Moonstone Modern Asian Cuisine & Bar — Restaurant in Town of North Hempstead

I am an Asian (Chinese), and I have been living in the area where the restaurant locates for many years. I have to admit that I rarely have the urge to try this restaurant ever since it opened. The reason is simple, despite the fact that it is called an "Asian Cuisine" restaurant, the locals know that it's mainly a "Chinese" restaurant. And, the Chinese know that a Chinese restaurant with a modern decoration and management usually ends up with one thing only -- expensive.

So, how's the result of my adventure? To sum it up, it is expensive. My wife and I ordered 1 appetizer (Imperial Beef Short Rib -- NOT WORTH IT, don't order), 2 entrees (Thai Chicken Fried Rice and Tangerine Sea Scallops), and 1 dessert (White & Dark Chocolate Mousse -- VERY GOOD). The bill is about $100 after tips. If you compare to most Chinese restaurants nearby, that's about 300% more than you would have to pay for the same amount of foods. In fact, Moonstone is probably more expensive than Peter Luger, arguably one of the most famous steak house in New York, just a block or so away.

However, do I think the high price justifies? I do think so.

First of all, the service is simply top-notch. If you are used to the non-existing services in most if not all Chinese restaurants, you will be amazed by the attentive services provided by the staffs. IMO, this factor alone worth 50% of the price tag.

Secondly, they are serving Asian-fusion, instead of traditional Asian foods. You may ask, shouldn't I pay them higher compliment if they serve more authentic Asian foods? Well, here's my logic. There are 3 ways you can make Asian cuisine better:

a) Use more expensive exotic raw materials: personally, I don't like this approach and I believe they are overhyped;

b) Stick with the traditional route, but push the execution to an artistic level that no one has heard of. Easy to say, difficult to do. The biggest problem is, not everyone can appreciate your hard work. You may fail before you succeed.

c) Expand the horizon of Asian cuisines by introducing new idea borrowed from other cuisines. It is also not easy to do, but somewhat easier than (b) because more people can recognize your achievement.

Moonstone picks (c), and the dishes they made are indeed delicious. Is it so groundbreakingly good that I would give it a 5 stars? No, but it is good enough, and DIFFERENT enough from restaurants that charge 300% less that I can look pass the expensive bill at the end.

This is my advice if you want to give this restaurant a try. If you don't mind paying a lot more than usual Asian restaurants, and you don't mind eating non-traditional Asian foods, but you DO care about good services, go there. You would not be disappointed. Will I go there again myself? Probably not for a while, but I would not be too resistant to the idea, especially if someone foots...

I had my daughters Sweet 16 party here this past weekend. Tommy is awesome. He spoke with me about every detail of the party and was very patient to make sure every detail was perfect. I did a prefix menu and the food was delicious and presentation was beautiful. I did a different menu for the teens and a different menu for the adults. Everything was absolutely perfect. The family style appetizers were plentiful for the adults and teens, nothing was cheaped out on by the restaurant and our wine glasses were always full. The servers were professional and on top of everything. Everything was served perfectly....nobody's orders were messed up....nobody was left waiting or hungry. Sushi is delicious and fresh.... guests loved the Rock Prawn Shrimp, Beef Short Ribs.....just everything, too many things to list. They were amazing with all the serious nut allergies and those people had all the choices of food that everyone else had and were able to eat all the appetizers too. Tommy spoke to me about all the allergies before the event and was amazing with my serious gluten allergy as well. He made sure to talk to me before the event and ask what I like and had special appetizers and dinner prepared for me custom. He thought of every detail including what kind of music she liked to make sure he had that music playing when her party was going on. He even had custom menus made with my daughters name on them for her party. The bartender also rocks. The drinks are always delicious and strong there....never watered down. He makes my margarita perfect exactly like I order it. Tommy wanted every detail to be perfect, with the decorating, the area he put us in, everything. I had absolutely no stress because of how great this restaurant was. Such a professional and classy place. Thank you Tommy and all the staff at Moonstone for making my daughters party perfect and memorable!!! I'm so happy my friend recommended this restaurant to me......we will all be back again...

I want to start by saying that I absolutely love moonstone. They have the best food, prompt ordering and delivery and the hostesses and waiters are very sweet. I frequent this place and I trust it as one of the only sushi/ chinese restaurants in the area that I actually like. A couple of months ago we ordered and picked up. One of the items was egg drop soup with wontons. We understand that the wontons are put on the side so the soup doesnt overflow. My mom spoke to the manager and told him that the soup wasnt as filled up as it should have been. He berated her and made her feel as if she was wrong for expecting the container to be filled. If the wontons are on the side, filling up the soup is expected. The manager was extremely and disturbingly rude. Still after this we continued to order from here because the food is good! Since that incident, we have placed 2 orders. Everytime we call, they look up your phone number and the hostess puts you on hold because she has to check if they can do our order! They put a red flag on our account. We are giving this place our business and they have us flagged as some sort of criminal because we complained about a soup????? That is utterly disturbing and disgusting behavior. We asked for a manager because we want this off the account and we were told he is not available. So from this moment we have decided to stop ordering from here. Its very frustrating and rude that a business would blacklist people. Instead of berating people for just voicing their opinion and offering an "IM SORRY," they basically make it like you committed a crime. I have read the managers response to bad reviews and the way he speaks to customers is really scary actually. Lots of people I know have stopped coming here because of the rude management. Learn how to respect and treat your customers. There are better places in the area such as pearl east, hunan and toku....