Wang Gang Review

I recently made my first trip to a much talked about eatery in the Edwardsville area. The concept of Wang Gang is pretty simple yet innovative. The cuisine is decidedly upscale Asian but without the cost of a P.F. Chang's. They make this possible by having dinners order at the counter and gather their own cutlery, condiments, drinks, and even to go boxes. A restaurant with a similar theme is Pei Wei of P.F. Chang's.

I must say right away that the food was excellent. The staff was more than friendly and at atmosphere was very pleasant. The dining area had just enough tables that it felt full but you weren't listening to the conversations of the dinners next to you. When mistakes were made (which I will surely share with you) an effort to correct them was made immediately and apologies were made quickly.

Now, having said all the good things here were a couple of disapointments. Having never been to Wang Gang I wasn't sure of what to expect. I assumed that I was to order at the counter but neither a sign or a staff member invited me to do so. Eventually after we grabbed menus from an off to the side holder, and sort of approached the cash register, someone offered to take our order. This is obviously only an issue for first time visitors but it does give a less than stellar first impression.

When my friend and I ordered we were each told that they were out of something that we wanted so we opted for something else. This isn't a huge issue for me, it happens on a busy Saturday night, which is was. However, once we got to our table and waited for quite a bit we were told they were out of both of the replacement dishes my friend ordered, and just a few minutes after that I saw the fresh spring rolls (which I was told they were out of) get delivered to another table. We were offered our money back or a substitute. We opted for chocolate egg rolls. Yummy and rich.

This following complaint is perhaps the biggest for me. My hot food was served on very cold plates. I have a pet peeve of having my cold salad served on a hot plate. This happens frequently as most restaurants, but I have never been served such a cold plate. The first few bites brought hot and cold in the same mouth full, and I mean COLD.

As we left we were told to have a good night and "thanks for bearing with them". This leads me to believe that I caught them on a bad night. I sure hope that is the case because despite my complaints the food was crave-worthy and met the upscale taste they promised and the staff was awesome. I would encourage anyone to try this off beat place to grab great Asian food. I plan on going back and having a completely different experience.