Wild Ginger

I was skeptical of wild ginger (if you’ve read some of my previous reviews, i’m pretty fussy about asian fusion dining), but I have to say that wild ginger exceeded expectations.

I’ll start with the service. Our waitress at first seemed to be a little hippy chicky, which surprised me for being an upscale dining establishment, but she proved over the course of the night that she was a good waitress and knew the menu well. this was also the first time that i’ve had a server inquire about potential food allergies – i don’t have any, but i thought this was absolutely great, since a lot of people would be allergic to many of the ingredients used in these dishes.

Now, the food. All the food was flavorful, well-executed, and unique. The dishes are Asian-inspired, with a lot of Chinese and Southeast Asian flavors. The menu had extremely extensive choices – there’s a regular menu, and in addition to the regular menu, there were about 20 more choices! The dishes are meant to be shared family-style. My dinner companions didn’t seem to really agree with my taste in food, so i didn’t really get to try anything that i wanted to try, but everything we ordered was good, and there were even some greats in there. my favorite dish by far was the Seven Flavor Beef – tender and tasty, everything about this beef was perfect. I also really enjoyed the noodle dish, though I can’t remember which one it was… the catfish and prawns were good, as was the coconut gelato for dessert.

The one big negative about Wild Ginger is that the dishes are rather small for the price , so this probably isn’t a great place to go if you don’t have cash to burn (but perfect if you’re on work expenses!).

Overall, if I every stayed in downtown Seattle, I’d come here again. It’s definitely the best place I’ve found so far within walking distance of the downtown hotels.

Went back on a recent visit to Seattle…still one of m favorite spots anywhere…the fragrant duck, seven flavor beef, mountan lamb satays are not to be missed.

Small and expensive portions, but damn, are they delicious. Highly recommend the Sambal Prawns and the Lamb Bumbu. They make great cocktails too, I love their Negronis.

Overall, a good dining experience. I went with a party of 12, 2 of which were vegetarians. For the rest of us, we ordered 5 dishes, 2 portions of which, and ate family style. The amount of food was very close to right for this amount of people. I really liked ahi tuna and black pepper scallops. The beef had a bit of a stronger flavor for me. I didn’t like deep-fried chicken dish, as all that I tasted was oil. Green beans were okay. So, I’d go back for seafood.

I’m not sure why this restaurant is touted as much as it is. I think it’s grossly over rated. Granted I’ve had two items on the menu I do like a lot, but other than that I don’t see anything fantastic about the restaurant. I do hear they have great satays, but being allergic to peanuts, I can’t say I’ve tried them.

I feel that the portions are small, and the food is always tepid..or nearly at room temperature. The cocktails have never been blended properly, and the staff is amazingly slow.

It’s not a restaurant I crave to visit, unless my patience is inordinately high that day.

I can’t tell you what is good on this menu other than the satays because I literally crave all of the satays they have. The satays have me coming back over and over. And the mangoes with sticky rice — no other place which serves this dessert even compares!

Disappointed how commercialized Wild Ginger has become compared to it’s older days on Western Ave, this is a great venue for large party sizes with yummy food.

Filthy. From the food clinging to the flatware on the sauce-spattered tabletop (this was when we were first seated at a “clean” table), to the food spattered walls next to their bus trays (keeping a large tray full of dirty dishes right in the dining area is really nasty), to the lipstick that came unasked-for on my martini glass, I cannot find the words to describe how disgusting I found the Wild Ginger.
The food is mediocre at best. I can’t understand why so many people think the Wild Ginger is great. Maybe they just haven’t had any GOOD Asian food before?
I went as part of a party of four, and dined family style, which gave us the chance to sample several dishes. I wish I could say that each dish had a distinctive flavor, but though we ordered what we thought would be very different items, all six of them tasted the same: like a store-bought “instant” noodle bowl or curry from QFC. Though service was fairly quick and attentive, Wild Ginger should rethink the flour-sack uniform the servers wear. If it were really an upscale eatery, the staff might actually look decent, too.
We were definitely disappointed when dessert time came around. Ice cream and sorbet seem to be the only choices available. Certainly not what I would expect to find in a fine-dining establishment, but then, Wild Ginger only pretends to be one.
Filthy table and flatware/glassware, a pile of dirty plates in plain view during the entire meal, bland and boring food, and questionable choices sum it up for me. I would never even consider going back.

Get thee to Wild Ginger during lunchtime and order it, especially now that there’s a chill in the air! It is the best thing in the world. Not completely healty for you, but if you limit yourself to one bowl per month I believe you’ll live long and prosper.

Unfortunately, the soup is only served during lunch. We have been to Wild Ginger for both lunch and dinner and don’t get me wrong, their satays are quite delicious. But, I crave the Seven Elements Soup. Yummmmmmm.