Pagoda Restaurant

Ate here tonight. Atmosphere is a 10, food was terrible. Got a chicken bowl, the chicken was gray/​black and so dry and not tasty. We actually went to chick fil a for some real chicken afterwards.

We ate here today for restaurant week (brunch). I will be giving bullet points for Pros and Cons.
Pros
*the live music was excellent
*the ambiance was lovely
Cons
*the food was horrible– I ordered a crab cake with egg on top, there was virtually no crab and it was pasty– my husband ordered shrimp bruschetta which consisted of stale bread and unseasoned shrimp– mind you it took 30 minutes to get this food.
*the service was under par– I asked for a straw the waitress went to the bar got an unwrapped straw one with her bare hand and placed it in my drink. I told my husband, «this is why you pray over your food, you do not know what people do when you cannot see them». Additionally, my husband asked if he could have a small salad he was told no they could not prepare one for him. We thought that response was very strange for a restaurant.
It was one of the worst restaurant experiences I have ever had and I have eaten all over the eastern seaboard. Needless to say we will not be going back.

Incredibly disappointed with this place. The grounds are beautiful and the building is really something to look at. The views from the place are also really beautiful. We noticed that there never seemed to be many people at the restaurant and we often wondered why. Upon tasting our food we no longer wondered. I ordered a chicken dish and the chicken was so dry I could not swallow it without water. My husband ordered a mussels dish which tasted much more like plastic than seafood. We were incredibly disappointed. We will not be returning.

I had a school lunch here today (school field trip).
First, the environment/​location is amazing. Their building and garden are very impressive.
I had vegi lomein – the serving was smaller than a baby’s fist. It LOOKED like noodle on the outside and very soggy. However the inside was just a raw dough.
Also had chicken fried rice. Apparently, the owner or chef didn’t have enough fried rice to serve the customers. So they put some raw rice in the cooked rice. It’s soggy and crunchy at the same time. I found a piece of chicken as small as a baby’s fingernail in my rice and i felt that I won the lottery.
There were 2 noodle looking spring roll with some white pink mushy thing in them. Don’t know what it is.
Drink is lemonade which was just water and some lemon flavor without any sugar. Hey, at least it’s healthy.
The best part of the meal is my fortune cookie. It’s edible as long as you don’t mind chewing rubber in your mouth.
That’s everything in my lunch box and it cost $ 10. Very affordable right?

Let me give a disclaimer before I make my comment — I did NOT dine here. I just came to show my boyfriends family how beautiful the grounds are. It is by the river and there is an exotic garden with a small man made pond and they have those big goldfish swimming in it (I don’t know what they’re actually called).
There were a few people walking around the garden area taking pictures but only two tables were taken at the restaraunt. This could have also just been because it was 4pm and it was an awkward time but I was not hungry at the time so I just went exploring here.
I was greeted by the bartender as soon as I walked in and he was very friendly and didn’t mind that I was just browsing and wasn’t pushy about me ordering anything. Very chill. I would recommend definitely eating upstairs to see the view or outside. This place makes you feel like you are someplace in Asia and definitely not Norfolk!

A very quiet peaceful spot to catch a bite to eat and hear live music right in the middle of down town Norfolk.

There are etiquette rules when you put out a promotion. They had an expiration date for a deal set as a Tuesday (they are closed Monday and Tuesday.) Thankfully, I was paying attention and showed up Sunday. I was then informed they had decided to close an hour early, despite the open sign out front, a facebook post made hours earlier confirming their hours, and their website indicating the same. The person I spoke to was a bit rude about the whole thing, and I was refused service. Bad form.

No probs today. Lisa, our waitress, did a great job on a busy Saturday afternoon. Both our entres err very good.
We’ll come back again soon

We were apprehensive of this place after reading so many negative reviews. However, we arrived for lunch when they opened for the day. I had the curry chicken and my better half ordered the maple glazed ribs. Our meals arrived in a timely fashion. I was very happy with the curry chicken, and I thought the portion size was perfect for lunch, and I’m not a little guy by any means. Anyway, we’d go back to eat there again.

You go for the view not the food. Appetizers were better than the entrees. The ambiance also was lost with then blasting 96x vice oriental music. Service also sub par more of an ODU dive than an upscale dinning experience.

The service was pretty good and that was about it. We also say right next to the speaker playing rock music. My wife and I both ordered the stir fry, the first few bites weren’t that bad. You can pick 3 items to go in the stir fry along with the meat of your choice. I chose garlic as one of mine thinking it would be chopped. I was surprised to see whole cloves. After 3 bites the salt kicked in, we could not even come close to finishing it was that bad. We were very disappointed and felt we paid way to much for what we got. Will not be going back for lunch again.

My husband and I came here for a quick lunch before heading home from the area. We were at the Nauticus museum and decided to walk through the garden. Then we noticed they were open for lunch, and man were we starving! We were seated on the first floor near the back, facing the water. The view was gorgeous, but that is about the only positive thing I can say about our experience. There was a boom box playing right behind our table, playing rock and roll… in an Asian restaurant? My husband ordered the ginger vanilla old fashioned, because he was interested in how those flavors would work… let me tell you, they did NOT work. There were pieces of ginger root (with the bark still on it) in his drink, so rather than being able to casually drink his $ 11 beverage, he had to fight his way around the chunks of ginger. We ordered three small plates to split. The first was the spring rolls that were $ 9 and were deep fried, which we were not used to. The second thing we ordered were the crab ragoons. They were $ 9 I believe and they were filled with canned crab meat. The last thing we ordered were the potstickers that cost us $ 11 and were also deep fried, which is very unusual. The meat inside was disgusting and dry. NONE of the food was good, just VERY greasy! The icing on the cake was the fact that it took 45 minutes to get our food… it wasn’t even busy! And that little cherry on top? Well that was the fact that my husband’s fork was completely coated in food… from another customer. DISGUSTING! NOT worth your money or time!!!

This is the most disappointed I have been with a dining experience, ever. Nothing went terribly wrong, but also nothing was quite right.
I won’t go into detail about the surrounding gardens, because we all know that they are beautiful. For interior décor, it is a sharp contrast. We sat on the upstairs balcony. As I went upstairs, I noticed the decorations and furnishings were either out-​dated or cheap. The seats on the outside balcony were incredibly uncomfortable. They were hard stools sized for someone 5′ tall. My 6’4″ fiancé’s tailbone did not appreciate that one bit. Our hostess promised us views of the water, but the balcony railing was a little too high for me to see anything, which resulted in an «oh-​well» shrug from me — not the end of the world. That being said, the hostess was very nice and helpful.
Now on to the real kicker, our actual dining experience. First, the food was more expensive than I expected, but I though maybe it would be especially tasty to make up for it. The food was pretty tasty, but very tiny. My gnocchi dish was approximately the same amount of food that I give my 10 pound dog for dinner. I had asked for it without salmon (there wasn’t a vegetarian option for the entrees), but they didn’t seem to add any extra gnocchi and they didn’t discount the price. I ate $ 18 in about10 bites. My fiancé’s dish was also tasty, but again, very small.
In terms of service, the waitress committed the ultimate pet peeve of my fiancé: lacy-​luster water filling. She passed by us a couple of times during our meal and never once refilled our glasses. When she came to give us the check she didn’t offer to refill our water either. Once we gave her our card it took 20 minutes to get the check back to sign it. Thank goodness our hostess came by and refilled our glasses during that time.
Here is my opinion boiled down: I will not be paying that much money on 10 bites of food and mediocre service so that I can catch a small glimpse of a fountain ever again. Just pack yourself a picnic and eat it on the bench. It will save you time and money.
Now I’m off to heat a frozen pizza because I am still hungry from my «meal» at the Pagoda.

It seems we dined on a very odd off day. One star this time; benefit of the doubt; I will return again on a different day. I score the food below average, and it really needs refinement to meet the standard they are presenting. The service was great, but there were some very unusual things on this visit that surprised me.
First, and unbeknownst to me until halfway through our dinner, The Pagoda planned on closing early for an employee/​management off-​site function and they accepted my 7:30 pm reservation anyway. We were seated and dined as the only people there, except for a few folks in the lounge area downstairs. This was atmospherically… bitter-​sweet, but we decided to see the visit through.
We found out about the early closing by seeing and hearing some of the staff rushing along with obvious closing procedures such as locking doors to the balcony. Knowing they close at 10 pm, I asked about this activity and they confirmed the early closing. Things really felt awkward during this, though we were told to take our time. This was at sunset on a Friday night, one of the best times to eat on the top floor here, I’m sure.
Secondly, the food…
I ordered a small plate salad which was lettuce, cucumber, carrot, peanuts, etc., in a light ginger dressing, but instead I received a baby spinach salad with carrot and cucumber tossed in a basic sesame oil vinaigrette. The spinach salad was delicious, but this dish wasn’t even offered on the menu we were given. I found this mistake very odd. See photo.
My entrée was Ahi Tuna and capsicum peppers in a curry sauce, which was flavorful, but I really had to look for the diced tuna. The taste of the tuna was very distant in the dish. This was also served with a spoon, which provided no function for the dish.
The outside…
This place is smaller than it looks and I’m sure the need for storage is a concern, but The pagoda sits amid a beautiful little park I assume is maintained by the city of Norfolk. If one walks around the cylindrical Pagoda, one will see empty five-​gallon oil containers and other kitchen items snugly stored against the building’s outer wall away from the entrances. Very much out of place. I honestly think the design of the building is not fitting for a full menu restaurant, as the multiple ownership history is seemingly trying to prove. Coffee, Tea and cocktails sure.
Lastly, Lisa, our server was awesome and did a great job. If it were not for Lisa, I probably would never try The Pagoda for dinner again. I just don’t understand why a restaurant would plan an off-​site function on one of it’s busiest nights of the week.
This really reminded me of one of the restaurants Robert Irvine would visit on his television show. I’ll give dining at The Pagoda a second chance in the future.

Like many have said over and over through the seemingly endless amount of owners — the grounds here are fantastic.
I’ll also say that the new round of ownership has done a pretty good job with food. I’ve had the ‘make your own’ bowl that I thought was very nice. I find the tuna wonton appetizer to be a nice consistent dish. This last time they added diced apples and it really rounded everything out. Service here is a bit green, but I think it’s somewhat of a catch 22. Do you hire top-​notch servers and go for it, or do you dip your toe and let everything else try to carry it? The former.
As a last aside, and I’m never one to complain on price; however, those little tiny vodkas on the rocks at $ 9 a pop are a bit shameful. I won’t even mention the frat boy bathroom situation. If I’m paying $ 9 for a shot, can you at least put the toilet paper and paper towels in their appropriate dispensers?
Will I come back? I will. And you should too. This place has potential, yet again.

I was really disappointed with our visit. I was hoping the new management would be better and I would be able to leave a new glowing review. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case. We called ahead since we were going as a large group, but it still took 45 mins for us to get any food to our table. There were a lot of exposed boxes and restaurant supplies laying out, kind of off putting against the great architecture outside.
The make-​your-​own-​stir-​fry, should really just be called customizable fried rice. It almost seemed like they were not used to short-​order cooking bc our meals did not come out no where near together. All of us who ordered stir-​fry got our meals well before the others who ordered entrees. Our stir-​fry was overcooked to the point that the rice was dry/​crunchy and the meat was tough. Again, very disappointed… I would love to see an owner make the Pagoda a great dining experience all around. Come for the view, but I’d stay away from the overly priced, sub-​par food.

A quiet little restaurant with a menu that changes from week to week. I had the ahi tuna with bacon and pesto over vegetables. Yes. the portions were not large, but it is sea food, so not that unusual. The food is very high quality.
I chose to sit upstairs to have a view of the water and a few ships, and even the sun for a bit before it clouded over. The garden is a pretty spot to listen to the waterfalls and gaze at the flowers, trees, and koi fish.
A nice little restaurant in a beautiful location by the water. I hope the chef has success with his ambitions for the menu.

This review is kind of hard for me to write. My girlfriend and I came in around 5pm for an early dinner. I love coming to the pagoda to walk around and enjoy the scenery so I thought why not try eating at the Pagoda Restaurant itself?
I love the scenery around the Pagoda so that’s always a plus. We were given a small menu with relatively pricey items typical of $$ restaurants. I ordered the seared tuna and fried bacon ($ 19) and my girlfriend ordered the chicken curry ($ 16). When we received our orders, they were tiny! They looked like appetizers. My dish came with two pieces of small seared tuna and two pieces of bacon in a sauce. My girlfriend’s dish was a typical curry shunk down to appetizer size. So then we ate our food. The fried bacon was okay, but the tuna was a bit salty and my girlfriend and I agreed that the curry was not very good. So for about $ 40 with no drinks, we had two unappetizing appetizer sized entrees. We were not full nor satisfied.
1 star for the scenery (just because I really like the Pagoda), and round up the half star for service to make this a 2 star place. Spend your hard earned money elsewhere. I really do hope they step it up here because I love coming to the Pagoda park. I know the business is slow but at least serve decent food for the price.

SO SO gorgeous. Not a huge menu, but what they do have is delicious. They have live music every Fri until the end of October and if you sit outside you have a gorgeous view of the water. Not to mention you get an experience unlike you could at any other restaurant around here. I got the gyoza and they came promptly. They were served on a bed of «Asian slaw» which was spicy and delicious. The gyoza were crispy, hot, and delicious. I literally ate every bite. They are very reasonably priced, and the waitress was very sweet. I will definitely be back. I would highly recommend this place to anyone, but especially couples on a date for a one of a kind experience.

The Pagoda restaurant has gone through like 300 owners it seems. Each time I see it change, I continue to run past it on my weekday workouts and think, it’s such a lovely building!
Well, this week I went in and had a pretty solid lunch! I went with the BLT salad, which came with fresh sliced avocado. My friend went with a noodle dish that also looked tasty. It’s quite nice inside and the food was good, service was friendly. I look forward to going back and trying a few more menu items.