Red Ginger

We have been back to Red Ginger twice now, and have had outstanding sushi. The tuna hamachi appetizer is super fresh and light with just a hint of heat from the jalapeño. We also tried the tuna tataki that bursts with flavor. Most of the rolls are a good size and have a nice fresh flavor, not overly seasoned with spicy mayo or heavily breaded. Be sure to sit at the sushi bar, the sushi chef is very knowledgeable and made some great recommendations!
We haven’t had a chance to try anything on the hibachi side, but look forward to going back again! Staff is super friendly and efficient.

I’ve enjoyed this restaurant on more the one occasion. I love the atmosphere here. And the food is soooooo good. Soooooo GOOD

i hate this place and they are a complete rip off. i ordered lunch here. i got the bento box and requested a california roll with my order as it states on the menu the lady who took my order charged me for an additional cali roll my total came out to be $ 16+ for lunch when it should’ve been like $ 10ish. my food was sub par and my sushi roll was terrible fishy and not fresh !!! my chicken i was trash and tough. i called and asked for a manager to request a refund. the manager took my card info and said they would refund she ended up charging me again so in total i paid them $ 26+ for horrible food.

This is probably the best tasting Japanese food I’ve ever had! Everything was so flavorful and rich! The service was amazing and attentive! I enjoyed every single bite!

Drinks were awesome, the chef could have been a little more excited to do his job though also he kept missing and breaking eggs. The shrimp, steak and chicken were over cooked… otherwise it was good just not the best. For $ 100+ it should have been on point…

Attention sushi lovers: The Red Ginger is guaranteed to leave you satisfied! You’ll enjoy unique rolls, great service, and a peaceful ambiance. I’ll definitely return on my next trip to Charlotte.

As usual the food was great, the service was not on the level we’ve experienced in the past however. Definitely got an eye roll from the hostess a couple of times after I approached her to explain the status of my party, and one of our two servers was extremely rushed and impolite. I have serving experience and I understand being busy but you still have to make your guest feel welcomed. I understand the stress of a large party, and may not try to do it again here, but my wife and I will be back.

Very nice staff, delicious food, great price. Will come back for sure. Our chef wasn’t that creative on the hibachi table, but that was fine.
Child friendly.

Went here for Charlotte restaurant week. For $ 30, you get an appetizer, a salad, soup, 2 proteins, and a dessert, which seemed like a pretty solid deal. Tried the sushi appetizer which was pretty average, and also tried the calamari appetizer which was pretty average as well.
The soup and salad got the job done, but nothing really stuck out. Salad had a ginger dressing on it.
From my experience with the 2 proteins, I had the steak and the salmon. Both were cooked fine, and they provide you with 2 sauces to dip in as well as a couple of complimentary shrimp. You get to choose fried or white rice, and also get hibachi vegetables.
The deep fried cheesecake was basically a slice of cheesecake dipped in tempura batter, and was it was quite tasty.
The place looks very modern and the ambience definitely fits it. Service was average.
Overall, this is a solid, no-​frills hibachi restaurant. The food is cooked well, they put on a show, and at least from my restaurant week experience, I was very full. Although it is difficult for a hibachi restaurant to be crappy, they did a good job. I would probably go back if I was ever craving hibachi. It’s not outstanding, but it gets the job done.

Completely blew restaurant week. Took 2 hours for our food to come out!!! Would not go back.
…despite what I said earlier I did go back for a friends birthday and the hibachi experience was great. Be warned they give a way lots of free saki. Great food and very sensitive to those with food alergies. Solid bar service too.

If I could leave 0 stars, I would. After being over an hour late for a reservation we had for 3 weeks, the owner informed us that our business was not important to us and would not even buy us a round of drinks. This place is a joke and will probably be closed soon. Don’t go unless you want awful service!

Racism. Discrimination.
On December 31^st, at 9:56pm, my sister, her husband, their two children (ages 13 and 6), and I were walking downtown, looking for a restaurant to get a bite to eat before heading further downtown for Charlotte’s New Year’s Eve celebration. we came upon two OPEN restaurants, across Tryon street — Red Ginger (a sushi house) and Amelie’s (a French bakery/​café). My sister and her husband, an IT director for a local company, asked me to decide on the restaurant, as I was in town for the holiday, staying at a downtown 4 star restaurant. I, unwittingly, chose sushi — so the five of us sauntered across the street and entered Red Ginger.
My sister entered first, and a young hostess greeted her. As her husband and I, with the children in tow, reached my sister, the hostess glanced at us, and suddenly told my sister that they were closed. This was ridiculous, as the restaurant’s hours were posted clearly on the door: closing time was listed at 11:00pm. Furthermore, we could see people being served all over the restaurant. Without protest, we simply turned around and left the premises, walking across Tryon street to the French bakery/​café’ Amelie’s, where we enjoyed a lighter and quicker meal.
We showed no anger, and even joked about the incident in front of the children for the rest of the night. The three of us were not going to let an ignorant racist’s action ruin what had been, and would continue to be a wonderful New Year’s Eve celebration in the heart of Charlotte.
I wonder if other patrons of color have had similar experiences at Red Ginger’s. Perhaps this was the action of a single racist employee, enabled by a racist subculture fostered or ignored by her management. Frankly, I hope the restaurant’s management’s leadership reads this post, identifies the employee, and conducts an inquiry.
Though I will be visiting Charlotte in the future, Red Ginger’s sushi will not be on the menu.

My annoyance at being forced away from my desk to shuffle down a stairway on a sunny day for a firedrill while trying to run a meeting quickly disappeared when my coworker suggested I drop into Red Ginger to pick up some carryout on my way back into the office, solving both my need for lunch and my hatred of waiting at the elevator bank with 200 of my closest friends also returning from the firedrill.
I’ve never tried Red Ginger before because it always seemed too sit down/​fancy. Half the restaurant is dedicated to hibachi tables Benihana style, another quarter of it is a proper sushi bar, and then there’s a regular bar and table seating.
Placed my order for the shrimp hibachi combo, which at $ 11 included a drink, choice of soup or salad, and the usual veg and rice choices one gets with a hibachi combo. The wait was about ten minutes which passed quickly as a friend was waiting for another mutual friend in the restaurant, so she waved me over to come sit with her at her table while we both waited.
The restaurant was fairly empty at 11:15, but my order came out promptly and as soon as I saw the guy walking from the kitchen with my carryout bag, I started the brief goodbyes with my friends. By the time I’d gotten to the front door, the hostess had my bag and soda in her hands ready to give to me. Highly efficient! As a bonus, the elevator banks had cleared out too.
On to the food: There are two other places in Charlotte that I’ve mentioned on Unilocal doing hibachi style food. The first (and least appealing) is TinTin up north by the Bank of America buildings. The second is Hasaki Grill, a little further south of my office building on the way to the BB&T ballpark. I’ve written them up on Unilocal,their food is good.
So with those for comparison, Red Ginger is in the top 2, nearly tied with, perhaps slightly edging out Hasaki grill for ambiance in the restaurant, and flavorful food. My order came with six shrimp, a slew of rice, «Yum Yum» sauce and a brown ginger-​based sauce. The salad came with the traditional bright-​orange ginger dressing you tend to get at a hibachi restaurant. (I should know, I worked in one for a year in college.)
For me, the real edge here has to be given to the restaurant that’s most convenient, which is Red Ginger. It’s located right in the base of my office building and I pass that corner every day on my way home from work.
So, while I’m frustrated that I had to quickly cancel my meeting and disrupt my routine for a fire drill, I’m pleasantly full and surely headed for a mild food coma in an hour or so. I’ll be keeping Red Ginger on my list for quick, nearby carry-​out lunch options.

I ate there for the first time on lunch yesterday (9÷22÷15). Overall, it was just «OK». The ambiance inside was very very nice, but the food didn’t really impress me, especially for the cost.
I had the Chicken Teriyaki Lunch Bento box, Served with Miso Soup, Fried Shumai, California Roll, Fried Rice and Seasonal Fruit.
The Shumai was ok. It didn’t have any great flavor to write home about, just basically a fried dumpling. The Miso soup was fine, but let’s be honest, it would be hard to screw up Miso soup. The California roll was 4 pieces and pretty weak. I would say the California Rolls you get at Harris teeter are better. The Fried rice had a good flavor and good chunks of fried egg, so no complaint there. The Chicken Teriyaki came with snow pea pods. Overall, it was just «ok.» I know it’s not the best description, but I guess that is my point, the flavor was like any other bland Teriyaki chicken you have had a 1,000 times before.
The seasonal fruit was 2 slices or orange.
My wife went with the 3 sushi roll combo. 6 pieces in each roll. Again, the rolls were not better than what I can find in the grocery store and honestly, one was loaded up with way too much cream cheese, to the point my wife had to take some out.
I ate there because I had a coupon. But I would say, I doubt I will try it again (not without a much better coupon).

I went with my family to enjoy dinner. We sat at the Hibachi table looking to be entertained by the chef and watch our food be cooked while we watched. Deeply disappointed. The Chef did not meet the expectations of entertaining with the onion volcano or flipping shrimp. He flipped his spatula at the beginning but that was about it. The quality of the food was just OK. I didn’t event want a togo box to take my leftovers. No one in my family was impressed and no one will be returning.
The cocktails weren’t impressive either. All around I suggest going somewhere else.

To start on a positive note, the food was very good. I ordered Hibachi Chicken and Salmon and was thoroughly satisfied. The soup and salad that was served before the meal was also up to par.
My chief complaint about this place is the poor service. Drink orders took twenty minutes to arrive, multiple servers had to come to the table to confirm orders, and the worst part was that the tip was tacked on at the end of the bill. Whether you’re satisfied with the service or not, you’re not going to escape that mandatory 20% tip.
This was a decent place to eat while I was in the area, but I don’t think that I’ll come here next time I’m in Charlotte.

So amazingly enough I’ve been here two separate times — but for the same occasion: a friend’s birthday dinner. Since my visits were literally separated by a year, it’s good to see that this place has staying power.
Located in Uptown, it is definitely an experience to go eat here. Both birthday dinner times were with a large crowd 8 – 10 and we had reservations. Once everyone arrived, we were promptly sat at our table and the servers got our drink orders and food orders. The chef/​entertainer comes out and confirms all our orders and then starts cooking right in front of us.
I’m a sucker for showmanship, but the chefs pull out all the tricks: flaming onion volcano, fake ketchup bottle squirting, etc. Probably the funnest thing is when the chef offers everyone some sake and proceeds to squirt the sake in peoples mouths until they had enough. This latest visit was the entire table catching broccoli in their mouths…
Good times — The staff are really good here keeping your drinks flowing and catering to your needs. I’d say its a solid «birthday dinner place.»

Not bad, but also not great. The atmosphere and vibe are very comfortable. I really appreciated the lounge feel. But it’s not a very busy place, I think I know why.
We ordered the coconut shrimp appetizer. Wasn’t mind blowing, but was still good. The miso soup was also decent along with the salad. They weren’t bad, just didn’t leave a memorable impression.
My husband ordered the seafood delight I think was its name. His lobster was very tough and initially unidentifiable. I ordered the fillet and shrimp hibachi dinner combo. The fillet was actually really good. Cooked and seasoned well. Unfortunately, my shrimp was way over cooked and way under seasoned. My noodles were a little bland as were my vegetables and fried rice.
Honestly, the place could be a real uptown sensation with just a few improvements in my opinion. Better seasoning and shorter cook times on the seafood. Other than that, it wasn’t bad. Service was pretty decent. I couldn’t drink any water because my first glass had this white substance stuck to the inside with stuff floating inside it. I asked for another glass and that one was in the same condition.
They gave us a coupon for our next visit. Not sure if I will return

I’ve passed this place a million times while driving uptown and finally decided to come here.
Came here during Charlotte’s Restaurant week in July and it was really good overall. You can either come here with the family/​co-​workers for hibachi or come here solo with a date for dinner. Inside looks really nice too. Another good thing about it, it that it seemed pretty low key and not overly crowded for a saturday night.
The food was great. I had the Red Ginger meal. Service could have been better but it was good enough.
Overall, I had a good time and I’ll definitely be back.

Red Ginger is a trendy Japanese restaurant in Uptown Charlotte. There is a sushi bar, hibachi grills and regular menu featuring bento options and other Japanese specialties.
My party sat in the bar area which is right inside the door. I didn’t understand the 3 seater bar tables. Isn’t 3 considered a crowd? You’d think 4 would be more acceptable. Also the music was way too loud.
For food, I started out with the Rock Shrimp which was actually quite good. The sauce was a combo of sweet and spicy and it came with several shrimp. For a meal I went with the Maki B sushi combo which came with spicy tuna, salmon and eel. It also came with miso soup and a salad. The soup and salad were quite Meh. The soup was so salty and it wasn’t even a soup, it was more of a broth with 2 pieces of miso and tiny slices of scallion. The salad wasn’t much better — iceberg lettuce, a grape tomato, slice of cucumber and a ginger dressing that tasted more like thousand island.
The sushi was decent but I thought it was overpriced. For bar selections, they do have a few craft beer draft selections but nothing local. Too bad.
Service wise, we were served by the bartender who we had to call over each time we needed something. Other than that, food came out quickly.
I don’t know if this is worth my time for a repeat visit. I think there are better sushi places in Charlotte. But perhaps, I’ll try them sometime for the hibachi grill.