Ginger Cafe

I have only had take out from Ginger Café. I ordered my food and there was 30 minute wait to get the food. I arrived right at the 30 minute mark and the food was ready and waiting. The cashier was very cordial and friendly.
We got home and opened the food. The food was steaming hot and fresh. I had the Sweet and Sour chicken. It is packaged with sliced carrots and two ramekins of sweet and sour sauce. Also I had the vegetable fried rice. The rice was fresh and moist and perfectly prepared.
We had a friend that order the chicken chow mein. He said it was most likely the best Chinese food he had ever tried. Ginger Café is a must try if in the area.

I had the lunch special, Massaman curry and a spring roll. The staff were really attentive and great about making things quick, since I’m newer to the area and had to get back to work.
I got the Massaman since it’s one of my favorite types of curry, and from reviews here I knew the place was more Thai than Mandarin or Szechuan. Three little spice symbols? Okay, I thought, I have a toothbrush in my briefcase. I can get spicy at lunch, and deal with it later. I needn’t have worried.
The curry was terribly bland. Just no heat at all, and barely any curry flavor. I dislike finding a ton of dried pepper flakes hiding in my food, so good for them on that count, but I do like my curry to have curry in it.
And weirdly, it was the consistency of broth soup. Curries need to reduce a little, both for flavor and for consistency, and Massaman especially tends to be nice and thick (like a stew) because of simmering the starch in the potatoes. These potatoes were not even tender. There was also not a lot of chicken or peanuts, and overall it seemed very thrown-​together. And it’s not like they just chucked some potato into a chicken red curry, because again, it was way too watery and thin.
The spring roll was okay, but it didn’t have much meat in it and there was no mint or cilantro detectable. This is Thai food for people who hate spices, basically.
Staff and attentiveness: A.
Ambience: (nobody cares about ambience when you’re just grabbing a quick lunch off Hwy 47. Let’s not get weird here.)
Food: C-​.
Average: B-​.
I may give them another shot, maybe try a stir-​fry or Pad Thai. Maybe I happened to order the one thing they’re bad at. Maybe the chef had a bad day. I really want to support a local business doing something other than just vague «Asian» food… but this one meal was a bland, sad, depressing Minnesota Bland version of Thai food.

Went for lunch specials on a Saturday with 4 other people. Everyone enjoyed their food, I had Thai Basil with white rice and a spring roll. Great flavor! So yummy. Will come back again.

We love this place! Everything is fabulous. Friendly and promp service. Food is fantastic!

Enjoyed the food here. I had Kung Pao chicken (extra spicy) and it was spiced well, also had spring roll, good, but not the best I’ve had, some kind of ground meat in it, I prefer the usual shrimp/​bbq pork.
GF had cashew chicken, not as good as mine but middle of the road, her egg rolls were very good.
It has a small basic dining area, if a dog barking and a dirty fish tank bother you get take out, but if you want good food at a fair price this is the place.
Look forward to trying new dishes.
This place is in a small strip mall and is difficult to see, keep looking.

Great place. We love the food and atmosphere. Be careful when asking for a spicy meal, they don’t joke around. I have never had a meal or experience I have not enjoyed 100%!

This place is simply best thai outside of stpaul. Red chicken curry is my favorite, but their pad thai is great as well.
The egg rolls and spring rolls are incredible!

Love this place! Hands down the best resteraunt in the area! Highly recommend the egg drop soup, the tofu pad Thai and/​or the egg foo young and of course top it off with the cream cheese won tons. I have a hard time finding a place that cooks a decent tofu but they have mastered it. If you live in the area or just traveling through and haven’t tried it yet — you should.

A wonderful little restaurant hidden in Ramsey. I really enjoy their yum woon sen salad as well as the pod thai. Tom yum, and coconut soup are excellant as well. Their spring rolls are good and they will make them with tofu instead of shrimp and pork if you like. The egg rolls are also delicious, although I prefer spring rolls myself. Overall, I highly recommend them.

I was in the area for a sales call and was craving asian. I stopped by the restaurant with monkey in the title looked inside and said no thank you.
Unilocal directed me over to ginger café which had a cool sign. The ambience inside was unappealing, but I figured I’d stay since this place seemed more thai which I enjoy a little more than chinese.
I had the cashew chicken lunch combo with a spring roll and everything was very very good. Very fresh. I agree it was a little saucy but overall the sauce was light enough where it didn’t gel up over the veggies.
Spring roll was great!
I dunno why the bad reviews. I walked out with a 8 dollar lunch tab and was stuffed in a good way. Definitely will stop by again to try more if the thai items

Excellent spring rolls and satay chicken skewers. Inside ambience not the greatest– but excellent take-​out place.

Good food, fresh ingredients. The soda was flat, but the food was great. Well be going back and will post pictures next time. Was very busy for a weekday

Hidden gem for some great takeout! I’m not overly impressed by the dining options in this area, and almost didn’t try Ginger because of the 2 bad reviews here. …so glad that we did! I ordered takeout for myself and two employees, and we all agreed that this place will get our repeat business. We got the spicy seafood dish, moo goo, a curry dish, sampler platter and some sides. EVERYTHING ordered was up to par! Also– the eggrolls must be mentioned… I haven’t had a decent eggroll for far too long– but these are crispy, chewy outside and the perfect filling inside (not mushy, as so many are). There was some truth to the grease level, but it made for some good sticky rice dip! Will be back!

I’ve eaten at ginger café several times but after the last time I was very dissatisfied. After spending $ 40 they forgot to give me my rice and I had to drive back. Then for $ 40 the food wasn’t even that great I could have spent less money for the quality of food elsewhere. The Pad Thai was good but for $ 11 I wish I could have gotten more than 5 shrimp.

I am so glad this place exists — it’s a perfect stop for a yummy lunch at very reasonable prices. Yes, I will admit the service has gotten a bit slower, but I presume it’s because the restaurant is so popular and busy at lunch time.
I lover their lunch combinations, as well as the wide array of other Thai dishes a la carte. Whether I’m in the mood for vegetarian or carnivore options, Ginger Café always delivers: they make my food extra spicy, and bring more on the side, just in case. I love it. All my colleagues who’ve gone there with me are all pleased with the food, the experience, and the prices. So, this will continue to be one of my preferred lunch destinations. Kob kun!

Ginger Café – I should have gone next door, to Subway.
After driving by this place hundreds of times, I just had lunch there with my daughter.
First, the place is DIRTY. There’s a gross greasy path on the carpet leading from the tiles to the dining room. And the tile behind the counter has a black path with scuffs from tennis shoes. Yuck! Clean much? Even the Koi fish tank needs help. Being a tropical fish guy, I felt sorry for them swimming around in their own waste because of an undersized filter.
Second, our menus… We were given two different menus. Hers had yellow taped-​on price increases of about a dollar. Sensing that mine was a mistake (who lowers prices, right?), I brought this to their attention. They gave me a «new» one with the taped-​in higher prices.
Third, appetizers… My daughter got plain (non-​spiced) chicken wings. She said her wings were just okay. I got the pork egg rolls. I couldn’t see or taste any pork. What a rip off!
Finally, the entrée… Since the manager said they’re from Laos, I tried the Thai Beef with peanut sauce (which is closer to Laos food than Chinese food). It was pretty weird, unlike any Thai peanut sauce I’ve had in any other restaurant… and NOT in a good way. It was super sweet and syrupy. There was also hardly any beef.
Interestingly, I talked to the manager about her food when she came to apologize for the incorrect menu (the one without the taped-​in prices). She said that the customers in Ramsey tend to like the more boring Asian meals with hardly any spices. So they’ve incorporated more standard, Americanized Chinese dishes. And she said a lot of people accidentally order spring rolls (instead of regular egg rolls) for home delivery, they’re pissed off and don’t know what they are.
This is interesting… but no excuse for what I tasted today. Again, I’m disappointed with the majority of restaurant choices in the NW suburbs.
NEXT!
–Daddy Maxx Retro

Been there a few times. The food ranges from all over Asia. We go because of the convenience of the location. Could calm down a little with the salt and grease. Service has always been good every time. I’m just happy to find phở this close.

Great take out

I like Thai food and I really want to see this place do well because it is close. However the last time I was there I felt the food was on the greasy side.
My food needs have changed during the last. I am trying to avoid most meat and as much grease as I can so that may be why I notice it so much now.
Because of that and the fact that it so hard to get in and out of the parking lot I’m not sure I will go back for a while.
A year or so ago we were talking to the owner and he told us that his sister owned Sweet Basil on Zane just south of 610. The quality of food there is much better but the price is also higher.

After reading some good reviews on Urban Spoon (Sorry I was straying Unilocalers!) I decided to give this place a try.
1) It is TINY and not in the quiet and cozy kind of way but in the everyone can probably overhear your conversation kind of way — if you want to eat at this place I recommend you get take out.
2) Somewhat understaffed — you may have to ring that little «service please» bell.
3) The website/​other internet reviews make this place sound like a diamond in the rough. Maybe I got the wrong food, but they use way too much grease in their food for my tastes. I was not under the impression that I ordered a bucket of grease. Oh well, I guess some people are into that kind of thing maybe?
It got really good reviews elsewhere on the internet, so I was kind of surprised that I was left with the feeling that I wouldn’t be returning here.