Issara Asian Cuisine - Lincoln

We had reservations on Valentine's Day and it was as if they weren't planned that someone showed up. they were completely overwhelmed. it took 10 minutes until someone gave us our essentials and then 15 minutes to get our table. then it was a few minutes to wait and an hour to get our food. we never got one of our appetizers and my escape was cold. After she was sent back to warm it up, it was still cold. that is, even cold it was extremely good to eat. best calamari I had ever had, although my garnel was a bit hard. So I was totally disappointed.

Had kept as it was Valentine's Day. we were sitting right away, but waited 30 minutes to get noticed (we actually have a nearby waiter who helped the table next to us) and place a drink order. 30 minutes to get the drinks. when it was always, we had ordered drinks to eat, but did not get our order for another 30 minutes. when we got our food, it was lukewarm, as if it was a past there. we would have complained, but our waiter was nowhere to find. we know that it was Valentine's Day, but all the tables around us were served, and those who were well after us were long before we had our order! we always had good food here; very disappointed.

The food was good, but the service was slow and the waiting staff was not very attentive.

I LOVED this restaurant when it first opened and enjoyed it fairly often for lunch during last several years. I have always enjoyed the lunch food and service. HOWEVER, I took a friend there for her birthday dinner last Friday and could not have been more disappointed! We ordered a martini at the bar before dinner. The staff behind the bar had no idea what they were doing and after a lot of discussion and trips back to the kitchen, served us a half vodka/ half old olive juice concoction that was lukewarm. When we informed the bartender that they were not good, he basically did not respond. Because of my former affinity for the place, we shrugged it off as a young staff who did not have any experience and hoped that dinner would be better. Staff wise, things did not improve at all. Our server was extremely awkward and had no sense of timing or ability to create rapport. Other then the spring rolls and Tom Kha soup , (which were great as usual), the rest of our meal was mediocre. The mixed grill, which was always my favorite, was poorly cooked and barely warm. The rice was awful and tasted like it came from a box. To top things off, our server did not consult us about how to divide up the check and completely bungled the bills twice, creating more awkwardness as we had to figure it out ourselves. Seriously, if this restaurant had any integrity, they would give us back the $175 we wasted on this unfortunate night!!!!

There were four of us having dinner, and we each had a different entree. All were absolutely delicious, beautifully presented, and served piping hot. Our two hors d'oeuvres were also very tasty. Service was friendly and efficient. I am surprised that more people have not discovered this fine restaurant.