Things I understand:
-Prices in cute coastal areas like Cambria are going to be high, because it costs more to transport items there, and also to help make up profits for the lean months of the off-season.
-Tourist areas that particularly cater to an older clientele aren't going to have an abundance of original, creative, or ethnic restaurants.
For these two reasons alone I am almost willing to give Wild Ginger a pass. Almost. Our motel gave us a list of menus for restaurants in the area and it was bleak - mostly "Italian" or steak & seafood joints, all at exorbitant prices. Wild Ginger was one of the cheapest places for dinner that wasn't fauxtalian or burgers, and we really didn't feel like dropping $150 on steak for two with the denture set, even if we're inherently skeptical about "pan-anything" foods - which was the problem with the other two restaurants in Cambria. Pan-city. At least "Wild Ginger's" menu stuck primarily to Thai flavors and didn't look overly-ambitious. We went for it.
The problems started immediately. The restuarant is tiny, which is fine if you're a cafe, but even though it's "cheap for Cambria" entrees still run between $13-$22, which seems a little odd when you're sitting on a tiny table wedged up against a refrigerator case full of deserts drinking wine out of a tiny Ikea tumbler. The ambiance, while fine for a cafe, seemed a little ridiculous for a place where two entrees, two glasses of wine, and one shared desert run you $75 pre-tip.
The other diners seemed very enamored of the owner, who spent a lot of time talking to them. As a result, we were served by a surly teenager. Upon receiving our dishes, my boyfriend realized that his was basically inedible. It was the blandest, saddest dish ever. Soggy brown rice covered by mostly-flavorless greens topped by mushy slices of duck that somehow managed to have not one shred of duck flavor - or any other flavor. My dish, the lobster chile relleno, was tasty enough, not the best chile relleno I've ever had, but satisfying, and served with a nice frisee salad with a great orange vinaigrette and the ubiquitous brown rice, at least this time made happy by cheese from the chile relleno seeping into it.
As we quietly discussed whether the boy should just suffer through his dish in silence or give the restaurant a chance to attempt to make things right the waitress came by to refill our water glasses and mumbled something about "Is everything alright," clearly not expecting anything other than a nod as she walked away, but Chris decided to let his unhappiness with the dish be known. Then we finally got the attention of the owner, and not in a good way. She seemed, well, pissed. We weren't demanding they take it back, but if you're going to ask someone how their meal is, you have to expect them to answer honestly, right?
To their credit, the owner quickly got a new dish of caramelized Vietnamese prawns to Chris, and didn't charge him for the duck - that is, it wasn't on the bill. But the overtly chilly interaction we had from then on out did kind of cast a pall over the rest of the experience.
The prawns were good. Not amazing, not as flavorful as they could have been (and I'm not sure they really understand what caramelized means - it was really just a decent stir-fry). The best dish was probably the Thai garlic-chile chicken wings we had as an appetizer. We also finished with a nice creme brulee.
Would I go back here again? I don't know. Given my understandings of the realities of being a tourist on the coast, essentially a captive audience, I'd say "possibly." But being an Oakland resident, paying nearly $100 for blah-to-above-average Asian food is really painful - I'd rather just wait until I was home and go chow down at Sabuy Sabuy for less than half the price. Or I might happily eat here at "lunchtime" prices as opposed to dinner prices. But given what we got, it's hard to recommend, which was bizarre given how many raves we'd heard about it on the internet and in person.
I probably would have coughed up one more star had the owner/waitress actually acted professionally in trying to create a real nice restaurant experience. Judging by the other reviews, this is a consistent problem. If the owner is going to be surly, maybe she shouldn't hang out front of house? read more