Indochine Restaurant — Restaurant in Wilmington

Before this review is typed up, I just have to say....WHOA about Indochine. I will do my best to describe the flavors and this curbside experience from 3 days ago, since I can still smell and taste the sublime flavors from this Thai / Vietmemese Restaurant.

FOOD: Pork Pad Thai; Pork-Fried Rice: Cha Gio. Beginning with the Cha Gio appetizer (Vietnamese Nem | Ground chicken, carrots, onions, mushrooms and glass noodles wrapped in flaky rice paper and deep fried. Served with nuoc cham dipping sauce and lettuce on the side), I took my first bite of this delicate roll and I was hooked. I must admit that I had never tasted Cha Gio before but that changes immediately. Each one is savory, lightly fried and perfectly sized. The blends of fresh veggies and ground chicken are perfecly balanced so that you don't taste more of one ingredient than the other. Loved this appetizer. The pork-fried rice and Pad Thai were also homeruns! It's a rarity when you eat out, order multiple dishes from the menu and everything turns out to be nothing short of exceptional!!! The Pork Pad Thai is the best Pad Thai I've ever consumed....bar none. Hints of smokiness resonate throughout the dish from the light char on the pork and from a perfect wok it was prepared in. Adding the fresh, crisp cabbage salad, sauces and crushed peanuts on top, gave the dish a refreshing, subtle "crunch" and some sweet heat. The Pork-Fried Rice included a 50/50 ratio of grilled pork to fried rice!!! What!?!?! I have never been served a fried rice dish that included such an abundance of protein throughout!! Tender, fresh and charred to perfection. Unbelievable curbside dinner and I'm already thinking of what to order next time. SCORE: 5 STARS!!

SERVICE: I placed a call-ahead, curbside pickup order after work and ran into a small challenge when doing so. Apparently, Indochine is rockin' around 6:30 pm so my initial call was a pick-up / hang-up by whomever the staff member was. After my call disconnected after the hang-up, I immediately called back and the phone was answered by a young lady after the 3rd ring. The staff member was pleasant and courteous, however, it was also very noticeable in her tone of voice and the speed of her introduction...she / the restaurant was very busy. At this time, I was thankful that I had already chosen what to order beforehand. When I arrived to pick up, I only waited an additional 5 mins of the stated pickup time. Another young lady approached my vehicle, confirmed my name and was practicing safe serving practices due to COVID-19. She was properly wearing a mask, gloves and maintained 6 ft social distancing as she waited for me to sign my receipt. Well done on this piece. All in all, it wasn't service that exceeded my expectations, but was acceptable. SCORE: 4.2 STARS!!

OVERALL SCORE: Indochine has me hooked after just 1 meal. Many Asian dishes I have tried over countless years, but none have compared to the flavors I enjoyed at Indochine. The Pad Thai is a MUST! If only the first staff member had not picked up and hung up on my initial call (could have very possibly been an anomoly) and if the young lady taking orders over the phone had taken a breath, rather than rushing through the order...this could have been a solid 5 Stars all around. Nevertheless, still an amazing restaurant with incredible food and acceptable service. Thank you, Indochine. 4.6 STARS!!

IG: ...

I love this restaurants food, and atmosphere. Every time that I ate here was amazing. But the last time I ate here on the 4th of July it was absolutely horrible. Our server took a while to show up to our table which could be understandable if they were short staffed that day due to the Holliday. After we ordered, it had already been an hour that we were waiting for our food and we wanted to see the fireworks near downtown Wilmington, so we go to their manager, Angie and express concern asking for to go containers. She doesn’t smile or even look me in the eye. I then tell her that we have been waiting for our food for an hour and she says “that’s pretty normal here” (which isn’t true because all the other times I have been to this restaurant, the food comes out in a timely manner). Anyways, when I was trying to talk to her she just walks away from me and doesn’t act professional AT ALL. I asked her for the containers and she asks “for what? Your sauce?” (Because we ordered an appetizer which came with sauce which was on the table and came out before our food) I then say “for our meals” and she then storms off and doesn’t show any concern. She was snappy with me and was the most RUDE AND UNPROFESSIONAL manager that I have ever encountered with. I also noticed that I wasn’t the only person she was being mean with. The whole time I was sitting down at our table I saw her roll her eyes and huff at her employees and customers. Angie honestly doesn’t need to be working in customer service if she isn’t going to be cordial and professional to customers. That’s the whole point of customer service. Coming from someone who has worked in the food service industry before. Anyways, this was a very terrible experience after hyping this restaurant up to my husband and our family that was visiting us for the 4th of July. I hope that things get taken care about Angie, the manager because my experience was absolutely unacceptable.

Edit: I also wanted to add that I asked for the manager to come to our table because I thought she was being rude to me, and she never showed up at our table. If that tells you...

I’d like to start by saying, the food here was awesome and our waitress was lovely but our experience at Indochine was completely colored by the negative interaction we had with the hostess. We tried to come in on Easter Sunday night and were told an hour wait, after an hour wait we still were not called and decided to cancel and try again Monday night - we arrived at 6 pm and were told it was an hour and a half wait - we decided to go to a local spot to wait it out and received a text message after an hour that we must be at the front desk within 5 minutes so we rushed over to be sure to be there in time, when we arrived 3 minutes later we were told “it was a mistake” and told another 20 minutes wait after which we just sat outside, after an additional 30 minutes (now at 1hr 30) I went back in to check in and was told it would be “soon” which is what she had said when she initially told me the text was a mistake so I I asked her to elaborate and she was clearly very annoyed and said another 20-30 minutes again, I nodded and went outside to discuss with my fiance what to do at this point because it would be 2 hour waiting time after which she came barging out of the door aggressively telling us “well we only have 14 tables out there” and I said I understand but we were told to come in now 35 minutes ago after initially waiting an hour and you’re telling us another 20-30 minutes and she said “this happens all the time” and walked away without giving me a second to respond - she was extremely unprofessional in the way she intruded on a personal conversation I was having with my fiance that she was clearly eavesdropping on and she was beyond disrespectful in the tone with which she spoke to me. She came out like she was looking to get into a physical altercation, it was extremely uncomfortable and had we not already sunk two nights and quite a few hours into waiting at this establishment we would have left but I refused to let her...