Red Ginger Melbourne Square — Restaurant in Melbourne

My wife and I ate here for the first time a few days ago. It was two days after hurricane Irma passed through, and it was one of the few places in the area that was actually open. We had been meaning to stop in for a while now, so I was pretty excited as Chinese cuisine in the area is definitely lacking, and I had heard good things about Red Ginger.

While we waited for a hostess, I noticed a sign behind the bar. "Wells, wine, and B.L. drafts buy 1 get 1 free all day". We were seated, and the server took our drink order. I asked for a Manhattan, citing the sign behind the bar. She had no idea what I was asking for. I explained that it's a cocktail, and that I was ordering it because wells were buy one get one free. Still extremely confused, she walked away to ask her manager. The manager comes to the table, verifies my drink order, and goes and mixes me one himself. I get my drink, we order our food, everyone is happy.

We ordered the bobo platter, and a spider roll. They brought us the food rather quickly, along with my second drink, and the bobo platter came with some crazy flaming iron burner in the center. It was really cool. I'm not sure if it actually had any function, but there was fire coming out of the top, so I was impressed. The bobo platter was good but nothing really stood out. The spider roll, however, was very impressive. My mouth is watering just thinking about it right now. Seriously, if you decide to go to Red Ginger, order the spider roll.

Anyway, we got our bill (in a timely manner, which is a huge plus for me as this seems to be where most good servers fail), and I notice I was charged for both of my drinks. I asked the waitress, and she explains to me that Manhattans are not buy one get one free. Only "house wells" are. I responded, "All wells are house wells. That's the point of a well drink....it costs less because you guys choose your own cheap liquor to make it." She looked uncomfortable and clearly didn't know what to say back. I then politely asked if I could speak with the manager who had served me my drink earlier. She said, "of course", and darted away to get him.

A few minutes pass and she comes back looking even more uncomfortable than she did before she left. "I'm sorry, but he says that Manhattans are not buy one get one free. Also, he says he is too busy to come and talk to you". I looked around. The restaurant was almost empty. "He's too busy to come talk to me?", I asked. Her face turned red. "Yes, I'm sorry, he is very busy". I paused for a second and said, "Oooooooookay, I guess I have to pay for it then. Thank you." We paid the bill and we left.

Honestly, I've never even heard of a manager doing something like that. I actually saw the guy walking around between tables when we left. Too busy? And what is the deal with this drink issue. Don't advertise buy one get one free wells if that's not the actual deal. House wells? I suppose they mean only their specialty drinks apply to this deal? If that's the case, then you need to state that on the sign. They were specific about Bud Light being the only draft. If they just said drafts, and I ordered a TsingTao and got charged for two, it would be the exact same thing. This is bad advertising, and that falls on the restaurant, not the customer. A lot of negative points here. I'm being extremely generous with a 3 star rating, I think, and I only gave them that third star because the waitress was efficient, and that spider roll deserves a star on it's own.

I noticed the owner responds to many of these reviews. Here is my advice. First, fix your sign. Second, educate your wait staff on the basics of bartending. They should know what a Manhattan is, they should know what wells are, and they should definitely know that when someone orders something and specifically cites a deal that their order does not work with, they should tell them up front that they will be charged regular price. Had I had known, I would have just...

UPDATE Owner replied... They are going to look into it.. What a joke. When I spoke to someone that day and they could care less. Doesn't change the fact that I got charged $30+ a plate for much less out than advertised on their menu, that was after calling ahead. Service was some of the worst I have ever seen. Questionable how long some items had been out after we were told about the large party the night before and we were late for our appointment. A ruined, disappointing meal ALL AROUND. But by all means... Please look into it... And your very welcome for the feedback. Trust me I'm sharing it with everyone I know Came today with 3 other people for hot pot & very disappointed. If you are going to sell hot pot, you should have a stocked area. We called ahead & asked if you had items in stock (especially veggies) due to 3 prior visits where your advertised items were not available and we constantly got the excuse of "changing vendors" let me share something you guys may not know..PUBLIX HAS VEGGIES! Go buy some and stock your area! Plus... The veggies you were always lacking were veggies used in other dishes.. How could you always be out??? . We were assured THIS TIME you had plenty of veggies & everything in stock. meat, sauces & noodles were bare. We had to ask multiple times for the veggies we were assured were plentiful. Funny they couldn't stock for customers but, the kitchen kept coming out and taking from what little was out to cook in the back!! The service was atrocious. No napkins, silverware, plates even serving spoons we given. I had to chase people down to get these items EACH TIME. 20 mins to get a pot of broth to our table, then as the other pot was boiling we noticed our server never even turned my pot on. $70+ wasted. Yes we did speak to the owner or manager (not sure who he was cause he only nodded his head and walked around a little) he gave us a story about the manager abandoning them or something. Another employee gave a different story that there was a 10 top last night that stayed late. (Don't see how that could affect their ability to stock the section properly on the day we were there unless she was trying to say the items that were out were left over from the night before still?? Ewww). We were late for our salon appointment due to the lack of proper service. But of course they wouldn't care. He Didn't offer TO DO anything, just give excuses. We have been there dozens of times over the years, being very loyal since they opened. NEVER AGAIN. Do yourself a favor and go ANYWHERE ELSE. And for the person who owns this place. If you can't open properly... DON'T OPEN. Or Just don't open the hot pot till it's clean and stocked properly. Still in disbelief at how many things were wrong with this visit and not even 1 sorry or how can i fix...

I came here on a Saturday afternoon around 1 pm with my dad. It was pretty dead inside, maybe 3 other tables. It took some time to be acknowledged/seated. Our server forgot we ordered water as our only drink. No big deal.

Ordered the Basil Tuna roll on the lunch menu that says it comes with a chimichurri sauce. When the rolls came out it looked just like a plain tuna cucumber roll so I tried it plain and it was in fact just tuna cucumber. The whole reason I ordered the roll was because a basil chimichurri sounded out of this world. Our server never came to check on us once he dropped the food in this empty restaurant. So I ate my other roll and waited and waited and waited and waited until we saw him and called him over. I let him know that there’s no basil chimi on the roll so he takes it back to the chef and returns with my same roll covered in duck sauce, which is pretty unbelievably gross. When he sets it down I look at him, look at the orange duck chili sauce on my roll, and ask - “This is the basil chimichurri sauce? It’s orange. What kind of basil is orange?” and he shrugs and just says that’s what the chef said the sauce is. It was the most apathetic, nonchalant, non-problem solving way a server could have handled the situation. Truly unreal. In no world is chimichurri duck sauce and given he’s a server at a restaurant he should know what basil looks like.

I taste the sauce, it’s duck sauce, and it’s ruined the roll. It’s absolutely in no way what I ordered at all, a second time. More time passes without him checking until I can finally order a different mediocre roll to replace it. No apologies or care from the server. If you work in a Chinese restaurant, you should know that this sauce is in fact a duck/chili sauce. That is BASIC information. Don’t call it a basil tuna roll if there’s zero basil on it. Twice.

Red Ginger needs to do a service training so their servers know what common herbs look like and how to provide proper service especially in an empty restaurant.

Save your money and go get actually amazing sushi and service down the...