Busaba Erie — Restaurant in Erie

Erie location- It is with great sadness I post this review. The food here is excellent, however, my last experience here left me never wanting to back due to the customer service I encountered. I placed a to-go order, cashew chicken which comes with rice, that’s 50%of the meal (not the most costly part but 50% none the less too make it a complete meal). My husband picked it up and when he got home… no rice. Ok it was an accident I get it but we weren’t wanting to go back so I called and the girl on the phone said she would issue an in store credit (we paid cash) for the meal. She said it would be on file with the manger for the next time I came in. I made myself rice to eat that night and that was that. A few weeks later I called to place an order and redeem my credit and here is where the issue comes in. The girl who answered the phone said she had no idea what I was talking about, she then got a (female) manager in the phone. She said they don’t do credits like that. Well, I’m not employed at this establishment and I don’t know how they do it but this is what I was told. She said she would give me a second order of rice with my order….. uhhhh what am I going to do with 2 orders of rice with 1 meal?!? So she then offered me a $2 credit. Seriously $2!!!!! I told her to cancel my order I would never be back. I then wrote an email to the owner to explain the events I experienced. I never got a response. It’s been over a month now. Costumer service is huge in this industry. I do like this restaurant but...

We came here last night with high expectations since the Louisville location gets such good reviews. Unfortunately, our experience was far from what we anticipated.

When we arrived, we were told the kitchen was “backed up” and we would be waiting 20-30 minutes for a table. Luckily, we were seated in about 10 minutes, but it was obvious the entire restaurant was severely understaffed. The dining room staff was very friendly and helpful in spite of this, so kudos to them!!

Then there was the food. The first sign that it may not meet our expectations was when the entrees were brought out before the appetizers. My friend’s shrimp dish was good, but the drunken noodles my boyfriend and I shared was awful. We ordered it mild, but it was so hot we couldn’t eat it (and my boyfriend typically likes somewhat spicy food). Our lovely wait person sent it back and brought us the same dish with no spice, which was very bland and nothing like drunken noodles we’ve had at countless other Thai restaurants. It didn’t even have very many noodles, but there was a lot of cabbage in it. As for the appetizers, the edamame had no seasoning…not even any salt. The chicken puff was mushy. The chicken potstickers were very good, although not good enough to convince me to come back.

I know the kitchen was very understaffed, but from our experience, whomever was doing the cooking was also extremely inexperienced with Thai cuisine. Perhaps…and hopefully…this will change, but in the future when we want Thai food, we will be...

I'm going to start with the food is good. The menu is simple, not a lot of options, so they can get it right. What I should have known, and it would have changed whether I ate in or got it to go, is that it seems they focus on the food being picked up. While sitting there for 60 minutes (after ordering) with nothing but a plastic cup of water... we got to see many to go orders being taken to the front door. We did not see a lot of orders being dropped off at tables.

After much lack of communication, food eventually made its way to the table... but then you're kind of afraid it's just a tease and they are going to take it away again... so you rush through dinner. Or, it's been 75 minutes and you could be tired of sitting and just want to leave.

Would you guess that the wait staff would then show up immediately to check you out so that you can go home (since you probably already missed whatever you were planning on doing)? If so, you'd be wrong! Since we didn't see them before dinner, it's probably normal not to see them after dinner too.

I was surprised when I found out Busaba means flower in English and not "settle down, this is going to take a while" or simply: "Slow".

Tl;DR - If you're not in a rush, and have a couple of hours to kill, Busaba is a good place to go on a Saturday evening. Within about 90 minutes you can get a plastic cup of water, a bowl of good food and a decent level of frustration about how no one is running the...