Red Ginger Asian Bistro — Restaurant in Lake City

You might wonder why there is a 1 star overall rating & yet I’ve given 5 stars for food and service. It’s not a mistake. When the food comes out as you’ve ordered, it’s delicious. The problem is getting it to come out right. We have a group that goes out to dinner 1x a week. We’ve been going to Red Ginger for the last 5 months. Recently more often than not The food comes out wrong, is cold, or 1 or 2 meals are so late coming to the table that everyone else is done eating. So when it comes to the food, if it’s right, it’s good, usually it’s not right. As for the service, again,, if you get the right waitress the service can be excellent. But if not, you might as well forget having a good night out. Also our group is usually made up of 3 or 4 couples. We each get our own bill, not 1 bill for all. All of a sudden the last few bills included an 18% gratuity. Sometimes this can be bad for the waitress. If she’s good, we’ll all leave 20-22%. Unfortunately we’ve had some pretty bad service recently and have only left between 10-15%. Now the tip is supposed to be a reflection of the service given and our appreciation for that service. The second to last visit, we had the most abominable service that I have experienced in a very very long time. When our bills came out, someone in the group noticed that an 18% charge had been added to the bill for gratuity. It also came up that someone had noticed it happened 2x before. It really became Obvious the night that our service was so bad. We were very unhappy having to pay to be treated so badly. So when it happened again tonight, we questioned management about it. Because the waitress was so good tonight we were intending on leaving 20% and as the conversation progressed all the others were leaving at least that amount. So, in this case, the waitress would not get her due. When management came over, they very clearly told us that the waitresses decide as to whether or not the 18% gratuity would be applied. And that this was just the way the owners did it. This makes no sense. When customers get lousy service, and the waitress knows full well that the service was awful, then you’re telling me the waitress can just say add 18% for my tip. Why would we be willing to pay 18% to a waitress who provided such horrible horrible service? Alternately, tonight’s waitress was short changed. We said to management that we would like the 18% taken off so we could give the waitress what she was due, And they refused. So before we left I approached our waitress and told her that I was sorry that she had chosen to go with the 18% because we thought she was a very good waitress & were going to give her more. She said, in direct contradiction to management, that the waitresses do not choose whether or not a table of 6 or more is charged the 18%. Someone lied. One night a week for 5 months, Probably $100-$150 each time and we warrant no consideration as regular customers. We have gotten lousy service, we have gotten lousy food and now we have been lied to. To top it all off, they could care less they just let us walk out the door. Knowing, since we told them, we would never come back again. What they didn’t know is that I would not just drop the issue. I have gone there regularly for a lunch group for almost 2 years. I bought $800 worth of gift cards at Christmas. I am amazed at how badly we have been treated. Yes we’re vocal when the service or food is bad, but still polite. We simply ask for management to come over. We give good tips & we’ve brought other new business into the location. now, I truly hope this review does the opposite. If it’s not a Monday night & you want Chinese, I would highly recommend Hong Yip over near Beef O’Brady’s. Unfortunately it is takeout only. If you want Thai, there’s an excellent Thai place in Starke called Tip Thai. Red Ginger has gotten too big for its britches and I would avoid it to the point of eating at home and having to wash...

Ordered online at around 5:50pm. I noticed that I wasn't given the option to schedule the time to pick up the food. So I called and told the employee who answered that I had just ordered online but that I was a ways away from Lake City so they didn't need to start on my order quite yet. I was fully expecting to be told that wouldn't be possible but the employee was very understanding and said no problem. She asked what time I would be there and i said around 7pm. I arrived at 6:55pm. There were 2 girls behind the counter. One facing me and the other with her back turned to me. They were chatting and I stood there waiting for a break in their conversation to tell them my name and pay for my order. At first, she said she didn't have any orders for anyone with my name but then I explained that I had called and said that I'd be here at around 7 and that seemed to refresh the employee's memory. She said that my food should be ready in a few minutes. I watched her walk to the back multiple times and come back with food....that she bagged up and gave to other people who came in after me. It was very obvious from the beginning that she had forgotten to take order to the back but instead of saying that she opted to let me sit there. 20 minutes later, she finally said my order was ready. Now if she had been honest, waiting 20 minutes wouldn't have been so bad or if she'd said anything to me in between the time I came in until the time I finally got my order. She did apologize as I was picking up the food but it was too little too late but then. Did I mention that the weather was bad out and since I had been there waiting it had gotten much worse and I had to walk to my car in the pouring rain. If my order was ready at 7, 7:05, 7:10.....I would've at least been in my car before the bottom fell out of the sky. Need less to say, I was annoyed with my experience. The food was just okay. I won't be back...

Update: Now management is obligating all their staff to sign a contract and not be allowed to read it. Since this review, management has threatened employees with their jobs and told them the tips go to "kitchen staff," which is unlikely since they probably don't pay their undocumented kitchen staff a fair wage. Management is finding ways to extort their staff and steal the money their clientele gives their slaves. I mean staff. Lake City, they are doing this to your citizens and are being fired on the spot if they don't sign. Threatened when we know getting a job is hard enough to find, and this injustice becomes the new norm. This action is classified as extortion.

From before the update: I don't know how to feel after finding out that the servers have their tips taken away from them significantly. Management pockets most of the money. As a guest, if you tip your takeout person, it 100% goes to management.

I learned about all this from a few employees who asked me not to tip because they feel it's not right that management pockets the money. They also make their underage employees work past 5 hours, which is illegal. They would work from 10-12 hours. I respect if you're of age and not in school, but being that young, you'd be naive to believe this is normal. Let me also add that paystub are not provided to all their employees to know what they are being paid and taxed. Management throw fits about providing said documents that should be legally provided to them ALL.

Please reconsider tipping when you come and ask your server for alternative ways to tip them via Zelle,...