Wild Ginger Sprouting in Cool Springs
Pan-Asian restaurant Wild Ginger is set to launch next month, bringing an ambitious East-meets-West menu to a new stand-alone building in Cool Springs. Not to be confused with Wild Ginger restaurant in Seattle, the Cool Springs eatery is a project of John Chen, who recently closed Grand China restaurant in Bellevue, and Andrew Saio, a professor of Chinese at Vanderbilt and Belmont universities.
With general manager Tommy Stucko—an alumnus of Tavern on the Green in New York City and Cascades restaurant at the Gaylord Opryland Hotel—and chef Greg Epperson—former executive chef for Hilton in Moscow and Kiev—Wild Ginger will feature a creative array of sushi such as the Monster Roll (with black rice and lavender sauce) and the Lotus Roll (with tempura-fried lobster, asparagus and avocado with wild berry sauce). Entrées will include a black-miso cod—slightly different from the famed version at Nobu, Stucko says—and ginger-crusted tuna with whipped potatoes, stir-fried vegetables and soy-mirin reduction. Stucko expects to have 15 sakes on hand, as well as an extensive wine list. Entrées will range from $22 to $35.
With indoor and outdoor seating for a combined 250 guests, the buiding boasts 14-foot windows on three sides of the dining room and an infinity pool on the patio.
Located at 101 Market Exchange Court, Wild Ginger will initially serve lunch and dinner and will eventually open for traditional British tea with an Asian twist. Barring construction delays, Wild Ginger is slated to open May 8.
Comments
Ambitious... Will it fly in Cool Springs?
Posted 04/08/2008 at 08:25:00 AMI almost cried the day Grand China closed in Bellevue.
It was that good!!!
So excited to hear of the new venture.
I'm sure it's going to be great!
Posted 04/08/2008 at 09:49:43 AMthese guys are gonna be huge! Their food is so different from anything else in Nashville
Posted 04/08/2008 at 12:33:04 PMI heard they have a really awesome Chef
Greg Epperson is a wonderful chef! He is my uncle :)! Im soo proud of him! :)
Posted 05/08/2008 at 09:59:41 AM--Carli Epperson
Service should be good. They stole all of the servers from J.Alexanders Coolsprings.
Posted 05/15/2008 at 09:32:31 PMIs there another way to get in contact with the people who are hiring. I heard that had some server positions are available, I use to work at J. Alexanders on White Bridge. So if anyone knows, i would greatly appreciate it if you could contact me at accho18@yahoo.com. Thanks so much!
Posted 05/16/2008 at 02:23:45 PMIs there another way to get in contact with the people who are hiring. I heard that had some server positions are available, I use to work at J. Alexanders on White Bridge. So if anyone knows, i would greatly appreciate it if you could contact me at accho18@yahoo.com. Thanks so much!
Posted 05/16/2008 at 02:24:29 PMI had the pleasure of having dinner at wild Ginger on thursday night. I must say the food was wonderful and the plate presentations was beautiful. I most certainly will visit Wild Ginger again.
Posted 05/30/2008 at 10:48:31 PMMy husband and I visited Wild Ginger and I ordered the Thai style eggplant. It was cold on the inside and warm, at best, on the outside. I asked for the chicken dish my husband ordered, as it was palatable but mediocre. The chicken dish they gave me actually tasted better than my husbands. I would’ve expected an apology from the manager about the cold food but that never happened. The atmosphere was nice but did not match the pricey dishes. On a positive note our server was excellent. However, my husband and I will not be returning.
Posted 06/05/2008 at 07:26:24 PMMy husband were very excited to try Wild Ginger, but we were extremely disappointed. I ordered the eggplant, which was cold and bland. My husband ordered the duck, which was dry and lacking in flavor. We will not be returning.
Posted 06/08/2008 at 07:54:29 PMMy wife and I were expecting for Wild Ginger to open for a long time. We were frustrated because there were no good Fusion/Asian restaurants in Nashville. P.F. Chang's is a huge disappointment and there is nothing remotely close to the restaurants offered in Chicago and New York. That was until we ate at Wild Ginger this past week. We were surprised at the variety of sushi they offered and the quality. The sushi is so fresh that it melts in your mouth and the presentation is so beautifully crafted. The service was also amazing. My wife and I would say that Wild Ginger was worth the wait and would definitely go there again and again. This is definitely the best and our favorite restaurant here in Nashville.
Posted 06/10/2008 at 12:26:07 PMAll I hear is the food and service is NOT GOOD.
Posted 07/08/2008 at 02:21:41 PMI have talked to several people that will NOT GO BACK!!!
That is too bad.
I had high hopes for this restaurant.
This place deserves to flop. Too many people in charge, no vision, way over-priced, and they screwed a number of fine Nashville musicians. I say I hope they burn.
Posted 07/15/2008 at 06:31:27 PMMy wife and I recently tried Wild Ginger. We've been really looking forward to a more "sit down" sushi restaurant. So, this was an eagerly awaited destination.
Oh how quickly ones sushi dreams can fall apart. First, the prices are high for nearly any where in the country including Cool Springs. More importantly if you're going to charge high prices you enter into a category of restaurant where only excellent is acceptable. This sushi was not even passable more a less acceptable.
Typically when a roll says tuna you don't need to send Jacque Cousteau to find the actual tuna. The rice was very poorly seasoned and had more of long grain rice texture then a short grain sushi rice. Another roll that claimed to offer a fried oyster appeared to have a soggy textured hunk of something apparently the alleged fried oyster.
Three rolls, 1 ice tea, and a water with tip a grand total of $60. Maybe if your only experience with sushi has been a California roll in a box at a convenient store then this place will be some kind of culinary bonanza for you. Although I would suspect the roll at the convenient store would cost far less and maybe at least have the added plus of a petroleum after taste. Wild Ginger tries to charge prices and create food that competes in the world-class sushi restaurant arena but has more in common with that convenient store sushi and maybe not even that mediocre.
Posted 07/15/2008 at 10:25:20 PMMy wife and I also recently tried Wild Ginger last Saturday for lunch. As so many folks have already mentioned, we were anxiously anticipating an excellent meal - especially when paying the prices they charge.
On the positive side, their food presentation meets expectations. Unfortunately, that's where the positive comments end. We found the service to be unacceptably slow - 20-minutes to get a starting salad and the restrauant was only 30% full. We split a chicken salad (Chicken Chieu - $9.75) and we had to hunt for the chicken. My wife hated the dressing but I only found it unimpressive. Neither of us would order again.
For our entrees, my wife ordered the Wok Fried Barbeque Prawns ($15.95) and I ordered the Cambodian Grilled Pork Steak ($10.95). Once again, my wife found the sauce to be unpleasent and the shrimp (prawns?) small and slightly over cooked. She ate only the shrimp and left over 50% of the remainder of her dish. My pork chop was a double thick cutm but was very poorly prepared and quite tough. The meat wasn't cooked through and was raw at the bone. The sauce was OK but by this time we were quite disappointed. Note that most entrees also require that you order pricy ala a carte side dishes.
We paid close to $70 for lunch (tip, drinks and tax included) and walked away hungry. Not good.
If you want to try this restrauant, I suggest that you do so soon. I doubt that they will be there much longer.
Posted 07/20/2008 at 06:56:58 AM