SawaAsian Cuisine & Lounge — Restaurant in Gardner

Me and my wife have gone here on average two times a week for the past two years. The food is always AMAZING. BUT, There is always this one waitress whom seems to not care for us very much for some reason unbeknownst to us. I intend to get her name the next time we eat here but unfortunately do not know what it is at this time. Tonight was the final straw for us leading to this review. We went in for dinner tonight at 9pm on 6/7/18. We were not sure exactly what time the restaurant closed at but figured they served until 9:30-10. There were four other parties already seated, one of which had just gotten their food as we sat down. We ordered our food... two sushi rolls and a general tso’s chicken entree. Everything came to our table extremely quickly and looking as delicious as it always does. The food lived up to every previous experience we have had! The waitress that took our order was very nice and is not the same person as whom I am suggesting does not care for us very much as stated earlier in this review. So, the moment that made my wife and I look at each other tonight and say we are definitely writing a review was in the middle of our meal. We were two pieces away from finishing our sushi and moving onto our entree (we like our sushi first as an appetizer kinda of deal) when this waitress came up to us and asks us “why did you come here so late tonight”?. HOW RUDE! She insisted we take our time finishing eating With a big smile on her face but I wasn’t letting here get away with her passive aggressiveness this time. I asked her if it was okay that we were still here eating our meal this late (9:20pm) and asked for her permission to continue and told her that we wouldn’t take much longer to finish up. We LOVE Sawa and will continue to spend our money here but the next time we go in we will be asking for this waitress’s name and if seated in her section we will ask to move. We are not picky people... this girl is just rude and does not care about customer loyalty. PASSIVE. AGRESSIVE. PERSON. Until next time sawa... we love you! Not her.......

Love, Tyler &...

loved sawa at the previous location and wanted to visit the new building. It was breathtakingly beautiful coming in. Menu was much smaller, but I love Korean food so I decided on the bi bim bap. Received interesting chopsticks with new tips, as I went to put the chopsticks together, brown gunk came out as I put the wooden tip into the plastic reusable part. Decided it was a fluke, used my fork. Got sushi rolls for appetizer, there was a hair in the California roll. Received our orders and the waitress insisted on mixing my bi bim bap for me which was surprising. I tried a bite without adding the spicy sauce (which is typically gochujang, but the waitress didn't know what I was saying) and I was immediately hit with an over powering level of spice. I then proceeded to find a hair stuck to the serving spoon she mixed my food with. Tried eating, was too spicy. My boyfriend proceeded to eat his food and found a hair in his sauce as well. I decided that was the final straw and stopped eating and the server came over. I pointed out the hairs and chopstick situation and she argued with me, claiming they were new chopsticks tips and my boyfriend ate his food. I agreed and said I'd pay for our drinks and his food but I'd like my mailn course taken off. She then proceeded to angriligy take everything away and loudly discuss with the manager. She came back and said my meal was taken off and I thanked her while my boyfriend proceeded to fill out the tip slip (we still gave her 15% as we were both servers once and understand). She came back, proceeded to read the slip in front of us angrily before we could even get up out of our seats. More than 3 strikes, and we definitely saw ourselves out. We will not be...

Since our local Chinese restaurant was bought out a year ago- and the new management changed everything- we’ve been on the hunt for a new Chinese restaurant. Our standards are apparently really high- because we haven’t yet found anything even remotely comparable.

Almost $130- nowhere near $130 worth of food- portions are ridiculously small. The woman asked, when we picked up the food if we were having a party. Hahahaha that had to have been a joke. At our old place, $130 fed five adults, full meals, at least twice- four adults this time, and maybe two will get a snack tomorrow.

House Lo Mein and house fried rice and General Tao were great! And that’s where any compliments end. The chicken wings were breaded, small, dry and tasteless. The chicken teriyaki were like tenderloins cut in half- weaved onto the stick- dry and had zero teriyaki taste and some weird bread like coating- but not. The crab Rangoons were standard, not oily but way too sweet. The egg rolls were cabbage, and not even filled properly, one bite had a sauerkraut flavor- gross. The spring rolls tasted like they were the frozen ones from Walmart.

This place was reported to be decent, and we were willing to give it a try. We won’t be returning, and the hunt is still on. I’d give just about anything for a decent celery filled egg roll. Gonna have to start heading north into...