Royal Ginger Asian Fusion Bistro

As this location was convenient across from my hotel it was an easy choice. But this is a great place for food with their extensive Asian menu including sushi. Our waitress Megan was incredibly helpful in guiding us through our selection and made a few suggestions. I ordered the Royal Ginger Peppercorn including chicken, this dish had pretty much every and twice the amount of food I anticipated. It was prepared perfectly with the right amount of seasonings. There were plenty of vegetables and the chicken was cooked moist and tender. I could’ve easily split this dish into two and had enough left over for a second meal. If you go there ask for Megan, she was very helpful as I’ve had her as my server twice and she’s very knowledgeable about the menu and can offer suggestions.

Don’t get anything but authentic Chinese food here, seriously, it’s their best!
Some Chinese restaurants have to offer fake Chinese food, SE Asian fusion, fake Japanese food etc. to attract the apprehensive, General-​Tso-​and-​spicy-​tuna-​loving crowd. But seriously, their authentic Chinese food has been under-​appreciated. They serve very authentic Szechuan food. Warnings for their heat level. We got Hot-​boiled fish, cauliflower in a hot pot, ma po tofu, mouth-​watering chicken, and what they call «beer-​stewed» pork ribs. They were all good and authentic. Their food really hits the spot. Didn’t take pictures, but will certainly do the next time I come here.
Ask for their authentic Chinese menu and suggestions from the staff. You won’t be disappointed!

I was a huge fan of Royal Ginger. The food was amazing and the staff was super polite and hepful, even with drinking patrons which i know can be a frustrating pain.
The lady and i both had a few different sushi rolls that were delicious! For our entrèe we ordered the lettuce wraps and were not disappointed. It was deicious with great flavor and enough for the two of us to share!
Highly recommended.

For a Chinese restaurant in Columbus, Royal Ginger is a bit of a throwback — they have an English-​language menu, and a Chinese-​language menu, and there’s not a common dish between the two. Most decent Chinese restaurants did this back in the ‘90s, before they realized non-​Chinese also appreciated authentic food, but a lot have time has elapsed since then, and I’m surprised the folks at Royal Ginger haven’t gotten the memo.
That being said, the Sichuan fare at Royal Ginger is pretty good, assuming you can read the menu. I’ve started to translate the menu into English, see my photos below.
The highlight of our most recent visit was the 口水鸡(kou shui ji — literally, «mouth-​watering chicken»), a generous helping of bone-​in chicken served room temperature swimming in a thick spicy oil bath. It’s better than it sounds, and lived up to the name. We also had the 担担面（dan dan mian — wheat noodles in a spicy sauce with ground pork) and the 红油抄手 （hong you chao shou — Sichuan-​style wontons in a spicy sauce), both standards of Sichuan fare. Both were solid renditions, if not necessarily the best I’ve ever had.
What perhaps distinguishes Royal Ginger from other solid purveyors of Sichuan fare in Columbus (such as Fortune and Helen’s Asian Kitchen) is the upscale décor. Honestly, I find it a little overwrought, but sometimes it’s nice to eat in a place that’s not sporting 70s drop ceilings or floor-​to-​ceiling mirrors from its former life as a strip club (that would be Helen’s, in case you’re wondering).

Relaxing atmosphere. Our waitress was really great and made some great recommendations for roll options. Nice deal: buy one specialty roll, get one half price. Quick service and good portion size. Enjoyed the kamikaze and scorpion king rolls.

Excellent atmosphere and service.
For the first time I came to the Royal house where I was greeted at the door where I was served by Sean the bartender.
Sean was attentive and served an excellent Saki shot served with chopsticks. BANZAI!
It was very clean and a pleasant atmosphere, there was live music on the patio.
The food was freshly prepared and the presentation was beyond expectations.
I will def be back!

The sushi was awful… I would rather buy it from the grocery store. I also asked for extra soy sauce and they gave me a tub of sweet n sour to go along with the awful sushi.

Service was good. Calamari was a green salad with fried calamari on it. This is not what you usually get with something like this at a sushi place. The tuna sushi had some kind of seasoning on it that made it look dry? And the specialty roll had way too much salt in the sauce. Would probably only go back if someone else was paying for dinner.

Down to one star for the rude and arrogant message from Wei C. who is obviously a shill.

This is THE best Chinese food in town. Don’t get me wrong, this is not an American Chinese food restaurant. This is an authentic one. You should ask the waitress to help you order some real Chinese food. Don’t order general Tso and complain that this is not a good place to eat.

If I could I would give it a zero… I arrived at 9pm on a Thursday night, the host sat the two of us down and provided menus as normal. Waited 7minutes, the waitress did not bat an eye at our table. We then started to time the acknowledge of the waitress, an addition 3 minutes passed by. We then got up and left the restaurant. No words were exchanged. Noticing the entire staff enjoying their dinner as we passed by and out the door. Keeping in mind the hours of operation are 10am to 10:30pm. Upset and starving, we will not be returning to this establishment. Good thing the rusty bucket is next door for the excellent instant service.

Gongbao Chicken, Gongbao Chicken, Gongbao Chicken!
For my Chinese folks, try Gongbao Chicken in the CHINESE menu! There are so many Chinese in Columbus but too few serve good and authentic Chinese food. Royal Ginger on West Lane is the one you shouldn’t miss.

Called over the phone to order take out and confirmation of a free delivery. Waited for an hour and it never came. One thing you need to know about me is my attention to detail. It is abnormally detailed in everything I do especially transactions that involve money regardless of how much it is. I called back and they said it was sitting there waiting to be picked up. WTFLUKE? I heard the guy talking in the background denying everything we talked about over the phone which made it more frustrating and making it sound that it was my mistake THIS WAS TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE!
Let’s say I have dementia and I totally forgot our conversation and I was in the wrong. The right way to handle this is to state your apology and say it is coming right now since the place is literally across the street from the hotel. Dont argue with the customer just fix it. But I dont have dementia and I was 101% sure that I was right, the right thing to do is to apologize and give the customer a discount or maybe give it for free for all the aggravation, wait and incompetence that your employee has demonstrated. The guy on the phone wont stop arguing with me and defending his employee so I just said forget it.
The next day, my colleague ordered food from them (shrimp curry) which she shared with me. Pick up not delivery. Coming from Chicago where thai and asian food is in every corner, the food in this place is mediocre at best. I dont write reviews in spite, I do it with objectivity. If the food was amazing then I would say so despite my experience in the other aspects of the place. The food here is overpriced for what you get.
Is this the standard for columbus thai restaurants? I think not since I had a chance to go to another thai restaurant (Thai Grill) and the food was damn good.

The sushi here was incredible and the service was awesome too! I had the vegetarian sushi and it was filling and not too pricey either. I’d definitely go back!

This Chinese Restaurant at Upper Arlington really won me over ! I had the Shrimp Hot Pot and an appetizer called «Spit Chicken». Their hot pots are not dry and much spicier than other Asian restaurants around Columbus. The appetizer was really rich and flavorful. The only downside is it is pretty expensive but in my opinion, it was worth it.

All the 3 Star reviews are right. Honestly I’d give
It 2 ½ stars if Unilocal would let me.
Disappointing. Will probably never return.
Food was merely okay. Sushi was merely okay. Service was merely okay.
Nothing special.
The restaurant interior is lovely, the location is great, so the restaurant has a lot of potential.
But it’s poorly managed, and the cooking is uninspired, so it completely wastes all that potential.

I am Chinese. The Sichuan food is very authentic. I recommend Fu Qi Fei Pian and Zi Ran Niu Rou. I approve this message. Period.

Had a great experience. Our waiter, a young Asian man named Victor, was incredibly helpful and courteous. He was also very quick to help other customers (I pay attention to this kind of service).
I had the Thai red curry. It was served in a hot iron pot and was absolutely delicious. My wife had the Kung Pow and it was fresh and spicy. My son had a sweet and sour combo and it was crisp but not so heavily battered. In other words, it was good. I also ordered a specialty roll, the Tsunami. The specialty rolls are like candy sushi. I ordered it to share with my family, as I usually eat sashimi style. It was really delicious and fresh. The presentation was very pleasing as well.
On the whole, our westernized asian meals were excellent. However, I noticed that they have several hot pot and barbecue dishes on the Chinese menu. Several guests were enjoying these and I will definitely be back to try them.
A note about the other reviews: I saw two different waitresses in the restaurant. One seemed pleasant, the other seemed generally annoyed by the presence of the guests. I’m not sure what to say about this other than to note the observation. I’d rather not judge without direct experience.

Let me start off by saying that I WILL give this restaurant another chance to redeem itself.
So first off, let’s start with the service. It was amazing. Our waiter who was a young Asian man took care of us from every angle. He was polite, attentive, helpful and very grateful for his tip as we left the restaurant. He sent us off with a smile and a passionate thank you. It was also extremely busy the day we were there, so that’s another plus for him.
Ok, so now the food. We ordered Edamame, Shrimp Tempura Roll and a Spicy Tuna Roll for appetizers and we split the Sesame Chicken as an entrée. We also had ordered a Shirley Temple and two beers which totaled around $ 34, so not that bad price wise. It was happy hour keep in mind, so our rolls and beer were half off.
The sushi came out and I pondered it for a second. I enjoy rustic looking sushi compared to the contemporary uniform stuff that plagues most places these days, but I don’t think they were going for rustic. It was just plain bad presentation. The tuna in the roll looked like mashed cat food and it was very unappealing to look at. The seaweed was a tad chewy also. The taste was subpar at best. The shrimp roll was decent and had a good flavor to it, but honestly if I had paid full price for this sushi I would have been more upset.
Next the edamame came out. It was good and well seasoned, but way, way over cooked. The pods actually fell apart in your mouth, leaving you to deal with pulling strings out of your mouth while eating. So not much fun, but we stayed content.
Last, but not least… the dreaded sesame chicken. The portion itself was small, but the chicken pieces… Jesus. They were as big as gulf balls and way over cooked. The taste of the sauce was good, but I had to cut up the entire entrée for it to be edible. It was just bad and there was no way around the fact.
So to sum this all up. I think they have a visually nice place here. The wait and front of the house staff seem very genuine. So my advice to Royal Ginger is to retrain their sushi and food chefs, or hire new ones that are more passionate. I really think this place could be something with a few changes. Only time will tell.
I will update my review upon our next visit.

Holy moly I have never had such a terrible experience! I should have checked here first and it seems like many of us are getting the same waitress, rude and Doesn’t communicate effectively, and takes a really long time to do anything. I get it,
I was a waitress too, you have no control
Over how long it takes the kitchen to make the food. I’m talking about completely controllable things such as when we asked for more napkins, water refills TWICE, and our table didn’t have any soy sauce in the canister to begin with… That was a battle in itself. We ended up asking the table next to ours to use theirs.
The food wasn’t terrible great either. We had the potsticker appetizers which were ok, but the sushi actually just wasn’t that great. Experience makes or breaks it, and I think the food not being that great just solidifies the experience and outlook of the restaurant as a whole.