Wild Ginger is a contemporary Asian restaurant, offering delicious Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Thai dishes. In addition to many traditional favorites, they develop their own unique dishes. They also have a full bar. Wild Ginger is located in the D&W mall complex on Romence Road, just west of Westnedge.
They offer several tasty options that either are already vegan or can be customized to be vegan. Most (but not all) of the items marked as vegetarian on their menu can be made vegan. However, some of the items marked as vegetarian actually contain fish sauce, so be sure to read the menu description for mention of fish or oyster sauce or eggs, and talk to your server about your needs.
We have found the wait staff to be very knowledgeable and helpful. They would specify for the chefs to omit fish sauce or eggs to keep dishes vegans. This was shown on the receipt, which made us feel more confident that it was actually happening.
Appetizers that can be made vegan include: spring rolls, edamame, and vegetable pot sticker dumplings. The sweet chili dipping sauce for the spring rolls is vegan, but the spicy mayo and unagi are not.
They offer a variety of maki rolls, but only 3 are vegan: avocado roll, cucumber roll, and vegetable roll.
Entrees that can be made vegan (with fried tofu) include: Udon Basil Fried Tofu; Coconut Curry; Broccoli & Onion; Mongolian; Kung Pao; Hunan; Thai Basil; Cashew Nut; Singapore Rice Noodle; and others.
My husband and I went there for lunch. For an appetizer, my husband ordered the vegetable roll and I ordered the pot sticker dumplings (steamed). Both were yummy, and also nicely presented, with fresh ginger and wasabi with the vegetable roll and a nice dipping sauce with the dumplings. As an entrée, my husband ordered the Broccoli and Onion with fried tofu, and I ordered the Black Bean Sauce with fried tofu. Lunch entrees (which are served between 11 AM and 3 PM) are served with steamed white rice (no brown rice option and the fried rice has egg), a fried spring roll (unfortunately, there was no fresh spring roll option), and soup. The vegan soup option is hot & sour soup; it had a strong mushroom flavor, which wasn’t my favorite (I don’t like mushrooms), but my husband enjoyed his. Both entrees were awesome, and we gobbled them down.
This was not our first time eating at Wild Ginger. Other entrees that we’ve tried and particularly loved include: Udon Basil Fried Tofu; Coconut Curry, Mongolian, and Singapore Rice Noodles (which are awesome if you like curry).
Warning: The fortune cookies are NOT vegan (contain egg) so be sure to tell the server to omit them.
In addition to dine-in, Wild Ginger offers takeout and delivery. (Be sure to specify no fortune cookies before they pack up the food.)
By Wendy Jaehnig