Hei Place — Restaurant in Johnston

Friends and acquaintances gave me high recommendations for this restaurant so I thought I’d check it out with great anticipation and high expectations. We were seated right away which I believed to be a really good start. After this, it was pretty much downhill.

First drinks: my companion ordered a beer and got it right away. I ordered a pot of hot jasmine tea which took a very long time to arrive, and when it did, it was way too strong from steeping too long.

Next app: We ordered a fried lobster sushi role with mango and tiny orange fish eggs (flying fish roe, I believe) and while it tasted quite nice - I could not taste the lobster … I only tasted the mango and fish roe. Same with my companion.

Finally main dishes: I ordered the scallop lemongrass dish which tasted pretty darn good. My companion ordered a wide, flat noodle dish with beef and mixed veggies and it arrived promptly - except it wasn’t what he ordered! He specifically ordered the wide flat noodle dish and what came was a dish on very thin crispy yellow fried noodles. When his dish finally arrived - which seemingly took forever - I had finished my dish.

During our meal I ordered extra napkins and a dessert menu - and these too took way too long to arrive. We got the dessert menu AFTER our waitress brought us the check. I could only wonder if she was trying to push us out of our booth so she could turn over the table? I could not help but notice our waitress being johnny-on-the-spot with nearby tables with their drinks, napkins/flatware, appetizers and main entrees. I guessed they were her regulars while we were new, not to mention they ordered at least five items plus drinks, and we only ordered one beer, hot jasmine tea, one appetizer and two entrees.

The timing of everything we ordered was so off … it was ridiculous. The sushi roll was good - not fabulous. My entree was delicious. My companion’s entree was so late it didn’t matter how great, good, mediocre or whateveri it was at this late stage of our meal.

Atmosphere was very casual, pretty average and nothing special. Service was extremely poor. Compared to other pan-Asian restaurants, it was below overage overall. The food we ate is definitely catered to local Rhode Island taste buds - not those with a discerning palate for authentic Chinese, Cambodian or Japanese cuisine.

Pricing for portion sizes seem average compared to other pan-Asian restaurants.

If you seek authentic Asian dishes - be it Chinese, Khmer, Korean, Japanese, Uyghur or whatever I don’t mention here - save your cash and skip this joint entirely to satisfy your taste buds. I won’t bother giving this place a...

Good lunch today, but I have never been served Curry Chicken where the chicken is deep fried. This dish is always, always served with thinly sliced, velveted, stir fried chicken which is what most people would expect the preparation to be. Since this dish is only featured on the lunch menu, there is no description of how it is prepared as a main menu item and no indication that it is served deep fried anywhere on the menu. The sauce and vegetables were well prepared and delicious, but I was not desiring a breaded, deep fried dish. I do not waste food, so I ate it as prepared, but will not order it again. The hot and sour soup with my combination lunch was full of vegetables and tofu, nicely spicy and not overly thick or sweet which was perfect for my taste. Our Shrimp Nime Chow appetizer was not made with large shrimp, but with small salad shrimp which was a little disappointing, however the vegetables were fresh, they were properly rolled and the dipping sauce was delicious. My husband's House (shrimp, pork & chicken) Udon Noodle soup with 3 large, beautifully prepared tempura shrimp was outstanding and an extremely good value as is everything on the menu. You will not walk away hungry! The service was excellent as always and the dining room was immaculately clean and comfortable although I could have done without the modern country music exclusively playing in the background throughout our visit, a very unusual choice for an Asian restaurant. Overall it was a...

Don’t let the nice interior fool you… the food is horrible and portion sizes are tiny. Before this rating, we’d ordered takeout here twice: first for Sushi, second for Chinese.

The sushi rolls are laughably small. I had to take a picture because they were only about as thick as a quarter, and they were poorly rolled and fell apart when you picked them up.

However, since the first time we ordered was during a holiday, we figured we’d give them the benefit of the doubt and try their Chinese. It was worse. The chicken and broccoli tasted old and strongly of burnt garlic. If you order the dinner special, more than half the container will be filled with “pork fried rice” and you’ll get about a cup-sized portion of the actual dinner order. The “pork fried rice” tastes old and off, and has gray mystery meat in it. We couldn’t eat it and threw it out. The “General Tso’s Shrimp”...