Ni Asian Kitchen — Restaurant in Raleigh

Never been here before, but my friend wanted to go here for her ‘just divorced’ celebratory lunch.

Time - Saturday at 11:30 - 1PM.

Google said peak time on Saturdays were noon with an up to 15 minute wait. Several parties came & went, with no wait.

$ They offer a 10% military discount, but one must ask. Automatic 18% gratuity for parties of 5 or more $

Beginning of my beliefs about required qualities of sweet tea, down South scroll to next set of * to skip this

A vitally important question for me is, “How is the sweet tea?”

I was born and raised in the Carolinas.

When people bring me sugar to ‘sweeten’ COLD TEA, my spine wants to jump out of my body and smack them!

(Sugar dissolves only in HOT tea)

At Ni Asian, I ordered sweet tea, with a skeptical but curious mind.

It was very good. Not quite McDonald’s/Bojangles perfect, but much better than I’ve had at any other Asian places around here.

Do I fault them for that? Do I fault the owners of Asian restaurants for not correctly making Southern Sweet tea?

Yes! I fricking DO fault them.

If one can’t make a local drink correctly, don’t sell it!

One does not open a fish ‘n’ chips stand London, then dare only offer kimchi for a condiment! END sweet tea discussion

Very small - six booths max, and some outside café tables.

Very clean. Tables, seats, floor. No crumbs in booth seat cracks.

Karol (indeed, I checked & this is the correct spelling) was very attentive.

She arrived immediately with menus, and returned with our requested drinks. So soon we had not even fully seen the menu!

We had several questions about which dead animals were in which food items, which she either knew, or went to find out.

(She took those 8-10 steps to the kitchen, and came back quickly)

Our appetizers (edamame and vegetarian spring rolls) came out in just a few minutes, and were delicious.

All items were hot and fresh.

We split the beef and rice … something… which was not only yummy, but pretty as well.

My friend ordered the crab Rangoon.

Her face was infused with so much joy about the crab & spring rolls, that I ordered a bunch to go for her. T

First items in her fridge at her new place!

The Only Quibble- -: Napkins:- the paper napkins were so very thin a squirrel’s sneeze would blow one to pieces.

And slippery - kept sliding off of my lap.

PLUS, as we were seated, we were given ONE napkin each.

There were no napkin dispensers on the tables.

When we asked for ‘a lot more napkins’, we were given two additional pieces of paper that they called ‘napkins’.

However, when we saw where Karol got them, we were able to just lean out of the booth and reach the stack! Very...

Food SMELLED really really great. I walked in, asked a lady how the place worked, if I needed to order at the counter and they would bring it to me? or if I could sit outside and a server would come to me? She glanced up from her phone and said that I could sit outside and that someone would come out. I sat and waited patiently. I asked the lady next ro me what she was eating, it smelled SOOOO good. She said the sesame chicken. I was really looking forward to eating some won ton soup and some fresh spring rolls and then also ordering some of the sesame chicken to go to eat for dinner later!

A server came out and made eye contact with me and started walking towards me but I I glanced away for a second and he immediately changed direction and went inside. I figured he would be back. A little later a second server came out to check on the only two other tables on the patio. It's a very small sidewalk patio, Impossible to miss me. She came out a second time and still never acknowledged me. At this point I didn't feel I had the time to order food from this sort of place and better just try to grab some fast food on my way back into work to eat at my desk.

I took my menu inside where still no one acknowledged my presence and I just slowly set the menu down trying to make eye contact with anyone to ask if I some how misunderstood the first employee I asked. No one looked at me so I left.

But the food smelled REALLY good and I'd like to figure out how I could obtain some...

Ordered dynamite chicken, kung pow chicken, two egg rolls, hot and sour soup, spicy thai soup and bang bang shrimp. Chicken was cooked good. Flavor was severely disappointing on both dishes after reading reviews and the description. We got it how it came, no extra spice and not only was it not spicy at all but had no flavor really. I ordered lol mein instead of rice, was two dollars extra over the phone. Looked at the online ordering after the fact and it was only a dollar to add it there. What the heck? For 95 cents more I could have gotten a side of low mein in addition to the rice it came with. If the entrees hadn't been so disappointing I'd probably do that next time. Egg rolls were ok, nothing special or bad there. Bang shrimp were good but pre sauced so getting it to go was soggy. Good flavor but ruined by the pre saucing. Most places put it on the side. Lastly and most importantly, the soups were terrible. I can't really say enough bad things about it. Bland, not spicy at all. Seriously, do not get the soups. I've had dozens from different places and these were some of the worst. I would get the chicken again, hence the three stars. The different charging online vs on the phone, terrible soups and lack of flavor knocked two off. I thought that was very fair. Adding photos of the online order amount and what ours was from calling in. I know it's just a dollar but still...