Bonsai Kitchen, modern Asian & sushi — Restaurant in Kannapolis

This place is a hidden gem in Kannapolis. The food is cleanly made, and delicious. The reason for 2 stars is this - 1.) Wait Staff - It becomes apparent after only a few visits that the wait staff are somehow either friends or family of the folks who own it and while they are nice, they are usually clueless when it comes to basic "waiting" skills. I.E. Keeping Drinks full, occasionally stopping by tables to see if they need anything, etc. It amazes me that to run a restaurant, it seems your wait staff is comprised mostly of people who are probably working after school or on their "free" days....if you would hire 1 legitimately trained waiter/waitress...they could easily tend to the whole restaurant. 2.) The food and portion size is often inconsistent. Portion sizes are kind of small for what you pay for to be honest and sometimes if you get soup, it's like they fill the bowl up halfway. Inconsistency comes from the fact that if there are more than 3 tables seated at one time, food will be of an obviously lesser quality than if you went in and were the only ones there. 3.) The silence - the unbearable silence that allows someone on one side of the restaurant to hear the conversation you are having is just bad for the vibe of the whole joint, play some music or something please.

I say all of these things because this is really a nice little spot, and with a few changes, it could be great. As a Kannapolis resident, I would love for this place to continue to succeed but it will take more than just good food for this place to become any more than it is. I would encourage anyone who is a local to become a regular at this spot, but I would also encourage the owners to turn around and invest that into quality improvement changes to enhance the experience of your patrons...or just switch to...

Its been over a year since I've been here since my last visit where I waited an hour for my food and placing my order 3 times. No discount or apologies given.

Now it's a new location but same owners . When you walk in you're welcomed with bright sunny colors but makes you wonder if you really are in an Asian restaurant . Never saw an Asian employee until I was leaving.

Employees were more welcoming this time and was even offered a dish with a hot towel on it for my hands before the meal. I was impressed.

The miso soup I ordered as an appetizer was not brought out until it was brought with the main course. The soup and dish were good as well as the green tea.

The green tea were fresh shredded leafs without a tea bag so you had to be careful sipping the tea as the leaves would end up in your mouth.

Did not receive a bill, but it wasn't busy, only 2 other tables. I tipped well but staff could not even say thank you for visiting or please come back when I left. Bad impression. One of the very few times I wasn't even offered a fortune cookie.

Food was good, tried something new. Service was better but if you can't even say thank you,...

My meal was just okay. I had the Bulgogi, it seemed to be missing something and it was not very flavorful. My wife enjoyed her yellow curry and the California Roll was good.

We were first ones in when it opened at noon on a Saturday. I stupidly assumed lunch was being served as it was lunch time, but we were charged dinner prices which I did not realize till later, I left thinking the bill was higher than I anticipated. We did not receive an itemized bill when we paid, I asked for a bill and was told it would be emailed to me. We had already left by the time the email finally came (from Square) and I seen we were charged for dinner. I looked at the menu again on their website and nowhere did I see Saturday was dinner prices. In hindsight I should have asked at the register about the price seeming high so I could have discussed it not being disclosed lunch was really dinner. Just feels a bit shady to me. We won't bother returning. We will stick with our favorite Sabaidee. At least there it is disclosed lunch specials are only...