Months After Wild Ginger Sprouts, Locals Digging In

It’s only taken three months for Nesconset’s newest Asian Fusion restaurant, Wild Ginger, to build up a steady following, according to Joyce Wang, manager for the shop.

“Business has been pretty busy,” said Wang, “especially on the weekends.”

In fact, turnout has presented a tiny problem for the restaurant, which o. The dining room often fills to capacity, and Wang said weekends she typically has to open up a side room often reserved for private parties to seat everybody.

Turns out, reputation for the chain may have something to do with it. The Nesconset location is only the latest Wild Ginger on Long Island, joining shops in East Northport, Rockville Centre and Great Neck.

“We have a little bit of everything here,” said Wang, “and our fish is always fresh.”

Sushi takes the top billing in Wild Ginger’s menu, with standbys such as California and salmon rolls mixed in with more creative bites. The Smithtown roll, for example, features crunchy spicy salmon and avocado, with salmon on top, while the namesake Wild Ginger roll includes pepper tuna and avocado on the inside, with spicy tuna on the outside.

When it comes to hot entrees, however, fusion takes over. The restaurant swings from Thai curry dishes, Singapore noodles and Japanese teriyaki dishes to entrees like Malaysian shrimp and duck fajitas. Prices are generally in line with other Asian restaurants in the area, with entrees mostly $15 and above. Specialty sushi rolls can cost as high as $16.

The establishment doesn’t have its liquor license yet, said Wang, but for now customers can bring their own wine or beer.

The restaurant also offers coupons on its website, via the mail and on its takeout menus.

And though a takeout Chinese Restaurant, , is in the same strip as Wild Ginger, Wang said that her business doesn’t feel competitive with them because they each have different cuisines to offer to customers.

The Smithtown area has no shortage of Asian or sushi restaurants. Kotobuki in Hauppauge and Aji 53 in Smithtown both lead in the area when it comes to reviews, scoring tops in Zagat rankings again and again. At the same time, Smithtown now has two Thai restaurants with the recent

While Wang is happy that the business has had such an early success, she still thinks people aren’t all that familiar with Wild Ginger yet, especially since people don’t always see their restaurant from the street, where it's tucked in a small strip mall that locals often zoom by.

“A lot of the business we get is word of mouth, but they do know our name,” she said.

Have you been to Wild Ginger yet? Let us know?