Asia Grille — Restaurant in Lincoln

I grew up in a large city and would get Chinese food weekly and at numerous different places. My relatives would routinely make traditional Chinese dishes. So I have had my fair share of traditional Chinese food and American Chinese, throughout my life so far.

I've heard great things about Asia Grille from the locals of Rhode Island. I believe I've ordered take out from Asia Grille numerous times and dined in once. My wife, an RI native, has been ordering from here for the past many years.

I can honestly say that I disagree with all the hype from here. I've had 6 dollar lunch specials from small Chinese food places that are better than this place.

I recently ordered beef with oyster sauce. I saw it on the menu and it gave me a nostalgic feeling. My eyes lit up and I just remembered the times my brother and I were excitedly waiting for my father to come home on a Friday night with our beef with broccoli/beef with oyster sauce that came with white rice. And remembering how tasty it was. It was 14$ and did not come with rice. What kind of place claims to be a traditional Chinese restaurant and does not include white rice with their dish? Jasmine rice that is traditionally paired with every entree. The rice was a side add-on that wasn't expensive. The sauce had no flavor in it and tasted like it was watered down. I know what oyster sauce is. My mother cooks with it all the time. I use it to make fried rice every once in a while.

I was extremely disappointed.

The boneless spare ribs are always large cuts and almost as hard as a stale pizza crust. The fried rice always tasted plain. The Asia style wings are normally over cooked and hard, but this recent order they were decent.

The crab Rangoons, and fried dumplings are decent.

We only order from here if we received gift cards, otherwise we feel like our money is wasted.

I feel like Asia Grille is gentrified and just pumps out large quantities of food for profit. My wife tells me she believes Asia Grille is going down in quality.

I'm sad to say the traditional food here is not good and I never thought it was good from the moment I was introduced...

I never wanted to give a bad review but I have looked everywhere to send a message. I ha e been going to Asia Grille in Lincoln, since they opened. Recommended this place to everyone I know, even when I have friends coming from out of state. AFTER the way I was treated tonight I don't know if I will be able to do this. This was my second time ordering online, I patiently waited in line for 25 minutes when it was my turn the young kid got rude. When asked online or phone in , I said online asked me for a order number, which I didn't have for my phone was in car. Last time I ordered online all they asked did was my name , mind you at this point its been almost an hour since I ordered my food. He proceeds to tell me well we can't find it go get you order number, I said I don't want to stand in line again, the line was when longer. He said you don't have to aggravated. As I'm walking back in he comes rushing at me shoves my package at me and says here found your order. I was embarrassed everyone just looked as confused as me. I get they were busy but I patiently waited my turn and did not deserve such rude customer service. Of course I did not get my fortune cookies...and even better when I would go I to eat these last few months because I do love their Mai tais was told I couldn't have bread it was for take out only...well guess what apparently not even take out orders get it. And of course my food was stone cold. I will never do take out again, and it's sad because the owners are great people who always nice but their staff has just become so rude. I may try again. But only to eat in. Sad when you get so big as a business which is because of your customers , it's sad how customers are now treated. Time to start trying other...

I'm going to itemize my thoughts about the food itself to better express them.

The wings are well-cooked, but bland and greasy. The spare ribs were tough and had little flavor. I do not recommend them. The Mongolian beef is just ok. The meat is cooked well, but I don't recommend it to people who enjoy it well-done, since my beef was pink in the middle. The sauce was a little sweet for my tastes, and the onions a bit too soft. For some reason, the sesame chicken only had 3 broccoli in it? Otherwise it was fine. The house rice is flavorful, and I appreciate the variety of vegetables. The water chestnuts were a lovely addition. There was little meat in it.

Overall, the food experience was mediocre and I'm not quite sure why this establishment is rated so highly. They no longer accept call-in orders, apparently, as any attempts to contact them over the phone was met with a single ring followed by a bot informing me that I needed to order online. My real gripe is that everything on the menu is a la carte, something that is not clarified on the menu. White rice is a $3 upcharge, meaning that my Mongolian beef came without a side. I've never been to an American-Chinese restaraunt that didn't serve rice with your entree, so this was an unpleasant surprise. Additionally, the food sits pretty heavily in your stomach once you've finished, and several of us walked away with stomach aches. I can't say that I plan on coming back; it's just not...