What is it with your obsession to chains? You couldn't be happier if there were a Wild Ginger on every corner. Let's go on vacation to Seattle and eat at Wild Ginger!! How creative. You thrive on the total homogeneous banality that the chain restaurants offer. You see a dumbed down world of cookie cutter culture with little or no deviation in creative expression that humanity is supposed to be all about. You are thumbing your nose at the whole effort of Nashville Originals by giving credibility to the whole concept. All chain businesses operate on the basis of cost controls, low pay, and no creativity. With that sort of mindset we will no longer need but one chef, architect, artist, and musician. The rest of us will be relegated to the wage slave division.

cc: Nashville Originals

I honestly haven't talked to anyone that thinks Wild Ginger is any good, let alone replicable.

I found it to be average and over priced. The service was sooooo slow. I think they might want to get their own problems straightened out if they are thinking of producing a second.

Clone Machine -- seriously? Did you read the review? Wild Ginger in Cool Springs is not related to Wild Ginger in Seattle. Nor is it related to the software company of the same name. Of course, that brings up some naming issues. But I'm not sure I get your blanket aversion to the notion of a family-owned locally grown business expanding to multiple locations, so long as it fills a void for creative food and service of consistently high quality. Of course, it remains to be seen whether Wild Ginger in Cool Springs can continue to deliver the type of experience that I had on two visits. Do you think that creative entrepreneurs like the founder of Basil Asian Bistro should be capped at one venture?

You will like this place... I think. I tried the Maui Roll, the Wasabi Crunch Roll, and the sweet potato fries. I wanted something from varying levels of culinary commitment.

Wild Ginger seems like a bizarre fusion of everything popular. The names of dishes seem big and dumb. It's definitely trendy and hip with no shortage of nice cars in the parking lot. The place is so hip, in fact, that the glasses curve and dove-tail as it moves away from the table. All of the plates were rectangular. not square, not round. Rectangular.

The waiters wear rusty-brown shirts and black pants. Apparently, this attire does not instill the wait staff with sufficient confidence to be friendly. The place is very well lit. The architecture is cool. The tables are close to each other, but not too close.

Let's talk about the food.

Culinary Commitment- Level I
The Maui is a signature roll with blowtorched ahi on top and bacon inside (with other things like more fish, coconut, and mango). It was fantastic. It tastes better than it reads and I found it to be really good.

Culinary Commitment- Level II
The Wasabi Crunch was a "regular" offering on the menu and I found it light, tasty, and typical. The sushi portions were nicely sized and met my expectation. The presentation was nice and imaginative. The plate was garnished with interesting colors and the rolls were beautiful. The Maui was placed on the plate like it was cut with the ahi sliced (and very rare) atop the roll (like the usual Rainbow Roll). The Wasabi Crunch was placed on its cut sides and had a dollop of white mayo(I don't recall exactly) with a smaller pink dollop on that. The presentation was playful and deliberate.

Culinary Commitment???- Level III
The fries were horrible. I was pleased to get a small order since Jim and I both disliked them... significantly. First error- They were sweetened. Fatal error- As I took what turned out to be my final bite, I tasted something akin to a freeze-dried ball of rose-scented perfume that exploded under my tongue. It was horrible and I had to spit it into my napkin. I'd prefer not to think of my grandmother in my mouth... at all... ever.

Other Perspectives during Our Weekday Lunch
Jim had the fries and the Mexican Roll. (I don't think it had the Mexican culinary laziness of wet meat inside.) He seemed to really enjoy it. This was his second time ordering it. Bob had sushi and a side of seemingly oily slivers of vegetables. I forgot the roll, but he relished it seemingly more than Jack in the Box, but that is his favorite. Can't fault the man for being honest and sad. Matt and Justin both had the prime rib sandwich- medium. Matt cut a lot of fat from his meat, and ultimately thought it was average. The mesclun salad mix he had was "horrible" and the slaw looked dingy. I don't think he tasted it. The slaw looks like Kroger slaw but with teriyaki drizzled on it. Again... dingy... and cheap. Justin thought the sandwich could have used some sauce. I suggested cheese too. The sandwich consisted of a grilled hoagie with the steak on it and a piece of lettuce. Very plain and underwhelming for being so pricy. Justin's regular fries were very tasty. Matt admitted that he probably shouldn't get a steak sandwich at a sushi place. We agreed, but it's not hard to cook a piece of meat and show it some love by dressing it up a bit for the party.

The service was good. After we were seated, Bob had to ask for our server to come to the table, but once he was there he did a good job. He accommodated our rushed schedule, but seemed peeved when he was asked to deliver ketchup to three of us at three different times. (Perhaps he should ask if anyone else wanted it before he left for the first order.)

The dining area was nicely decorated. The chair was very comfortable. Perhaps the most comfortable chair I've ever sat in at a restaurant. The table was round black Corian or granite that accommodated 5 guys nicely. (We even had an empty chair.) Even with 5 people, we felt comfortable speaking to one another. It was strangely intimate even in the middle of the room with soccer moms and kids next to us. Our usual lunchtime rambunctiousness was tempered by the nicer ambience, but I still took off my shoe and pretended it was a phone.

It was pricy. Jim said it would be $30 when they went last week. Bob said it would be $12. The 3 things I ordered cost $27.31 plus tip. Maui= $14, Wasabi Crunch= $7, and grandma's rose explsion sweet potato fries were $4.

On a scale of 1-5 (based on my food), I give it a 3. The fries were a disaster. It's such a simple item and it lacked dilligence and care. If I only rated it on the sushi: 4.

All in all, I'd go back for the sushi. I dare say the sushi is worth the price. It was superb, unique, and quite the adventure.

Seems to me that's exactly what you'd need to do if you wanted to replicate your restaurant concept in a few—or a few hundred—other places. Assuming Wild Ginger can deliver a consistently delicious and elegant experience, the brand could find success beyond the sprawling asphalt pastures of Cool Springs.

Coincidentally, Wild Ginger is located just a few blocks down the road from another independent restaurant that we think could have legs for branding: Basil Asian Bistro.

This sounds like a plea for cloning to me. It is jarring to read a review that essentially says "here's this great new different thing; let's replicate it."

My wife and I tried Wild Ginger for the first time Sunday night and thought it was terrific. Our waitress was very friendly and the service was good. I had the miso cod and think it is right up there with the best fish dishes I have had. (By the way, I have eaten iat Wild Ginger in Seattle and it is great, too).

Carrington: don't let the over-flowing crowds at a new restaurant in Cool Springs fool you. Every restaurant that opens in Cool Springs is packed day one and then they all suffer a leveling out period after about six to nine months. Most comments I have heard about Wild Ginger are the same as an earlier poster - slow service and too expensive, especially compared to Basil up the street.

A Return Trip to Wild Ginger on Monday, July 21, 2008

Not quite in the mood to go to Wild Ginger, but it was a birthday celebration. Against Anthony Bourdain's strong suggestion of avoiding fish on Mondays, I went.

So… regardless of my ranting, we all went to Wild Ginger for lunch. I felt obligated since I couldn't make it to Flyte on Saturday for the same birthday girl's night out.

Note: Here's something personal about me. I can't eat seeds or nuts because, in simplest terms, I'm "allergic" and could end up hospitalized; therefore, I exert a keen eye with my food.

Note: Be advised. The infinity pool is now a finite pool as evidenced by the visible edge.

On to the Food
This outing was similar to the last. I stuck with sushi and fries. Weird combo, but, having a paradoxical life experience of science and art, I'm a sucker for confirmation. This go 'round I got the Black Forest Roll which is made with black rice. I find black rice exotic and fun. The roll was very tasty and had a nice presentation. I also got the Firecracker Roll which was sweet (coconut) and deep fried (didn’t know that) and they didn’t keep ALL of the black sesame seeds off of it. I didn’t realize until it was too late. Great. Thanks for that. I thought about making a stink about it, but it was a birthday celebration, so I allowed myself to be charged the $9. (Quite honestly, after digging out all the offenders from the bottom of my roll, I mentioned my predicament to the waiter and he just... you know... casually shrugged it off. No big whoop. Who am I to spoil a party?)

I hope it doesn’t come back to haunt me.

All in all though, I didn’t think the Firecracker Roll was all that good. The flavors were okay but did not pop. The crunchy coconut shell got harder with time, so the roof of my mouth was as defensive with it as it is with a mouthful of dry Honeycombs or, perhaps, glass and gravel. The sauce that came with it though was a like a tasty, spicy duck sauce. It was a colloidal sensation. Bob and Ashley each had a Firecracker and liked. It appeared to be too much for Ashley, but Bob popped his like Tic-Tacs and openly welcomed the remnants of Ashley's order to put into a to-go box to be eaten on the way back to work.

In addition to the Firecracker Rolls, Bob and Ashley had XXXXXX (with a side of white rice) and the Mexican Roll, respectively. They also split an appetizer of some sort of lobster spring roll that I can't find on the online menu. Long story short here, they were average and severely lacking in lobster. Bob expressed his sadness and, some good-natured hositility, toward the waiter who feigned interest and... you know... casually dismissed it.

I suppose what I don't understand is that (having once waited tables myself) he did not express any desire to resolve any issues unless his head was dunked into the finite pool. Again, being a birthday celebration, we moved on... and possibly mocked him the rest of the day.

Oh, it was Ashley's birthday lunch, so she got some cake. It was a fancy "strawberry shortcake" to quote the birthday girl. Don't get me wrong, she loves this place but was unimpressed with the appy and the cake. Oh well, the cake was free so it's automatically delicious.

Again, the amount of delectable sushi you get is worth the price. You can even put up with SOME amount of pretense when the sushi is of such high quality.

Oh, yeah, the regular fries were fresh, cooked nicely, and did not taste like the underside of granny's denture plate. Wild Ginger redeemed on the potato front, but I will never venture into sweet potato land with them again.

Additionally, on this trip, Jim used his right Chuck Taylor as a phone... in homage to my actions during our last visit. Ahhhh... sweet antidisestablishmentarianism. He and I had a great view of the patrons and, being people-watchers, rather enjoyed taking in the sites. Jim ventured into the world of tuna quesadillas today. This square plate was simple and garnished with a smattering of regular fries. He really enjoyed it and found the tuna cooked evenly and rare. Justin had the same thing (queers) and shared Jim's review. (Really queer.)

Jim and Justin also found that cheap-ass slaw on their plates. I mentioned it before. You know, the Kroger deli action drizzled with teriyaki that gave the cabbage the color of misplaced underwear from 1984 recently found stuffed in some old locker at a local high school. Blech!

Here's the deal. The sushi is pricy but you get a piece of fish the size of Bob's thumb (as he explained it to me during lunch at Omikoshi nary an hour ago). If you can eat Bob's thumb, you should go to Wild Ginger. I think the atmosphere betrays the attitude. When you walk in to such an environment, you have certain expectation regarding the service, food, and clientele. The service has never been stellar. The waiters seemed disenfranchised but the water girl flits around like a hummingbird attentively assuring your hydration. I appreciate the effort, but I'd also like to see my companions as I dine with them and avoid arms over my food if at all possible.

This time there were no soccer moms. It was all elderly and their associated grandkids. It was almost like eating at a Meat and Three, but only 1/2 of the allotted old people.

The attitude soured my meal a bit this time. Of course, some was my attitude going in, but, generally, the staff just comes off as fake. If you are going to drop some cash on a lunch or anything, you should expect some professionalism and courtesy... especially if you hear the most subtle of complaints.

I’ve come to the realization that I’ve become quite snobby regarding my restaurant outings. There are many places that ACT like they are fine dining, but they aren’t. Wild Ginger could be considered that for lunch. A gilded cage, Mr. Gatsby. In fairness, I haven't been there for dinner, so I can't really say. It's definitely a place to see and be scene... I mean seen.

Oh, 2 rolls and a side of regular fries… plus a $2 tip… $26. I won’t be going back (without my wife) for months.

A Side Order of Refinement
Capitol Grille is the pinnacle of fine dining that I’ve experienced in Nashville; excellent service, remarkably tasty food, and it's filling while maintaining perfectly-sized portions.

Bonus Round- FLYTE
I heard definitive reviews of Flyte while eating lunch at Wild Ginger. They all said they will never go back. The entrees received a mix review. Some raved, some jeered. They all concluded that the service was rude; the food overpriced and underwhelming. Frog legs… $11… 2 legs. Ribs… $10… 1 boneless rib. Oh, the first thing the waiter said, literally, was, “We don’t serve domestic beer here.” The beer (domestic microbrews like Yazoo… ahem… so domestic it’s in Nashville too) was served in Budweiser glasses. I have chosen not to go there after reading the menu last year. When I described the menu to my lunch gang as “seeming like they are trying too hard,” I was met with agreement.

Anyway, that was lunch.

Who the heck are these people writing the War and Peace's?!?

Someone stop him/her before he/she writes again. Good Lord, as someone who has a distant relationship with brevity as my editors painfully knew, even my eyes were rolling back in my head. And twice? What?

You can delete the review I posted on 07/24/2008 at 03:10:20 PM.

Let me get this. You order fries with your sushi?
WTF!! Also, commenting that your boyfriends Jim and Justin are "queers" for ordering the same dish? Wow buddy, that's really mature of you. It seems that you have some deluded notion that you are a food critic. Do us all a favor and go to back to Jack in the Box. Your discourses here are childish at best.

This is officially the weirdest blog I've ever seen on bites.

And I had nothing to do with it.

I'll try to move away from the above post because quite frankly just browsing gave me a head ache.

Carrington I do have an issue with your last two reviews. I'm not sure if it's a scene policy to not give bad reviews for fear of losing potential ad dollars from a restaurant but these recent reviews give that impression.

The T's Tuscan review you state how the inside of the restaurant is so disturbing that you felt the only way to try the food was to take it home to your kids.

In the Wild Ginger story you talk a great deal about the financing and design of the project. That may be an interesting side note but the food is the star of any restaurant review.

Two reviews in a row that speak very little to the direct quality of the food. There must be better food/restaurant stories to add character to the column. Where is wild Ginger sourcing fish from for their, mediocre/poor in my opinion, sushi in the land-locked area of TN?

My 2.9 cents on Wild Ginger.

My 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.

Carrington says:

"family-owned locally grown business expanding to multiple locations, so long as it fills a void for creative food and service of consistently high quality."

Uhmm - my point of reference to Wild Ginger was not specifically to the name as it was to replication. Maybe if I said to travel to Seattle and go to Mc'Donalds you would get it, sigh..... My train of thought was not based on a google search.

The creativity in any multiple location operation of any sort always only requires the creativity of but *one* person - the executive chef. The rest of the cooks are working from a playbook, not creative to me.

Not everything has to be an oligopoly.

Anyone from the Sylvan Park family care to comment?

Maybe the success of a restaurant could be judged in your pages (and blogs) by how consistently it duplicates high quality of its own food within its own walls, instead of how well it expands its so-called "concept" into a hundred watered-down clones. The latter is a sort of success of interest only to people who want to eat corporate stock shares.

bongostella... why so serious? It's okay if you don't get it, but why get so angry? Are you repressed?

My long entries are just words... and they aren't even inflammatory. Hang on to your rage though. It's doing wonders for you. Your criticism of my experiences at Wild Ginger adds so much to the topic at hand. Do yourself a favor and stop being so angry. Feel free to change the channel any time.

Based on your criticism of my experiences (and not the restaurant), I wonder, naysayer... have you even been to Wild Ginger?

To recap... Great contribution on the discussion of Wild Ginger, by the way. Your review/opinion of the restaurant is poignant... oh, and non-existent. Good show. Way to be part of the community. You may want to rethink who's being childish... douche.

Wow, Bites is starting to resemble Nashville Cream!

Squeee!

Lucky us.

mr. pink- Sylvan Park is represented.

Just to insert a little restaurant talk, specifically sushi, amid whatever is going on here. I have been to Fujiyama a couple times and had terrific experiences. I love the vibe, the service, the room, the gracious hostess, and the food. Crazy, right? Some of the best things I have had are not on the menu. Ask for seafood salad and ask for the binder of 'Special Rolls', handwritten. The avocado salad is lovely. And the sashimi I have had has been absolutely pristine. It's on Charlotte, in the Strike & Spare shopping center, less than a mile from what I think is Nashville's best Korean, Korea House. I can't remember the name of my fave dish but it is o the right side of the mneu and features pear.

We went Friday night. Made reservations for 8:00 the day before and still had to wait 15 minutes for our table-not an auspicious beginning. Jason, our server was not only slow, he didn't recognize that we needed water until we asked for it. He kept disappearing all evening for loooong stretches, then would come back right as we finally flagged down someone else smelling of smoke. The food (we had sushi) was admittedly good, but the service was too poor to warrant driving back to "hell springs" to try it again. We spoke to the owner on the way out and he said he did know that his servers were always sneeking out the back for smoke breaks-WHAT? It spells disaster to me if that;s the attitude ownership takes.

You're speaking of Wild Ginger and not Fujiyama I hope. Another thing on Fujiyama, every plate, every item put on the plate, is meticulously and beautifully presented. It is delightful to see what the sushi chef can do to a radish, or a lemon half, and the modest pride he takes in his work.

Kay, been an avid if silent Bites reader for long time now. You are absolutely right about Fujiyama - best in town in my experience, and better than some I've had in sushi towns.

i gotta try fujiyama
great name too...

oh and barry's comment - Maybe the success of a restaurant could be judged by how consistently it duplicates high quality of its own food within its own walls... - i agree with totally. i believe that is the only way to really determine a restaurant's true worth. i hate to say it, but here i am saying it - as a whole the dining scene is dismal in our fair city. it's easy to get excited about anything that resembles "very good" - or gives us hope.

to review in nashville would be a very difficult job indeed.

Claudia brought up a great point.

The restaurant scene here is not great. So that's why in my view the job a restaurant critic is even more important.

Who's setting the bar for what's good if even below average food is getting a positive review. There needs to be some restaurant that is the standard for good or great and all others are measured by that standard.

The last two reviews in the scene do very little to help raise those standards. Many would agree that City House is one of the better restaurants in Nashville, myself included. So now if yet another Italian restaurant opens it's compared to City House and if falls below that standard it gets a poor review.

To often the excuse of concept is used to why a restaurant's food is subpar. If it's small ethnic restaurant to a chain the bottom line is it should be rated on the quality of it's food. If you're doing molecular gastronomy or if you're making a grill cheese both can be great and should both be held to high standards of attention to detail and food quality.

And here we have the food critic's precarious position in a nutshell. Here, Carrington is a lax reviewer who gives mediocre food a pass. On a parallel thread, she's a raving bitch who comes in with her mind made up and trashes the joint accordingly. And you're talking about the same review!

What a food critic has to do is review the plate that is set before him or her, and write about it and respond to it honestly. No matter whether it makes him or her look unhip for liking it or not liking it. No matter whether food snobs think it's awful or the mythical Average Reader thinks it's amazing. I'm fond of a Robert Warshow line: "A man sees a movie, and the critic must admit he is that man."

It occurs to me also that this thread must be deja vu a million times over for Kay.

pink - but 'the man' must be highly discerning. he must have a wide appreciation for all genres, but still the movie must be judged with an eye that sees flaws beyond what perhaps the everyman might see. i think...

i do believe that if mediocre food gets a passing review then there is no reason for the public to expect more. i like to believe that nashville is now hipper than ever before and can support truly good restaurants. my experience here is that restaurants can often start off strong and then slip into oblivion. there is little in the way of consistency. one good meal and 2 bad ones and then a good meal and then again a bad one. this is the kiss of death - at least to me. i mean, in this biz you're only as good as your last meal, right?. if it sucks, most people won't return.

i don't know the answer, only that the biz is incredibly tough and often a money pit. plus we're dealing with limited purveyors here - no real local great beef, we're landlocked making super fresh fish expensive... but then i say - use what we have and use it to a level of true excellence. keep it simple, but execute with perfection. whether it's grilled cheese, roasted chicken, pizza, charcuterie, potato soup, hand made pasta or head cheese...

i don't know if advertising $'s affect a reviewers wording. that's all beyond me. perhaps the southern way is not to trash a place too hard, too in your face. maybe there could be a star rating so the words wouldn't have to sting as bad but the final # speaks for itself...

i've said it before and i say it again. reviewing food in this town would be too difficult for the likes of me. my novice writing skills could never be good enough to cover up what's lacking with the food. overall, i am almost always disappointed. and i go in wanting to love it. really, really wanting to love it.
from the simplest place to the higher end spots. i am hopeful and i am disappointed more times than not.

ah well, man does not live by food alone. wait... he does!

Mr. Pink, if the food critic doesn't set the standard for what's a great restaurant then you'll continue to see Olive Garden listed as one of the best Italian restaurants in the Tennessean's readers' poll.

There must be someone in the food world in an area who does not live in a vacuum. That person goes into restaurant with an open mind no matter what concept it may be and says is this restaurant doing all the things to make great meal.

If we continue to allow places that open up and the Sysco truck makes 10 hour deliveries once a week and say well it's not horrible so I'll give it a warm review. Then we'll keep getting more of the same.

Great points all, Claudia. I apologize for the longwinded response, but there's a lot here to consider. I'll touch on some other folks' comments as well.

First, you're right: a critic must hold whatever he or she is covering to a high level—not out of snobbery, but out of respect for the reader and the subject at hand. The critics I gravitate towards are the ones who want the best of everything for their audience. If it's something as seemingly humble as a car-chase movie, they not only want the most kick-ass car-chase movie a director can make, they can explain why a car-chase movie does or does not reach that Platonic ideal—and explain it in such a way that I learn what to look for. (Meredith Brody is an excellent writer on both food and film. No word on what she thinks of car-chase movies.)

Carrington is not here to speak up for herself—she's on long-overdue vacation and has no idea of the maelstrom waiting for her when she gets back—but I'll pick a graph from her Wild Ginger review at random:

"Also from the hot tapas menu, we ordered coconut ginger ebi—shrimp encrusted in coconut and deep-fried to a light crunchiness. The shrimp were beautifully executed, if not as adventurous as some of the more intriguing items. Kimchee gyoza—tender dumplings stuffed with pickled cabbage, pork and shrimp and served with a salty-sweet dipping sauce—were delicious, though the kimchee aficionados at our table were disappointed by the lack of spice."

Here's what I see going on. First, she has to explain to a dunce like me what the hell "shrimp coconut ginger ebi" is. This puts readers on the same page, as it were. There is an assessment ("beautifully executed") backed up by an explanation ("deep-fried to a light crunchiness"—this tells me what the desirable qualities are). "Not as adventurous as the more intriguing items"—this not only tells me it's a good, simple if unchallenging dish, but it also sets me up for what is adventurous (i.e., the kimchee gyoza).

As for the gyoza, she points out that she herself found it delicious, but kimchee aficionados (someone more experienced than herself with this particular staple) held it to a higher standard and found it lacking. And she tells me why: lack of spice. The impression I get is: The food is unusually interesting and ambitious for Cool Springs and successful from its own taste standpoint, but Carrington encourages them to be a little bolder. Maybe other readers have had a different, worse experience at Wild Ginger—but Carrington can't review their meals with their tastes, only the ones set before her.

Again, I can't speak for Carrington, but you're dead on target when you say Nashville is a far gentler media town than the coasts. To people accustomed to a knives-out big-city sensibility, it can seem (and be) painfully genteel. The flipside is that a mild reservation expressed here in print, amplified by that Southern standard of civility, is generally taken as a pimp-smacking. (Again, old news to Kay.)

As for advertising dollars influencing what is written, that has never—I repeat: never—been a concern at the Scene. It makes life hell on earth often for our sales team, but their lives would be a lot worse if they were trying to sell space in some advertiser suck-up rag nobody reads.

The food-review budget makes multiple return trips something of a luxury, but I know Carrington has talked about revisiting places months or years after their initial splash to see how they're holding up. The problem is that new restaurants open all the time, and most readers want to hear about what's new.

One last note. At the risk of sounding like a total kiss-ass, I look to bloggers all the time to broaden my (inch-high, foot-wide) horizons. When the hell am I going to Per Se? (About the time they put out place settings you can color.) So if you constitute novice food writing, I'm hanging up my training skates.

At a lavish party in St. Petersburg in 1805...

sorry, but I would love to know what has sparked all the Tolstoy-ish intentions on this thread.

All I want to say is ditto Fujiyama and ditto Korea House. Those ladies at Korea House are amazing. and if you haven't tried it yet, even Bellevue is getting more really good choices - Lemongrass is great, and Kyoto is good, too.

so weird. Charlotte Pike and Bellevue. It's just not that long ago that I viewed the Jack-in-the-Box arrivals as big news.

...amid the glittering crystal and chandeliers...

aw heck, just call me Ishmael.

pink - oh, the per se and alinea dining - this swings wide into territory better left untouched on this blog for fear of getting my peepee whacked. anyway, that's all just fantasy and i get to live the dream on occasion owing to the fact that i don't go home to my own babies. so you - the most self-depricating man that i know - who has a fine fine palate - hush. you know food. you can't fool us all. i'd trust your judgement anyday. and on most anything.

and please note - that never am i complaining of the scene reviews nor the paper itself. you guys are my 'go to' in a big way. the tennessean is most often a total embarrassment although i think jennifer is trying to make some changes. awhile ago she wrote on 'grilled cheese' sandwiches and i happened to catch it and i loved the piece. she wasn't dumbing it down and i wanted to kiss her on the lips.

anyway, i see the big pic and can read between the lines. carrington leaves enough space that if you're really paying attention you get the point quite clearly. but still - it is all you mentioned above. and frustrating to me

sometimes when i'm off traveling i wonder why i live here. and then i come back and remember. i love this town - it's the people. and there's a flipside to everything.

i doubt i'll be dining at wild ginger. basil's is my go to for asian (honestly fresh food) and peter's or miyako for sushi because i'm south of town and they're close and i like the owners of both places. but regarding the greater majority of the food in this town... again, i remain - hopeful.

oh, and i cook...

(ps - i had to google "pimp-smack" because i am old and clueless)

Oh my. I am on vacation too, in a cabin at the end of a dirt road 8000 feet up the side of a mountain in Colorado--where I hate to tell y'all the temperature is hovering arouond 68 right now, got down to mid-50s last night.
I am on dedicated reading-hiking-relaxing and yes, cooking for pleasure! mode right now and just can't insert myself in this, though I have much to say..but thanks to Ridley, Claudia, SL and anyone I am forgetting on this thread for the thoughtful and very well-mannered discussion. It is a subject that provokes passion. Thanks to Jim for noting I have been here-done this. All readers must know that at the Scene, advertising and editorial have no bearing whatsoever on one another and HUGE pains are taken to keep us separate. As well, in the face of furious advertisers who threatened to not only pull their advertising but murder me, the editor and publisher and sales staff always defended me, and I have no doubt Carrington to the fullest. I do have a well-known and oft-expressed issue with chains, even homegrown ones. I always get nervous when one of our unique and carefully tended local independents--BBQ or Mediterranean--start talking about opening a second location of the same concept. If the owner/chef asks my opinion, I serve the role of a killjoy. I think they if they really want to do another restaurant, do something a bit diferent albeit of the same quality. Look no further than Margot-Marche. She did not open another Margot in Bellevue. Nor should she. But I am an oft-times irrational purist when it comes to many things, restaurants and baseball for instance. I hate the DH. And I hate beets, so I also have an immature palate.
I could go on, but there's a lovely piece of fish from Whole Foods in Boulder awaiting my attention, as well as some local produce from the weekly farmer's market here in Estes, and it's five o'clock Nashville time so a cocktail beckons. But thanks SL for the second on Fujiyama and Korea House. And I see a trip to Wild Ginger in my near future when I return, just to see what all the brew ha ha is about.
Livin' the dream high in the Rockies!

This is, and I hope continues, to be a very constructive exchange.

Pink, I do think you're not giving the region enough credit that it can't take a less genteel critique. To often I've heard the excuse of Southern sensibilities as an excuse for why things are left as is.

Food and the restaurant business is one where many people enter for the wrong reasons, one would be profit, and of those people who enter the arena they should be prepared for criticism.

A great chef and/or owner would make sure that their food is great well before a critic enters the door. In fact they will be their own harshest critic no matter who else judges their food. Tirelessly working to make sure that each plate that hits the table is the best it can possibly be.

The biggest disservice a reviewer can do is belittle the efforts of really great chef and owners who are striving to do great food work by giving other lesser efforts the same positive/kind words.

Pink, I do think you're not giving the region enough credit that it can't take a less genteel critique. To often I've heard the excuse of Southern sensibilities as an excuse for why things are left as is.

Well, your latter point is unassailable. (The three-word proof: separate but equal.) But it's not that people can't take less genteel critiques: it's that the culture is coded to express them a certain way. Believe me, we will catalogue, dissect and eviscerate your faults to a degree a Grand Inquisitor couldn't match. They'll just be preceded by a sigh and a sorrowful, "Bless his heart." Hypocrisy? Only if you don't know the code.

But I digress, because I don't think that's what Carrington is doing in her reviews. What you seem to want is for her to say something along the lines of, "Wild Ginger's food does not meet the standard set by Nobu in Tokyo." So what if it doesn't? Is it succeeding on its own terms? Is it preparing aesthetically and culinarily pleasing dishes using fresh ingredients? Carrington says: yes.

She also points out, in several instances, that these dishes could be improved. But if she genuinely liked the food more than she disliked it--and I see no reason not to believe her; do you?--she'd be lying if she slammed the place or gave it a harsher review than she actually thought it deserved. The kind of review I hate is the one that adopts a snide, jaded tone to hide that the reviewer thinks it's a show of weakness to like something. You wade through all kinds of vague insults and insinuations (most well rehearsed before the experience at hand) to discover in paragraph five that the writer enjoyed the thing more than he/she expected.

But I have a hard time seeing what your objections to these two reviews are. (Are these the only two reviews you've ever read of Carrington's? If you think she's incapable of a negative review, go talk to Chappy.) That they're not negative enough? That she didn't dislike the place as much as you did? Seems to me she offers direct assessments of the food, cites where it's superb, good or lacking, and backs her opinion up with reasoning. I don't see the words "great restaurant" applied anywhere in the review; I see mildly tempered enthusiasm. I just don't see the diminishment of standards you see.

This is certainly not the first review of Carrington's I've read. The last two however continue down what I see as a path that continues to nurture mediocre food.

How in the world of all things culinary can we have a review of a sushi restaurant in the middle of a land locked state and not have one sentence about the quality or source of the fish?

"Run, Run as Fast as You CanIndie restaurant Wild Ginger beckons with creativity in Cool Springs' chain-heavy landscape"

The above is the title and header of the column. That seems like a pretty strong endorsement if I've ever seen it. Stating that Wild Ginger breaks the trend of chains in Cool Springs, but wait they also hope to eventually create a franchise from the concept.

My issues with the review go beyond this one example. It is a trend to allow mediocre food to go unchallenged and simply say it's better then the horrible places it may be surrounded by.

Bringing my point full circle. Pink, if I'm not mistaken you've been to City House. If you go to another restaurants that claims to be Italian and the food isn't in the same class do you still like it? Saying well it's no City House but it's a lot better the Olive Garden across the street so I'll give it a good review if I'm asked.

There has to be standards when it comes to food. And those that work in the food world I hope may hold things to an even higher standard but I fear that's not always the case.

Saying well it's no City House but it's a lot better the Olive Garden across the street so I'll give it a good review if I'm asked.

Here's my question: You know (or believe) your meal was mediocre, but how do you know Carrington's meal was mediocre? The other diners at her table compared at least one dish favorably to Nobu. It doesn't read like a review of mediocre food, and it reads like it was written by someone who knows the difference.

Let's say the tables were reversed. You have a bad meal and write a review trashing the place, and Carrington has a wonderful meal. Is she to assume you're food-illiterate because you don't recognize the quality of the meal she ate?

If you go to another restaurants that claims to be Italian and the food isn't in the same class do you still like it?

In some cases, sure. A chef can be not as good as Thomas Keller and still be good. Barbecue doesn't have to be the best barbecue I've ever eaten to be really good barbecue. Is Manny's House of Pizza as mind-blowingly awesome as DiFara in Brooklyn? Nope (but not far off). Would I still eat there whenever possible and recommend that others do the same? Absolutely. It's first-rate pizza. Also, it's here at hand and not in Brooklyn.

That last point is not unimportant. Maybe the food here has attributes that are different from the standard set elsewhere, but those differences may be interesting, instructive and maybe even tasty. Bastardized recipes, like pop music tainted by commerce or an orchid doused with bleach, can produce unexpectedly great results. Behold the chocolate chip cookie or the hot fish sandwich. If I dismiss Manny's as, "well, it's no DiFara," I'm shortchanging one of my favorite lunch joints in Nashville, something unique to the city.

Also, let's say for the sake of argument I believe City House's wood-fired pizza is better than Manny's steel-oven pie—but I really like them both. They're not in the same "class" (and so much about dining, that most exclusionary of pursuits, hinges upon that word). So do I tell people to blow off Manny's? Of course not. Manny's is a damn fine pizza that sells by the slice for a fraction of City House's cost and is affordable to any passer-by. And it's a completely different experience.

This is certainly not the first review of Carrington's I've read. The last two however continue down what I see as a path that continues to nurture mediocre food.

And I don't see her nurturing mediocre food. I see her pointing out where the food should be improved, yet nurturing a restaurant that has the promise of greatness.

My problem with Carrington's reviews is that someone who considers "franchisable" to be a compliment clearly is using a weird set of criteria for food. As Kay notes above, "wow, this chef is so great that I wish s/he would open another, equally imaginative place" is very different from "wow, this is so generic that it would be easy to duplicate ad infinitum." And, since I've read a lot of Carrington's reviews, and have seen the franchisable thing show up more than once, every time she compliments something I have to ponder: does she mean it's good by the standards of food, or does she mean it can be replicated without much trouble?

sorry, but I would love to know what has sparked all the Tolstoy-ish intentions on this thread.

Sorry. I'll return you soon to one-liners. Promise.

aw heck, just call me Ishmael.

You're itching for a harpoon, Ishmael.

Pink I commend your defense of a colleague and friend.

But you're really straying away from the point. Which is what is the standard the restaurant is being reviewed upon?

Professionally one time I had a women say to me "well you know it's bread, and bread is bread, right?".

Upon picking myself up off the floor I questioned her on what bread she ate? She explained that she grew up with wonder bread and now buys what ever pre-sliced loaf was cheapest at the store. Now here's where the magic happens, I rushed to quickly share with her some artisan bread I had made. She tried the bread and quickly her eyes opened and she said " wow, that is better". That event quickly opened that women to a new standard of what bread really can be when done well.

This is not a case of comparing one cities food to another, this is simply saying what's the standard we're holding food to in our city. If we step back and say this is a great restaurant and all the other restaurants in a category are chasing that one to be as good, then we are setting a standard.

Conversely, if we try not to offend anyone and say "well it's not great but I took the food home to my kids and they liked it or it's not world class food but they're charging world class prices, but it's better then a lot of the other wonder bread like restaurants around town." Then we have no real standard and even worse we aren't providing a moment where we open the eyes of someone that maybe there is a really great quality of food that they didn't even know existed.

But you're really straying away from the point. Which is what is the standard the restaurant is being reviewed upon?

On the contrary. I'm saying that the standard the restaurant is being reviewed upon is Carrington's taste, and you seem to be faulting her because the standard she's using isn't your taste. That's the way everybody reads reviews, so I can't blame you. Where I bristle is at the idea that she's deliberately pushing mediocre food to risk offending people. If you believe that, I direct you to any post from the idiot on the Edisto thread.

Conversely, if we try not to offend anyone and say "well it's not great but I took the food home to my kids and they liked it or it's not world class food but they're charging world class prices, but it's better then a lot of the other wonder bread like restaurants around town." Then we have no real standard and even worse we aren't providing a moment where we open the eyes of someone that maybe there is a really great quality of food that they didn't even know existed.

But your examples both imply standards! "Not great but my kids liked it" tells me just that: it's not great. Same with "not world-class food." How is that not a standard? And the "not world-class food" argument seems the opposite of the one Carrington's making: that they are in cases achieving food that matches what you'd get at Nobu, but the rest needs work to reach that pinnacle. If she thinks the place is really good and promising overall, but she doesn't point out that the food needs work in some cases, how is it going to get better?

Mr. Pink, not all Tolstoy intentions are amiss...stay the harpoon not meant for thee.

I'm not accusing Carrington of "pushing" mediocre food. I am stating that her standard for what makes a restaurant good/great may need to be challenged on occasion. Also, that when a review is done of a pacific rim/sushi restaurant and not a word is written about how they're obtaining food to create those dishes it's a massive error.

Speaking clearly to the food quality at Wild Ginger it was painfully clear to me they were not holding to the standards of food quality as the comparison in the review was made to Nobu. I'm sure there's not a fish buyer on staff who every morning inspects the days delivery of fresh fish at the market and debates what fish is fit to be served that night. If there is I'd much like to stand corrected.

Restaurants are more about individual food item quality then anything else and you have even mentioned Thomas Keller but again you're defending a review that totally doesn't address any of the principles of what Chef Keller and others like him believe make a restaurant great. It's his "standards" that brought him his reputation and no matter if it's a hot dog or an over priced sushi concept in Cool Springs, we should hope that we're all trying to meet those standards when it comes to food we eat.

Restaurants are more about individual food item quality then anything else and you have even mentioned Thomas Keller but again you're defending a review that totally doesn't address any of the principles of what Chef Keller and others like him believe make a restaurant great.

That's because Chef Keller did not write the review. Carrington did, and as the person writing the review, the only standards she needs to uphold are her own.

Also, that when a review is done of a pacific rim/sushi restaurant and not a word is written about how they're obtaining food to create those dishes it's a massive error.

That's something to think about. Enough so that I've put in a call to Wild Ginger, and they said they'll call back after the lunch rush.

The fact that when you called to asked about a food question and they didn't immediatley know or quickly return your call reaffirms my point.

I think you'll be waiting awhile to a hear a response Mr. Pink.

I just talked to Greg Epperson, Wild Ginger's executive chef, who was insulted that anyone would ask a question as stupid as whether he and his staff check to make sure they're getting the best quality fish. But I asked it, just to make you happy.

"We get it from several different vendors all over the United States," he said. "We don't just get it all from Gulf Pride." He says they buy fresh fish pretty much every day. He didn't tell me where, he said, because he doesn't want his competitors knowing where he gets his supply.

He also said he didn't call back sooner because "I thought you were one of those people writing bullshit about us on those blogs." He described those people as "jealous and angry" and added, "They don't know what they're talking about." Would you like me to pass along your contact information, so you can speak directly?

I also just talked to Matt Highley, one of the two sous chefs, who offered to tell me as much about the seafood buying as I want to know. "Our seafood purveyors hate us because we send so much product back," Highley said. One small example: he says he sends back salmon if the small, thin pin bones have already been removed, because "we'd rather handle it ourselves" to make sure the flesh isn't damaged.

One Wild Ginger purveyor he did mention was Honolulu Fish Co., which delivers its orders less than 24 hours after the fish has left the boat. Highley says they're a bit more expensive but worth it. "We take great pride in what we do," he said. "We're a new place, and we've got to hit Nashville by storm."

I left out that Highley said he and the head sushi chef are the ones who personally inspect the seafood pretty much every day, and when they don't another designated person on staff does.

Well Pink good for them to respond to you at all.

They're lucky you weren't one of those crazy loggers who are jealous and angry. Plus, I do like how well their executive chef is taking criticism. Again another wonderful sign.

For fun I went to two of my favorite Sushi restaurants in the country's websites today. Well it turns out that both of those, one in FL and the other in NYC, are both lower priced then Wild Ginger.

Wild Ginger has been a part of this conversation because they were the blog topic and I feel they are good example of my problems with recent reviews. Sorry Chef I know how jealous and angry you think us blog commenters are.

Obviously Pink, you're thrilled with the Nashville food scene and feel Wild Ginger is a great addition to the landscape. For those of us who don't live in a culinary bio-dome I'll choose not to think Wild Ginger is doing great work and I'll also choose to hope that somewhere in our beautifully scenic area that we find a standard of food that matches the areas scenic beauty.

Let me explain something to all of you;
If Thomas Kellar,Charlie Trotter and any other Chef you would care to name came to Nashville to work as an Executive Chef in a restaurant, they would face the same challenges that all other Nashville area Chefs face, a lack of quality help in the kitchen.
Someone said earlier in this blog that a chef is only as good as their last meal. This is not true, a chef is only as good as the staff that prepares his or her dishes. No Executive Chef anywhere cooks every dish that leaves their kitchen, they rely on skilled and highly trained staff to do that for them. Nashville does not have as many highly skilled and trained kitchen workers as cites with populations like NYC, San Francisco, L.A., etc.
Instead, Nashville has allowed itself to become a city of chain restaurants with kitchen workers that did not go to culinary school and have no plan of ever becoming a Chef. Any person in this country that does make the decision to become a chef usually goes to a major food-city after culinary school to start their career.
Chefs like Thomas Kellar and Charlie Trotter have kitchens that are staffed with hot-shot culinary school grads that want to be the next Thomas Kellar and therefore they work on a completely different level that the average Nashville crack head that believes they know how to saute and grill.
So the next time you want to say anything negative about a restaurant(especially Wild Ginger),
I encourage you to speak to the Chef and engage him in a conversation about the general dynamics of restaurant work and what it means to try and please all of the people all of the time. You might come away from this conversation a more enlightened person about food and what it takes to
produce a menu of complex dishes on a daily basis.

And for the rest of you; if you do go to Wild Ginger or any other restaurant and have any sort of bad experience, you should speak to the manager or the Chef immediately so that the issue can be resolved.
Saying nothing and then going home to write up some B.S. on some stupid blog is just a cowardly thing to do and you should spend eternity in Hell for doing so. However, speaking to the Manager or Chef might get you rewarded with one of the best
restaurant experiences of your life. This is not a perfect world we live in and it is impossible to please all of the people all of the time but I know for a fact Wild Ginger is pleasing most of the people most of the time.
And if anything, their staff and customers are the
most beautiful group of people you could ever hope to see.

They're lucky you weren't one of those crazy loggers who are jealous and angry. Plus, I do like how well their executive chef is taking criticism. Again another wonderful sign.

Really, do you blame him? For all he knows, you're a competitor or disgruntled employee trash-talking his place anonymously out of spite. (I'm sure that's not the case, but it would not be the first time something like that has happened.) Why should he care what a bunch of pseudonymous Internet chatterboxes think? That's why Carrington signs her name to all her reviews—you know exactly who you're hearing from. And she has to take the heat for it.

Obviously Pink, you're thrilled with the Nashville food scene and feel Wild Ginger is a great addition to the landscape.

I haven't been. I'm looking forward to it, though. The review made it sound really good.

My husband and I ate at Wild Ginger tonight and could not be happier with our decision to do so.
The entire experience was almost surreal. From the time we pulled into the parking lot and were met by one of the hottest women we have ever seen to the moment we arrived at the front door and were greeted by a whole pack of beautiful hostess. We knew this was going to be a different experience. Whoever said this place has good looking people was not joking at all!
Anyway, the food was beyond our expectations.
I have a gluten allergy and asked to speak to the Chef to get an idea of what I should order. The Chef approached our table and informed us that they have several gluten free dishes on the menu but would be more than happy to create something special for me. I chose the Miso Cod and must say that it was amazing!
My husband had the special of the evening, baby back ribs, and swore they were the best ribs he had ever eaten.
We did not try the sushi but have agreed that we should come back this weekend to try it.
The whole experience was near perfect. The live band played beautiful music and our waitress was very knowledgeable about the menu and drinks.
Maybe the restaurant was having a good night or maybe it was the fact that I found out today that I am pregnant, I don't know. But one thing I do know is we will be back for the Wild Ginger experience again and again.
And also I must conclude that anyone who trashes this place must have surely never been there and tried it.
So do yourself a favor and run, run as fast as you can.........

Congratulations on the happy news, Mama Kin! (Loved it when GNR covered you, by the way.) Alas, I don't think you'll be having much sushi now that you're expecting....

I haven't seen this many haters since the Wildwood blogs...

We haven't tried Wild Ginger yet, but are excited to do so. John Chen's chinese restaurant in Bellevue was some of the best chinese we've had. If that any indicator of how Wild Ginger is going to be.... yum!

Carrington and Pink: We have vanilla sugar! We'll bring some by next week.