HUMAY Sushi & Japanese Cuisine — Restaurant in Sarasota

Hm. Maybe we should have gone for dinner instead of lunch. Or maybe we ordered the "wrong" items. Nevertheless, this was far from a good experience. The restaurant says it opens at 11:30; we arrived at noon, to find the floor had just been mopped, with mop and large caddy full of dirty water in the space in front of the bathroom entrance - in the restaurant itself. The place smelled like disinfectant, to the point where we almost walked out. However, we were greeted by a friendly waiter, and decided to take a chance. We ordered a shrimp tempura bento box, Singapore noodles, side of edamame, side of age dashi tofu, and both salmon and salmon roe sushi. (Yes, we were hungry!) When we asked the waiter for the noodle dish, he got worried and said it was "very spicy". We like spice! we said, and asked also for "Japanese red pepper, also called togarashi", only to be told "We don't have that. We only have sambal." Okay, sambal. The age tofu came first and was all right; over-saturated with panko, and oddly cut into cubes. The sauce was also just all right, served steaming hot. Unusual, but decent enough. Sushi was average, with the salmon cut on the wrong bias. The ginger served with the sushi (and the bento box) was worthy of my pet peeve - cheap pickled ginger that's been processed so it leaves a metallic taste in your mouth. Very annoying. The miso soup arrived, a watery bowl of undistinguished liquid with a few pieces of tofu floating in it. We both tried it and decided not to bother. When the waiter came to clear it, he didn't bother asking whether it was all right, despite the bowl being almost full. My companion jumped in and said "That soup is awful!" and his response was "Oh. Must be that it's the first pot. Want something else?" How confusing - so they make the soup early in the day and let it sit, simmering, until some of the liquid burns off and you have a decent taste again? Eww. I'm sorry. This was not dashi-based, and there was no miso taste by any stretch of the imagination. But the bento box. Oh dear... The edamame was so old the edges were brown, and it had brown spots throughout. It was room temperature and biting into it was like biting into leather. The tempura shrimp were awful - they resembled tiny corn dogs, and were so uniform that we could only assume they came out of a frozen box and were re-heated for our meal. The accompanying tempura sweet potatoes were cut into squares, and ditto about the frozen meal. The Singapore noodles, which we'd been told were very spicy, had just the tiniest bit of heat to them, and were the only really edible thing out of all our dishes. Unfortunately, they were lukewarm - I wouldn't have minded hot, or cold, but in-between made any possible tastiness disappear into the oil they'd been cooked in. The club soda was fine. That's about all I can say, except that our search for great sushi and great Japanese food in the Sarasota/Bradenton area...

All I can say is wow! I eat out quite a bit for work so I get to see a lot of restaurants and this one is amazing. First time eating here and it won't be the last. All I had was one of the inexpensive lunch specials. You know the kind. It comes with soup or a salad, or a spring roll. You would have thought I was eating off the regular menu the way the food tasted. It was a hot day and I almost got the ginger salad like my friend, but the way the hot and sour soup was described I had to try it. It was utterly fantastic. It was full of spice and flavor. Then I had the Singapore noodle special with chicken and it was delicious. Very reasonable prices. And the place was spotless including the bathroom. You literally could have eaten off their floor. Get to downtown Sarasota and try this place if you...

Update!! AL and Lilly, we Miss you!! They always treated us like family! When a restaurant closes you not only lose the food, you lose good people In the community as well. This is a old review for Wild Ginger!! The name and quaint curtains caught our attention while driving empty streets of downtown on March 20th. We asked for chef's recommendation on sushi and sashimi dinner. Totally fell in love with people and the place while waiting. And what a treat our dinner was! Sooo good!! We came back the next day to treat ourselves for a wonderful birthday dinner! They surprised us again! Thank you! We are looking forward to coming back and sitting down to experience it all when we can gether again. Meanwhile, please keep ordering carry out from them so they can stay in business! God...