Wonder Ardmore — Restaurant in Lower Merion Township

A HORRIBLE DINING EXPERIENCE THAT IS BAD FOR ARDMORE.

This ghost kitchen (it isn't a restaurant) represents a major threat to the variety of unique restaurants that give Ardmore its soul. It hopes to replace it with a business shell that will make one rich guy in NYC extremely rich at Ardmore's expense.

First the good: the food that I received, a Detroit-style pizza, was legitimately 4/5 stars. I am from Detroit-metro, so I know a good Detroit-style pizza, and this was good. Not great, but good.

Now the rest: I went there with my fiance, who ordered from one of the other restaurants who had sold their recipes to this ghost kitchen, after spending 15 minutes going from restaurant to restaurant on the app, selecting food to order, and then being told that it turns out they didn't have the ingredients to make the meal. It was an awful app that created major friction just to ordering the food.

My pizza came out in 25 minutes; her order originally said 35 minutes, but after 35 minutes, it tacked on another 20 minutes. By the time I finished eating, it had tacked on another 20 minutes and still listed it as not having begun prepping the food. The meal was never going to get made, and it was just going to string her along 20 minutes at a time. We cancelled the order.

Then there was the stream of delivery drivers who would just throw their emergency flashers on and "park" in the middle of Lancaster ave, causing backup after backup. They would hang out in the store for sometimes 10 minutes until their food was ready. I saw it happen at least 4 times in the hour we spent waiting for my fiance's fictional food.

I STRONGLY RECOMMEND THAT THE ARDMORE POLICE DEPARTMENT KEEP AN OFFICER WITHIN VIEW OF THIS STORE.

Finally, this business model of a ghost kitchen, a business that isn't a real restaurant but instead a collection of other restaurants' recipes, will suck the life from the real restaurants that make Ardmore the vibrant community that it is. Instead of trying to get the family to all agree to try the new Ethiopian restaurant, people will be drawn to the business that has 7 different types of cuisine so no one is even mildly disappointed.

If you think the multicultural food scene in Ardmore is worth preserving; if you don't want to be stuck behind traffic jams caused by inconsiderate delivery drivers; if you don't want to fund the ex-CEO of Walmart as he tries to disrupt the lifeblood of the local economy, then please don't support Wonder.

Oh, and also EVERYTHING I OVERPRICED. It was like $30 for a single-serving Detroit pizza and 4...

Engaging array of top Chef menus offering mostly comfort foods like wings, ribs, burgers but also Thai, Italian, and more. The appeal is that each person in your group can order from a different "restaurant" included in their one-location offerings. No clue how food production works with a dozen diverse restaurants offerings produced out of 9ne kitchen.

What I tried was good but you either have to eat early, as I did, to get a seat at one of only four tables. Or take it home. Or wait and hope someone vacated before your food us ready. There's zero atmosphere -- it's like a clean, bright small cafetetia -- so no reason people would linger at tables after eating.

Download QR code to download thier app to order and store your info for future. Or order from one of their two kiosks which sort by chef/restaurant or by category such as salads, sandwiches, desserts (of which there are only 4 on offer, each with dairy, caffeine, or both so... if you have IBS or similar issues, no dessert fir you. ( But there is a great bakery a block away on Lancaster, which closes midafternoon so strategize.)

Printed copies of each restaurants menu are available in a rack behind the order kiosks. I preferred this for better overview and, once decided, ordered from kiosks. Others were fine with downloading to order through app. First visit you may want a lot I'd time to peruse all options.

I enjoyed a delicious chicken Cordon Bleu sandwich, fried onion rings, and cucumber salad for some fresh bakance. (Half the rings and half the cucumbers came home with me.) The cucumber salad comprised skin-on, halved chunks of only cucumbers in a dressing that definitely needed more vinegar. (Which I added at home along with some chili flakes. It was too bland without it.) It's a very large portion; half this amount would be a good side dish.

Drink refrigerator has diverse offerings. I went with delicious flavored seltzer.

Staff is exceedingly helpful in coaching customers through their novel concept.

It's perfunctory for dining in. Yet many of the dishes would not travel well to take home. Not sure the demand level at regular meal times but I'm guessing they should be larger, with more seating. I had no trouble at 3pm, but it was full when I left.

I'm intrigued enough by the other offerings to try this Wonder-filled place again. There's gotta be a reason they have dozens of locations all over New York City and boroughs. It's like a high end comfort food court in a...

Sounded like a great idea. A bunch of restaurants which are known to make good food, served under one roof. Unfortunately, it sounded too good to be true. You browse through menu after menu, half a dozen or more restaurants on the order screens. It all sounds delicious. How is it possible to make quality food in this way? With so many different offerings, Italian, Mediterranean, Asian? The answer is you don't. The food reminded me of being served items from Applebee's, CPK or other fast casual chains where they probably microwave your food back in the kitchen. Actually, it was worse than those places. Some of the flavors were nice, but there was something about the quality of food that reminded me of eating at an airport or on the plane. The first meal I had there was "Mediterranean" chicken kabob. The chicken had char marks, but I think it was microwaved. The mint leaves included on the plate were rotten. The second time I was there, I had an expensive pizza which was just okay. Seemed undercooked. I may try "Wonder" one more time, but I know it's impossible to make really good food unless there's a focused menu and it's prepped with fresh ingredients. It's just not possible to deliver anything other than what I've had there so far. Kind of middling to...