J Liu Restaurant & Bar

Went for restaurant week, thinking it would be a good idea but ended up being a mediocre experience. Checked in at 6:30 for our 7:00 reservation and the hostess said I’ll come get you guys, so my pregnant wife and I subsequently sat at the bar. Come 7:20, thinking something was a mistake, they gave our reservation to someone else named «nick» and put us at the bottom of some list.
Then, soup comes out, ice cold. Soup goes back, food comes out. Fries, ice cold. Soup comes back out midway through dinner. Warm fries come out after desert.
Just a weird night. Won’ be returning

We had the lettuce wraps to start. The portion was huge, they definitely don’t skimp on the amount they give you for that starter. I had the mussels and Fries app as a meal and my husband had the chop house burger. The mussels were prepared very well. The lemon sauce was so delicious. The burger was also unbelievably good. The flavor was spot on and the pretzel bun, beef brisket, were served perfect we would go back just for that! The wine selection was a little pricey per glass for selection but not abnormal for dining out. Would like to see a younger crowd but wasn’t a deal breaker and location may be a big factor in that.

My husband and I had been here a handful of times and always had great service. The owner can often be seen walking around and greeting guests, which is a nice touch! I like to know that I’m eating and spending my money at a locally owned spot. I’d rather give biz to people in my community rather than the big Corp America chains. I’ve never had a dish that I didn’t like from here– you really cannot go wrong. We had our rehearsal dinner upstairs and it was quite lovely. It was affordable and the food was delicious. They have a great patio area, too!

Each month, neighbors get together for a dinner somewhere. This month is was J. Liu. There were 14 of us this month. I had the Mongolian Beef and it was the best I’ve ever eaten. The server did an excellent job but what stood out last night, in addition to the delicious food was the fact that ALL 14 MEALS WERE DELIVERED TO THE TABLE AT THE SAME TIME. This is the first time we’ve had that happen. Meals usually trickle in with everyone waiting until the last person is served. J. Liu in my opinion takes no second to any Mitchel’s or Ruth Crists. This restaurant is a player. So if you want a delicious meal at reasonable prices in a beautiful atmosphere with excellent service, this is the place. Nothing against Mitchels or Ruthies place, but if I want to go to someplace for a fancy schmancy meal and not cost an arm and a leg, I’m going to J. LIus in Worthington.

Walked in tonight at 8pm. Supposedly, they’re open until 9pm. We were told the kitchen was closed. They turned away a group before us too.

I am surprised by the negative reviews as my wife and I have been to J. Liu twice and enjoyed both the food and service. Last night I had the short ribs special– the meat was super tender and flavorful along with delicious mashed potatoes and green beans. Our server was terrific– very friendly and attentive– he clearly understands how to make his customers feel right at home. I very much like the diversity of options and find their prices very reasonable for the quality and portions.

Just had the BEST seared tuna EVER! Spicy seared tuna over coconut rice with a crab & avocado ceviche and miso drizzle. It was perfection. Great service. Lovely outdoor dining patio. I try pricier restaurants like Alana’s (worse service EVER), but go back to J Liu for the best food in town with wonderful service. If you like seared tuna, J Liu is the place for you.

This is a review of weekend brunch. I will start by say service was great. We arrived right at opening and was seated immediately. We were promptly greeted by the server who explained the brunch options and took our drink order. I will say my water glass was never empty. Finished plates were also cleared promptly.
Where this place lost stars was the sub par food. Many of the items you could tell were pre-​made and frozen, including I think the whole dessert section. Carved meat station was nice, but doesn’t justify the 20 dollar price tag. They do have made to order omlets that I am sure would have been more fresh.

Excellent service and a very nice interior cannot make up for really sub par food.
I had a crispy chicken salad that was nicely dressed with a bland house made ranch. The chicken seemed to have been a fried chicken breast that may have recently been frozen. A bit dry, but tasted ok. The real problem was the salad itself. Overwhelmingly composed of ice berg lettuce, I was happy to see a bunch of tomato! Too bad the tomato was completely flavorless. You can’t sell a $ 15 salad with bad produce.
My wife had the minced chicken lettuce wrap, which came with bamboo shoots and crispy rice noodles. It would have been good had it not been for the overly sweet sauce and dry chicken.
The kids menu was a complete after thought. Kraft Mac n cheese with apple sauce from a can. Warmed up frozen mini corn dogs. No sauce, cheese or consideration. One bright spot was that the fruit cup seemed to be made of freshly cut fruit. It almost made up for the sour milk they brought my daughter. It sounds like I am making things up, right?
The thing that saved the evening from being a complete disaster was the service. Really attentive waitress and the gentlemen who brought our food was very friendly too. I can’t remember if either one asked how the food was. I’m not the kind of person to try to have them fix my poor experience. You get one chance to do it right.

Mothers day brunch,
I cant begin to describe our disappointment! We had a party of 20 mostly adults some children and infants. We had a 2:30 reservation and were seated shortly after. We were seated upstairs which felt like it was 90 ++++ degrees up there. Someone brought us waters, shortly after we sat one glass spilled on our table (our fault) we had used several of our napkins to try and soak up the water as one of the waiters walked by i said we had a spill they said that’s the best way to take care of it… never removed the soaking wet towels from our table or ever brought us dry napkins. The food. when my mother-​in law called to make reservations she asked if they were doing breakfast all day she was told yes… Not True! We apparently got there as they were attempting a switch over from breakfast foods to dinner foods which apparently takes some time as i think we were all done with our meals or lack there of before the chafing dishes were even all full if they ever were. They had filled one chafing dish with mala string beans i put some on my plate and as i was telling my mother in law to get some i hear them say this is the last tray take them out so we can take down stairs as there are more people down there… Really does it not matter for the diners upstairs? Several items that were listed on your website for the mothers day brunch were not even on your buffet or maybe they didnt make it out before we left at 4:30. such as green bean almondine and chicken bruchetta. Mashed potatoes were cold and underseasoned, shrimp and grits wasnt filled until we were done eating, smoked salmon and bagels nope, soggy crab ragoon, fried rice dont think that was ever filled while we were there. I took a few bites of the spicy chicken and the spice was so concentrated in one bite it was burning the back of my throat and i love hot spicy food but that was just horrible thank goodness the kids barely ate so luckly none of them got any of that! We spent over $ 500 for barely edible food and lousy service. We have all been frequent guest at J. Liu way back to the day it was jasons. Me doing brunch and many special occasions there with friends and family, my mother in law and her friends meet there once a month i could go on. We have always highly recommended J. liu and after today that will be highly unlikely! Not to mention half the time people went to get food there were no plates and if their was they were dirty… i emailed the restaurant the same evening we were there and never received a response not even an email.

J. Liu round 2: Ok, so a year had passed and decided to give J. Liu in Worthington another shot. I figured, what are the chances that I will have a similar experience? Well… I was mistaken. Let’s first focus on the positives: We arrived there earlier in the evening and had found that parking wasn’t an issue. In fact, I had ample space to move my large F250 through the parking lot and managed a nice parking spot. However; if it were a busy night, I can foresee myself parking in the grass or something because the parking lot design is still poor. We were immediately seated despite being a little early. Our table was clean and ready for us to begin our dining experience. Here is where the chapters turn. We happen to get the same exact waitress as last time! Still, I thought… what are the chances? She started by taking our drinks, I ordered the Spicy Apple Cider cocktail (very good by the way) and my date ordered a Sprite. During the process of ordering, the waitress interrupted to talk about how much water people were drinking today and began talking negatively about other patrons (about how much water they were drinking). She then left to go grab our drinks. As we waited, we looked around and noticed everyone around us had some delicious looking bread. We both were very hungry, so everything looked appetizing in our eyes. Knowing we were going to order an appetizer, we patiently waited for our waitress. As she returned, she sat our drinks down and began walking away without an acknowledgment. So we caught her before going too far and asked to order the calamari appetizer. About 10 minutes later, she comes back and takes our order. We started to order our food and she quickly stopped us to inform us that they were not offering a «couples dinner» due to the preparation involved. This was odd as we weren’t interested in that, nor did we inquire. I ordered the Risotto and my date ordered the Tilapia with a side of beef tips. As she began to place her order, the waitress abruptly interrupted and told her to wait as she wrote it down. I found this very off putting because it wasn’t that we just started ordering, the waitress had her pen and paper in hand. Shortly after our order was placed, the appetizer came out. The calamari had a delicious tempura batter served with a sweet jalapeño sauce. It had an excellent flavor and was an appropriate serving size. After we finished, we looked around the room again at the delicious bread that others had. still hungry, it looked better and better with each passing moment. During a span of 20 – 25 minutes, we interacted with our waitress one time. Finally, about 10 minutes before our food came out, she asked us if we would like any bread while we wait. For me, I think this was implied and didn’t know why she would ask. It was indeed as delicious as it looked we went through it too fast (as there were only 4 portions). Our food did arrive fairly timely and it was pretty good. My Risotto was nicely prepared and the scallops were beautifully seared. I wasn’t a fan of the raw tomatoes, but each their own. My date enjoyed her Tilapia. It was nicely breaded served with mashed red potatoes and broccoli. She did say that the beef tips were a tad on the bland side, but prepared nicely.
Overall, my original review still stands pretty true. Now I will say, if we had different wait staff, our experience could have been better. In fact if I decide to go back and I do get the same waitress, I will ask to be seated in a different area. The food is pretty good, the ambience was nice but the service kills this location every time.

We went to eat here for the first time on Saturday around 11:45 AM. We were promptly seated in
the bar area. Our server was the bartender and he was very slow in getting to us. There was only one other table in the bar area. Took him about 15 minutes to get our waters, then about another 15 minutes til he came back to take our order. We ordered the soft pretzel sticks as an appetizer and I ordered the Veggie Burger and my husband had Jason’s Spicy Chicken. After about 25 minutes, the pretzels came out and they were so hard we could barely chew them. The server brought us out another order several minutes later and they were very good. My husband enjoyed his dinner (the sauce was delicious). My Veggie Burger had absolutely no taste and the bun was burnt. The burger was so thin, it just fell apart. We then had to wait what felt like forever to get our check. When we left there were only two other tables in the bar area. No excuse for the poor service since it was not busy. We were excited to try this place, but unfortunately, were very disappointed.

Reserved a table for brunch to celebrate a birthday. The food was delicious and the service was impeccable! The only disappointment was two members in our party had onions in their omelet — they didn’t request onions. Other than that, we had a good dining experience.

I’ve come for dinner here but rarely lunch. My work group went for lunch the other day and we were impressed right off the bat. We were greeted in the parking lot by the manager valeting our car for free. Our table was all ready in the packed place. The waitress was prompt and attentive. I was most impressed with the managers assisting with serving and the owner refilling water. The food was really fresh and tasty!

This is not exactly the kind of exterior that screams, «Restaurant» when you’re driving past. It actually looks more like the bank buildings of its neighbors. Food is decent. Beer options were pretty good. Pricing… eh… a little high for the quality. The dining area was very cold and several in our party were cold to the point of being uncomfortable. Granted, it was very cold outside but they may want to consider doing something to make the indoor environment more comfortable for their guests. Nothing major that was bad here. Nothing major that was special to entice me to come back, either.

Just went here for restaurant week and had a fabulous experience. I was mainly intrigued by the main entrée of pan seared salmon with black forbidden rice with sauteed leeks and spinach and a pear ginger sauce, but the whole meal (including salad) was amazing. The atmosphere was relaxing and peaceful and the staff was very attentive and professional. I had an amazing time and would love to go back again!

On my own, I probably wouldn’t have given J. Liu’s a chance. For the price, I’d expect the restaurant to have more than 3 stars. Maybe that’s my own bias, but it’s true. Columbus has so many great restaurants, and I likely wouldn’t have given this one the opportunity to disappoint me. Unfortunately, we came here for a work lunch one day.
First, there were absolutely no parking spots available. We ended up parking pretty far away, because there weren’t any J. Liu spots, nor were there any J. Liu overflow spots.
We had a reservation for 12:30. Our waitress came and started getting us our drinks as we trickled in. Sadly, that was about as attentive as she was the whole meal.
I ended up deciding on the chicken fried rice. I figured it was a good choice, simple, satisfying, hard to mess up. And it was ONLY $ 11 (geez) compared to something like gnocchi which was $ 15.
It was about 1:10 by the time we got our food. And when we did, one of my co-​workers’ orders was wrong. She had ordered the roasted turkey sandwich, but they were apparently out, so she got the chicken sandwich. She was instead served a crab cakes sandwich. Everyone else’s meal was correct.
Even the meals that were correct, though, were on the whole pretty disappointing. My fried rice was bland. The chicken tasted of nothing. The rice was okay, but not flavorful at all. There was a weird smell/​taste on the rice at the bottom of my dish, maybe it was burned? I would have much rather had Chinese takeout/​delivery fried rice. And delivery fried rice would have saved me about $ 10 (with tip). There was a lot leftover because the portion was admittedly big, but I can’t imagine myself revisiting it.
A co-​worker got the pad thai and it was nearly too hot to eat. Another had to add tons of soy sauce to her stir-​fry to make it palatable. Another kept asking for splenda, while another had to keep trying to get a waitress’ attention to get an extra plate.
Sadly, I think I was right on the mark with my opinion of J. Liu’s. The space is pretty and some of the things on the menu looked really good, but with the prices and the service, it’s not worth another visit.

I recently went here for Saturday night dinner with my family after my sister’s graduation. I have heard of this place many times and my family has gone a few times as well. There are 2 locations in Columbus and this one is more secluded and easier to get to since it is not always busy in this area. They take reservations and also are great at making sure to get you at a table even if you are too early/​late. This would be a great place to have a dinner with a group as well and they have an area you can do that without bothering everyone else.
Great date night place and the food is delicious! A littl pricey but nothing too bad and the quality is worth the price. The waitress we had was younger, in college or high school, so the service could have overall been a lot better for where we were. They appetizers are great for sharing and the portions are great as well. You will not leave hungry and you will be able to get something that will satisfy any cravings you have.
The food here is weird and I am not sure what they categorize it at, but I have been to retaurants similar to this one before. They serve both italian and asian dishes. So whether youre in the mood for pizza, pasta, chinese food, or an asian cuisine that is tredning these days you will find it weird. As weird as this concept is I guess it works for the people who do not all want the same thiing at dinner. Would love to go back here again and sit on the patio that is on the second floor!

I wanted to give them 3 stars, I really did. But when your waiter charges the wrong card to the wrong check, didn’t check on your table from when the entrée arrived to when he asked if we wanted boxes, and messes up your order, you get bumped down a star.
The décor was nice, swanky fusion themed place. Pleasant lighting, cool seating, neat artwork. The food options were strange. It wasn’t fusion in the sense of an Asian twist on American cuisine, it was simply some Asian dishes and some American dishes. Nothing special or extraordinary on the menu.
We tried the crab cakes, just about as good as any standard crab cakes you’ve had before. Also tried the sesame chicken-​not too bad for sesame chicken. Had the Mongolian beef, which was tasty. They skimped on the beef and went heavy on the onions, but this was a smaller complaint of the night.
Overall the food was meh not bad, but it’s probably not a restaurant I’ll be seeking out to eat at again. I would go there again but it’s not my first choice for «Asian» food.

Need to add more cheese to the blue cheese chips but happy hour martinis are $ 5. Went here for a big party and I think they were overwhelmed by our numbers. The food was just ok and some people really liked their food while others felt theirs was overcooked. The dining area is all dark wood and elegant as was the bar.
Their menu was a bit eclectic to me as they had a bit of everything on the menu from meat and fish to Chinese. I’m not sure I’d go back for the dining room but wouldn’t mind going back to the bar area for happy hour.
Wouldn’t get the blue cheese chips again but the little crab cakes and flatbread pizza were very good — and at happy hour pricing.