New Restaurant Coming to Inman Square

[hiddenboston]

Looks like a new Japanese (and possibly Korean?) restaurant is coming to Inman Square in Cambridge. It will be called The Ginger Exchange, and it's going into the spot vacated by Montien, which closed a couple of months back.

No real info at this point, other than the fact that they will have bento boxes, sushi, and noodle dishes....

[David_A]

Has anyone gone in the past week? I went and thought it was way too expensive for what it was. The sushi was good but the entrees were not. If they lowered their sushi prices a bit, I might be more inclined to eat there again.

[amymisha]

I went last night. It is quite expensive. I only got edamame and some maki.... the sweet potato maki was the best. But yes, expensive. It was awfully good though... I'd go back just for that.

[Blumie]

Ok, so the website sucks. Anyone have any views on the food?

[hckybg]

I'd like to know the same--while I didn't worry a great deal about the website, I did worry about the prices on it, which seem very high. I would like to know if the food has been worth it for any early diners.

[grg]

went there a week ago (on opening night), won't be back.

the menu is best described as "pan-asian" but the food is best described as "bland-american". tried tom yum soup, which needed a lot more flavor; we ended up getting some limes and hot sauce to add some taste ourselves. ordered "spring rolls" which arrived - surprise - deep fried, filled only with some sort of pureed paste (the menu's entire description is "seafood or vegetarian"). ordered "unagi w/avocado" from the nigiri menu, and were served unagi w/avocado maki (after inquiring, the explanation was that 2-ingredient nigiri is impossible to make, so of course it only comes as maki) which was fine, though we thought the sauce they squirted over it was too sweet.

we were hoping to see some ramen or udon or soba; they have none of that. it looks like they've geared up to be a sushi & cocktail bar primarily. didn't try the cocktails (ordered a couple of drinks but due to opening night glitches they didn't have the ingredients to be able to make either, eventually we gave up) so we can't comment there. the one maki we tried suggested it could be an average sushi joint. but based on our other dishes I don't have much hope for the rest of the menu.

[kobuta]

My expectations were already set pretty darn low when I saw the menu (pan-Asian = yuck), but this sounds like don't even bother to try.

[Blumie]

The place is open now. At 7:30pm tonight it was empty; not a single diner I could see through the window.

http://thegingerexchange.com/

[kobuta]

Curious - do they have the entire space? That was a fairly decent sized space that Montien had.

[yumyum]

Oh what a horrible website. And they have sushi rolls called "Sake 2 me" and "O.M.G."

Interesting sake list though.

This should be a fun one to watch.

[StriperGuy]

Okay, I think I am in curmudgeon mode these days but that web site is just a huge ick. Call me crazy, but somehow the place does not give off a real authentic vibe...

[yumyum]

Hm. What was your first clue? The cartoon samurai or menu items like buffalo wings? OTOH they do have a quail egg and uni shooter so who knows?

It's really unfair to judge a place by the website but that thing is just plain awful. The ONLY thing they could do to make it worse is add music.

[rknrll]

Pretty good beer list, though.

[StriperGuy]

Heck, while we are piling on, wasn't Jae's doing this 15 years ago?

www.jaescafe.com

They actually used to have a location in Inman where Bukowsky's is. They still have three in the Boston area.

Those beers do look good though.

[jgg13]

On the upside, the website isn't a complete Flash explosion, and actually renders properly in my browser. That is a rarity in the resto world.

[chickendhansak]

Good point. IMO the most irritating site (because of the awful music it thrusts at you before you can see anything) is Cambridge Common's. I don't care if you have a venue next door, it's not why I'm visiting your site.

[jgg13]

Thank you for alerting me thatI shouldn't go to their website :)

I used to *really* hold annoying websites against places - particularly when they were Flash only (as I don't have Flash at work, and don't like Flash based sites in general). Use standard HTML control, don't use sound, don't do stupid stuff like try to resize my browser and the like, don't make your only menu content as PDF - I don't want to download a file, I want to see text in my browser, etc etc. There's a thread on NAF already about this though. :)

Anyhoo, I started missing out on some really good restos (e.g. Hungry Mother) due to this, so now I just view it as a black mark against them, but not a deadly one.

[Splendid Spatula]

Yes, awful! And if you are color-blind, that red-on-black combo is rather hard to read!

[hiddenboston]

I got a little nauseous just looking at all the colors--almost like a migraine coming on. Someone should tell them that black on white is very in these days!

[ponyboy]

Yeah, I saw this on the eatboston twitter last night. Could be cool!

[hiddenboston]

Huh, I wonder if he was in the area last night as well. I was at Tupelo and just happened to see the sign for the new place while strolling through the neighborhood afterward.