles. Again not trying to act like a Karen and ask for special treatment, all I wanted was what I paid for! I’d maybe get being suspicious if we only ordered one or two items, but why would I try to rip them off to get part of a single entree when we ordered like $100 of food plus tip?

Again the whole situation would have been okay and we’d have been mostly happy with our meals (some of the mushrooms that came with another dish were raw but whatever, everything else was fine) even if I had to go back for a missing item, but being accused of ripping them off was totally unprofessional. I’ve never had this experience with any restaurant before. I know I’m just one random guy but I won’t be eating there...

Food was meh. Maybe the taste is good, but I can’t say it’s authentic. With a name like Tiger + Lily, I thought they would focus more on southeast Asian food. I can’t speak to parking, but the downtown area is walkable. There are restrooms behind the cashier. The restaurant felt more contemporary than I expected. Maybe it’s more lively at night because of the bar. I was here for lunch on a Saturday, and it got pretty full.

Drinks: Milk green tea $4.50 - watered down, too much condensed milk. Not good at all. Did not finish the drink. Taiwanese milk tea $4.50 - also watered down. Hong Kong silk tea $4.50 - mid. Boba $0.50 topping - chewy, no sweetness. I do not recommend.

Appetizers: Chicken karaage $8 - we got the spicy lily dry rub, which made the karaage taste like the inside of a gyoza, very peppery. Additional sauces are $0.50. I expected Japanese karaage, but this wasn’t it. Chicken wings $9 - super crispy and jumbo. Ironically the wings might have been the best dish we ordered at this Asian food eatery. Crispy dumpling $7.95 - gyoza w a sweet sauce. I don’t recommend this either.

Entrees: Lemongrass chicken $10.95 - I don’t recommend this. The chicken portion was small. It was mushy - maybe some pieces weren’t chicken breast. Too much rice. Rice was wet, like it feels mushy when chewing. The purple cabbage gives the dish color but that’s it. Flavor was good, but too much pepper. Tiger signature $14.95 - option for pork belly is additional $2. Flavor is good but not quite the same as traditional ramen. Angus beef noodle $15.95 - flavor is good here. Noodles are decently al dente, but they’re using thin ramen noodles for a traditional Taiwanese noodle dish. Beef was cooked ok (on the tough side) but scarce :(

I would have liked to try the mala tofu dish or the inferno heat level on the curry. I’m curious how spicy they can go.

Gratuity is added for parties...

Pre-covid, I would come here quite often for lunch and the food was pretty good. Since covid we've moved to getting takeout from here and at first the quality was just as good, but slowly it began to get worse and worse. The last 2 times I visited being the worst. I ordered takeout online on Jan 21st. I got the numbing beef. I picked the food up before the quoted time and got home about 7 minutes later. The numbing beef is a brothless bowl but typically has some broth. Just not as much as the normal one.. This bowl had none. It was so dry the noodles were stuck together and wouldn't pull apart easily. The beef was also dried out as if the bowl had been sitting for an hour. I took a bite of the beef and it confirmed the food was old. I threw the entire bowl away and called the store. They offered a credit.

I called to redeem the credit on 3/5. Same order. The food was the same as before. No broth and the noodles were sticking. I tasted the beef. It didn't taste dry like before but it didn't taste normal. I decided to try to salvage as much of the beef as I could but got halfway through the meat before I tossed this bowl as well. Big mistake. 20 minutes later, I started experiencing nausea and light headedness. I tried to drink water thinking maybe fluids would help. The nausea was quickly followed by intense stomach pain and eventually vomiting. I was sick for the rest of the night. I'm not sure what they're doing differently due to covid but the food is not safe. I could taste the difference in quality but it's a whole other level when it makes you sick. I won't...