Wild Ginger — Restaurant in Franklin

It makes me so sad to write this. I have been eating at Wild Ginger for almost 10 years and consider it one of my favorite restaurants. I took family visiting from out of state for dinner at Wild Ginger tonight. Everything was great until my friend starting trying to cut something in her dish we thought was cabbage. Turned out, it was a full paper towel. The brown kind with the zig-zag edges. It was somehow cooked into her chicken/ramen noodle dish. Yes, a full-sized paper towel was on her plate mixed in with her food. I didn't want our server to feel bad, as it certainly isn't his fault, and I wanted to make sure an appropriate person was made aware, so I quietly asked to speak with someone from the kitchen or management. The manager came over, and I pointed out the brown paper towel that had been cooked and served with my friend's ramen dish. He was like, "Oh wow, I don't know how it got there. I'm taking it to the kitchen now." He took the plate and never came back. Ever. Please note our server had no idea there had been a paper towel in our food, so in no way would we have expected an apology or acknowledgment from him. When the server brought the bill, they had removed the ramen/paper towel dish and also an appetizer. It was honestly kind of confusing, because we had this bill and no acknowledgment or apology that a paper towel had been cooked into and served with our food. Upon inquiry to the manager (again, quietly requesting to speak with him; I in no way wanted a scene), he literally said (among other things), "We didn't put a paper towel in your food on purpose. This has never happened before. I took your dish away and you didn't want a new one. I don't know what else you want me to do." He went on, "What will make you happy? I don't know what you want me to do." I told him I wasn't actually asking him to do anything at all; I was just confused about the restaurant's gesture to...I don't know what exactly, I guess...apologize? Acknowledge that we had a paper towel cooked in with our food? (He did neither, unless it was a flippant, "I said I'm sorry. We didn't do it on purpose.") He took the check away, took the food off our bill, came back and threw (literally threw) the new bill (now containing just our drinks) on the table, turned around and walked away. He said absolutely nothing as he tossed the check back on our table. He did not say he's sorry; he did not say he hoped they could make it up to us. Literally nothing. He stormed back to the kitchen ranting. If nothing had been taken off our bill, it would have been around $230. We left a $100 cash tip for our waiter and made a point to tell him how great he was and we were in no way upset with his service. It was not at all about the money. Of course, we were upset about the paper towel cooked into our food. But how we were treated for saying anything at all is WAY more upsetting. I can't understand how the manager felt it was appropriate to be rude to us; to act exacerbated by our drawing attention to the paper towel cooked into our food (again, which we only did to him, and very quietly, such that our waiter didn't even know). I've certainly never been treated like this by any restaurant staff in any restaurant I've ever been my entire life. I'm just really sad, because I have always loved this place and their food. If the manager had responded differently, I think I could have moved on and given them another chance. But his behavior was nothing short of extremely rude, dismissive and unapologetic. Even though we were the ones who had paper towel cooked into our food. I'm still kind of reeling, less over the paper towel, and more about the way we were treated...and the way that no genuine apology or acknowledgement was ever given. I don't know what the manager was thinking when he approached the situation in this way, but at least we did capture this on our phones so there could be no dispute. Is it crazy that I'm thinking, "I wish we had JUST found paper towel in our food tonight?" Instead, I'm replaying over and over how terribly we...

I’m Japanese, from Hawaii, and my army husband and I flew in to Nashville today. My stepdaughter, who lives here, said this restaurant has the best sushi in the area. She just cut gluten, eggs, sugar and dairy products from her diet. With some picky eaters in our group, we had the bar set pretty high.

I ordered the Black Pepper Beef, which was crispy and sweet. My husband ordered the chicken wings with spicy aioli on the side; they left off the parmesan cheese at his request. The five spice glaze on the wings was flavorful and similar to that found on Chinese BBQ Beef (Char Siu), and was well balanced.

Interestingly enough, the Black Pepper Beef and the spicy aioli weren’t really spicy at all, but that was all right because we don’t really react well to spicy food.

The edamame came with gochugang sauce, which we asked to be on the side. It was authentic. Our table also ordered the Lo Mein noodles, the Wild Ginger house salad with a pinkish white dressing, the Gyoza, the rust-colored Lobster Bisque in a sourdough bowl, Honey Chicken and Mongolian Beef.

We all enjoyed each dish.

I missed short grain white rice. This restaurant offers jasmine rice, black rice, sushi rice and fried rice, but not plain short grain white rice. Brown rice was not available, either. Soy sauce was not on the table, neither were chop sticks. Once we asked, though, they provided us with Kikkoman soy sauce and fine quality black chop sticks with silver inlay.

Also missing on the menu were California Roll and vegetarian options for sushi, although I suspect the chef could have made these. I forgot to ask if Miso soup was an option, because the menu said to ask after the soup of the day. Surprisingly, ginger was not a detectable factor in the salad dressing and the gyoza filling. However, all these things are trivial and most people would not miss them.

Our server bent over backwards to fulfill all our requests. The team of servers did a stellar job delivering our food with a flourish. Each item was attractively plated on trendy oblong white or rectangular plates. The floor to ceiling glass windows and use of natural light woods created a calm atmosphere.

We would all...

I love going out to experience what a city has to offer up to eat. I wanted to try something besides a well known Asian Restaurant so I chose Wild Ginger in Franklin. Simply stated the menu, service, atmosphere & sanitation all exceeded my expectations.

The team at Wild Ginger seem like they work well together to bring us all the best dining experience one could imagine.

The portion sizes are generous in my opinion because I ordered two entrees thinking I would only receive a small taste. However I was pleasantly surprised when my honey chicken & beef fried rice arrived.

The food was very good, authentic, fresh & it didn’t feel like a cookie cutter plate of fried rice & honey chicken. I tasted the creativity & authentic touch of the chef who prepared these dishes. Despite being served in a well established restaurant setting, my platters felt like they had of touch of home in them.

That’s what make this restaurant such a personal gem that’s now in my lunch & dinner rotation replacing another place I use to frequent. It’s that home touch they put on their cuisine while maintaining that high degree of professionalism required of them. Without a doubt, Wild Ginger in my dining rotation.

I can’t stress enough how much I enjoyed their beef fried rice. I’ll reveal this! You know, a steakhouse always ask if you need anything else after brining you your steak. My beef fried rice didn’t need an ounce of soy sauce as soy sauce would’ve ruined the pleasant experience I had eating my dish. Imma tell you now, I’ve only done that a few other times at a couple other Asian Infused Specialty restaurants. As far as the chains along with the majority of other local restaurants. I soak my rice in soy sauce. Well soak an over exaggeration but I hope you get the moral...