LEO's Eats with Robin Garr
As the signature upscale shopping district in Tokyo, Ginza is a landmark akin to Rodeo Drive in Los Angeles, Miraflores in Lima or Chicago's purportedly magnificent Michigan Avenue.
Which suggests that Ginza Asian Bistro, a newish suburban eatery in Louisville, has set itself to a mighty high standard with its choice of moniker. And when you first step through the door of this flashy spot on Shelbyville Road near Hurstbourne, with its pools of translucent blue, green and red lights marking out space on the ceilings and walls, lots of mirrors and an oversize lighted fish tank, you might feel a flash of high color and high tech that could make you think, "Ginza, yeah!"
Service is Ginza-polished, too, with fluent English speakers delivering food and attending to your order with grace and style.
But in my recent experience through a substantial, multi-course midday meal, Ginza sadly stops well short of the ideal in the food department. None of eight dishes we tried ranked as outstanding, a few were "meh," one went uneaten, and one got sent back to the kitchen for an unsuccessful re-do.
This was particularly disappointing because this spot had received positive reviews on the LouisvilleHotBytes.com forum. In retrospect, though, it seems much of Ginza's praise goes to its high-end sushi rolls, prepared to order at the short but stylish sushi bar.
We didn't have much luck with ordering from the menu, and the issues suggested a consistent pattern of careless kitchen work and, a major no-no in the sushi business, past-prime ingredients.
Perhaps the menu's reach exceeds its grasp as it tries to crank out three disparate Asian cuisines — Japan, Thailand and China — and, but for the sushi, only a short, somewhat Americanized selection of each.
Read the full review on LouisvilleHotBytes,
http://www.louisvillehotbytes.com/ginza ... isappoints
and in LEO Weekly:
http://leoweekly.com/dining/ginza-glitt ... isappoints
Ginza Asian Bistro
9420 Shelbyville Road
749-8878
http://ginzalouisville.com
Robin Garr's rating: 76 points
