Let down by Ming himself....

I have been waiting for years to try Blue Ginger.  I have spent those years (and more actually) watching Ming Tsai on PBS and his most recent challenge, Next Iron Chef.  He even narrated the allergy video we had to watch during our servsafe class at school. 

Reservations were made for this past Monday, and even a stuffy head and unsettled stomach weren't going to keep me from this dining experience.  Some cold medicine and ginger ale later, I was seated and perusing the wine menu.

We were there for restaurant week.   Now, I know that everyone has their own opinions about this, but I see these 4 weeks a year as an opportunity to try places that are outside of my normal price range.  I strongly feel that restaurants should have the same opinion about this, as they may secure a spot in coveted "dining out" rotations with the right meal.  

Most of what was on Ming's (yes, we are on a first name basis in my mind!) menu was on the regular dinner menu, so I had high hopes at the start of the meal.  An hour or so later, when we were leaving, I had an entirely different opinion.

For starters, we split the soup de jour  (Sweet Potato Soup) and the Shiitake-Leek Springrolls with Three Chile Dipping Sauce.  The soup was unbalanced and incredibly under seasoned.  After your first bite, all you could taste was the cayenne pepper.  While the actual spingrolls had a nice texture, they had no real flavor by themselves, and the dipping sauce was all vinegar and salt. 

For main courses, we split the Aromatic Braised Oxtail with Roasted garlic mashed potatoes and sauteed ginger greens, and the Korean “Fried Chicken” with House Napa Slaw and Kuchu Jang Sauce.  

The oxtail was good - tender and a very nice blend of flavors. The potatoes were well seasoned but did nothing for the dish texturily. After the first bite or so, they disappeared in to the broth., leaving a grainy, undesirable, once delicious broth behind.  The chicken was dry, and the rice in the middle was mushy and bland. 

The saving grace for this menu was dessert. Spliting the Bittersweet Chocolate Cake with Cardamom Ice Cream,  Spiced Sugar Wafer and Chocolate Ganache and the Tahitian Vanilla Crème Brulée with Coconut Shortbread and Chocolate Tamarind Cookie promised to be good. I love crème brulée, so I was confident that I would be leaving with at least "well, at least that was good" under my belt.  While I did leave with that thought, it wasn't because of that.  It was because of the chocolate cake and cardamom ice cream.  

In a word - Amazing.  And I don't like chocolate cake. 

To be fair, I got my friend's opinions before I gave him mine, to make sure I wasn't just being picky.  He had the same thoughts as me.

Maybe I'll go again, if someone else is buying, but I won't rally up the troops to return.

There are people I know that really love it here, so maybe I just caught them on a bad night.  Unfortunately, that's all it takes.


Blue Ginger is located at 583 Washington Street in Wellesley, MA 02482, and has earned quite the collection of accolades over the years.  Maybe I'm just missing something.
http://ming.com/blueginger.htm