This month SupperClub went to Red Ginger (82 Tory St, Wellington; they have a website, but aren't getting any link love for reasons that should become obvious). It bills itself as "modern Asian", and is almost directly opposite Chow and apparently aiming for the same market (up market, Asian influenced, food).

Unfortunately:

• the decor is mimalist (grey painted concrete walls, held up by grey painted angle iron; the only decoration in the direction I was looking was a long -- full length -- mirror, and the only other decoration seemed to be some suspended wooden 2x4s and three illuminated panels)

• the parallel concrete walls reflect rather than absorb the sound, so any conversation in the room tends to bounce around (dear restaurant owners of Wellington, people like to be able to talk to each other in restraurants and this is much improved by reducing echos, such as with something softer than bare concrete on the walls, or at least arranging for the walls not to be parallel with the tables); difficulty in holding a conversation makes it in appropriate for SupperClub (or lunch meetings)

• they served one of the mains (mine, alas) at least 10 minutes after serving the rest of the mains (which surprisingly doesn't really appear on the list of 129 cardinal sins of restaurant service; closest would seem to be number 34 of incomplete service); while the wait staff did apologise for the delay, this was done several minutes after one of our table had asked about the missing main and several minutes before it actually arrived

• my main ("Eastern Buddha's Delight") which was described as stir fried glass noodles and vegetables, seemed more as if the vegetables had been casseroled than stir fried (this was the dish served 10 minutes late)

Many of the other dishes that we were served were very well presented, and in many cases quite tasty from what the other SupperClub attendees said (although our "previously living in Thailand" attendee observed that their Roast Duck Curry Noodle Soup appeared to have been tamed down for a western market). So if I were doing it again, I'd have been more inclined to order one of the dishes which had some things that I couldn't eat and just leave those items, than try to go with what seemed to be billed as a healthy option but missed the mark. Strict vegetarians wouldn't have much option though since that was the only vegetarian main (and there's only one vegetarian entree too).

And aside from the glaring mistake of serving one of the mains near the point the others had finished, the wait service was very attentive and professional.

But overall I don't think I'd bother going to Red Ginger again, especially given that Chow is almost directly across the road and has provided both better food and timely service.