The restaurants management has significantly improved and we didn't do the AYCE. I think only AYCE gets served all at once but our large party this time unlike last time received dishes on readiness delivered directly to the rotator disc. We were seated at a great table with a large lazy susan disc allowing us to share food easily. We much enjoyed our meal. Their tuna sashimi is very fresh and a good price for weight of fish served. The tea is good and flavorful. Restaurant atmosphere is quiet and reasonable Bathroom was checked (FEMALE ONLY) - very clean and functioning as expected zero issues seen. Restaurant fully passes inspection. read more

Their chinese food is sooo tasty n I'm chinese The all you can eat is very reasonably priced and has a good selection of sushi and chinese items Service is good, girls are friendly and attentive Their Maitai is really good Ambiance is average Recommend this place read more

See all

Sweet little waitress seated us for lunch quickly. We ordered off the lunch menu and chose two orders of sweet-and-sour chicken and two orders of orange chicken along with an order of spring rolls, which I did not get a picture of. Lunch menu comes with your choice of egg drop, hot sour, or miso soup. Fried rice is a dollar extra. Food came out hot, quickly, and SO TASTY! and was very very large portions!! VERY SATISFYING! read more

See all

This place is so cute on the inside and no one eats here . Everything is take out . I had the bento box but only one dinner . I read a review and others getting two chicken choices or beef for lunch ? I guess I need to go for lunch to get the good deal . Orange chicken was good , California roll good , crab Rangoon was good and so was the soup but the spoon was chipped . I'd go back for lunch . Service was good but didn't refill my water read more

Bistro Chen - Hot n Hot and Sour Soup - Sushi Bars Near Me - Arlington Heights, Illinois

Food: The Mongolian beef was good and enjoyable. I do wish it had some heat, but the flavor was still solid. There was a bit more onion than beef, but the overall ratio was fine. 8/10. The orange chicken was tasty and very tender. Unfortunately, I found one piece that was undercooked after getting home. Aside from that, the dish was good. Likely just an off day. 6/10 due to the raw piece, but I'd still give it another try. Service: The staff was really nice and welcoming from start to finish. 10/10 Overall: I gave 3 stars due to a piece of raw chicken, but the service was excellent and I'd be open to coming back. read more

Bistro Chen - Orange Chicken Lunch - Sushi Bars Near Me - Arlington Heights, Illinois

See all

I absolutely love the food here. The Mai Tai is fantastic and have to get the green beans. Two things I order no matter what read more

See all

My husband and I went to Bistro Chen on a Saturday afternoon for lunch. The restaurant is decorated nicely. We both got a bento box so that we could try a variety of their offerings. I had the salad, egg roll, orange chicken, shrimp and vegetable tempura, and brown rice. My husband had the hot and sour soup, crab ragoon, Mongolian beef, sweet and sour chicken, and half a California roll. The special is offered all day. You get a lot of food for the price. The food was all good and had a more Americanized and sweeter flavor to it. I highly recommend Bistro Chen! read more

Everyone who works here is so kind- and they put so much care into presentation & playing. I love this place read more

Bistro Chen - Crispy Sesame Beef - Sushi Bars Near Me - Arlington Heights, Illinois

The food was fresh and delicious. The customer service was excellent. We also loved the outdoor courtyard which felt more private. I have been looking for a Chinese restaurant in the area that could actually bring the heat and they delivered! We will definitely be back! read more

For a long time there's been a Chinese restaurant here in this Arlington Heights plaza north of the Metra station, so people must like it. It varies on how much they like it though. Bistro Chen has a variety of Asian classics. Get Chinese, Japanese and others. The prices are better for the lunch specials. Came here recently at lunch to see if it was still as good. It wasn't busy and we quickly got a table inside. The lunch time is the best time because the prices are cheaper and the portions are still pretty big it seems. Also there's cocktails. It's about $8 for the cheapest ones. Blue Lagoon is one of the cheapest. This is made with Blue Curacao, lemon, lemonade, and vodka. It's lemony. While also still being sweet. It's about $10 for lunch entrees. We each got the Stir Fried Noodles. Choose the noodles and protein for it. I had it with the chow mein. Protein was tofu. Good flavor and very healthy. This was certainly enough for a lunch. Has almost all of the Asian cuisines on the menu yet it still manages to make everything. It may be a lot to keep track of and makes it hard to master any of these. The Chinese stuff is pretty good, and you can make many items okay for vegans and vegetarians. read more

Bistro Chen - Blue Lagoon And The Stir Fried Noodles - Sushi Bars Near Me - Arlington Heights, Illinois

I have eaten at Bistro Chen several times - with my meetup groups and also with my daughter. I especially enjoy the House Noodles which is delicious and plentiful. Their wanton soup is very tasty and packed with gingery pork filling, though they do not include any pieces of pork as some restaurants do. Their sushi is extremely fresh and well-made. My daughter usually gets the all-you-can-eat option for lunch or dinner. There are lots of great choices and she is always very pleased with what she orders. We feel the prices are reasonable for what you get. Besides the food, the wait staff is professional and friendly. I highly recommend giving this restaurant a try. read more

Great entrees. We had the Sweet and Sour fish and Sesame beef. Horrible desserts. The rolled ice cream did not taste good at all and they had the audacity to call it a house special. It doesn't even look like cookies and cream. read more

Bistro Chen - Rolled Cookies and Cream Ice cream. - Sushi Bars Near Me - Arlington Heights, Illinois

This was a decent place for ayce. I haven't been here in awhile. This location is ayce with no drink for $28 and if you want to have a drink then it'll be $38. What's included are nigiri, maki, traditional Chinese dishes, appetizers, and dessert. The downside is that their hours are very limited. They need to open longer to attract more customers and to maximize the value of the ayce. Since it's in the burbs, parking was not a problem. You can either park in the garage or find street parking. Our service wasn't as slow as other reviewers, we were able to get our food in a reasonable amount of time. Food quality was okay, it's going to be decent since it's ayce. You're not going to get top tier quality if that's what you're looking for. Overall a 3.5 for me. read more

See all

Food great very much enjoyed it. Service great very kind and attentive Ambience very nice very cool art on the walls.

Food lacking in flavor. We ordered 6 dishes, the most disappointing were the Kung Pao chicken - no flavor and no spices and chicken fried rice - again lacking any flavor. The rest of our order was ok, nothing special. We also specifically asked for soy sauce and chopsticks for 6. We received 4 packets of soy and 1 set of chopsticks. First and last time ordering from Bistro Chen. read more

Friendly staff and nice dishes. Could order different cook styles as long they have the ingredients. Daily specials on the wall are cool too. read more

I begged them for no waterchestnuts and obviously that's what I got. (lots of them) very sad but otherwise really friendly people. No worries, i'll just pick them out I guess. read more

Bistro Chen - Sushi Bars Near Me - Arlington Heights, Illinois

Ayce sushi for lunch $28. Vast selection even included noodles! I tried the Singapore and Beef Chow Fun. General Tso Chicken, Lo Mein, nice loose leaf green tea in a personal pot. Crab rangoons came with something. Hot Sour Soup. All was great. Service great. It was dark, that was my only complaint. Cute outside dining area but no one was in there the 2 times I went. read more

See all

We have never eaten here before and being unsure what to order we went for rolls and entrees, both were outstanding! Full of flavor and freshness it was very much a win win!!! read more

Very good. Food is great and fresh. Service is always welcoming . Their specials is always outstanding. The prices you can not bit !! Recommend 100% Thank you Bistro Chen. Wish you can upgrade your dining area, and also have more space for outdoor seating. read more

We have lived in the area for 4 years and pretty much tried every Chines Restaurant within approx 10 miles. We were looking for a place for dinner and past by Bistro Chen and decided to try it.... The food was excellent, great atmosphere, and the hosted and waitress was soooo nice. The prices were very reasonable. Give them a try, you WILL ENJOY IT. read more

I was out in Arlington Heights to visit my parents on Christmas Day, and we decided to have a "Christmas Story" Chinese American dinner. My first choice, Chef Ping in Rolling Meadows, was slammed and had stopped taking carry-out orders. I decided to try Bistro Chen. First of all, I should explain that I grew up in Arlington Heights, and this location has been a Chinese restaurant since Chin's took over this space at 10 E Miner Street in 1960 (it opened in 1958 before moving to this location). When I was a kid, Chin's was always the place to go for sit-down or carry-out Chinese food in Arlington Heights. It had a wonderfully classic Chinese interior and the food was alway excellent. When Chin's closed in 2012, it had been in business for 54 year. I am not sure when Bistro Chen opened, but they are in the same space, and the interior still has most of Chin's charming 1960 Chinese interior intact. I place a rather large order on Grub Hub, and that process was smooth. I was informed that Bistro Chen's had received my order and they would contact me to give me a pick-up time...the time estimate was 55 to 75 minutes. I never received an email from Bistro Chen's or Grub Hub after that initial email confirmation. Since Christmas Day is busy for Chinese restaurants, I decided not to pick up until around 70 minutes. When I arrived, I found that the restaurant was not that busy, and my order had probably been sitting there for awhile. The receptionist got my order and went through the effort to look to see that everything was there. With a smile, she assured me that my order was complete. Because my order was large, someone how I was sure that something was going to be missing or not correct. Sure enough, when I got to my parent's house, I discovered that the orange sauce/vegetables were missing for the Orange Chicken entree. So basically what we had was a container of small fried chicken parts (Chicken McNuggets) for $14.50. I wasn't about to go back to have them fix the problem...it just was not worth ruining our Christmas celebration over a missed container of sauce. The rest of the meal was a mix...Shrimp Egg Foo Young, Cashew Chicken, and Orange Beef tasted good. The Wonton Soup, Sweet and Sour Soup and Egg Rolls were good. The Pot Stickers were big, but not tender, and not that great. It was an expensive meal (with tip and tax...over $160) for four entrees, two appetizers and three soups. The suburbs used to be loaded with many Chinese American food options, but many of those places have closed. Bistro Chen's is kind of playing the middle...it is contemporary by serving sushi and other modern Asian fare, but still serving old-school Chinese American food. I do not know anything about their sushi, but their Chinese American food is good, but not spectacular. And I know that Christmas Day was probably busy for them with carry-out food, so I can forgive them for forgetting our orange sauce/veggies. Bistro Chen should probably get 3.5 stars (as the cumulative ratings imply), but Yelp would only allow whole star reviews. read more

The atmosphere, the drinks, the food, everything is fantastic! Great outside covered patio, and they have an awesome all eat and drink special on the weekdays. Can't wait to come back and check it out. They do traditional Chinese and Sushi so there's something for everyone. Drinks look awesome!! read more

Food is delicious here. For a Friday night the place was really empty. Didn't have any trouble with seating. Shared the spinach potstickers, which were amazing! Had the "build your own dinner box" with a shrimp tempura roll, fried rice, orange chicken and edamame. Food was abundant, even had leftovers. The drink was so good, I forgot the name but it was a blue vodka lemonade. Dessert options were not a great variety. Mostly I've cream and mochi. A cake or tarts option would be great. Took home beef chow fun (asked for it dry) that was really good. Would come back again. read more

Bistro Chen - Orange chicken bento dinner box - Sushi Bars Near Me - Arlington Heights, Illinois

See all

Had lunch at Bistro Chen. They have a lunch menu including soup, rice and entree for a very reasonable price. I had Mongolian beef and my friends had shrimp in garlic sauce. Everything was delicious and nicely presented. The hot and sour soup was excellent. Hope diners will give this restaurant a try. They also have an all-you-can-eat sushi dinner for $28. Hope to try that sometime. read more

The most bland food in Arlington heights.. this is the one size sweet and sour chicken the most bland chicken fried rice I've ever had ... not worth the 51.00 bucks for dinner for 2 ... and I didn't even touch the chicken read more

Bistro Chen - Sushi Bars Near Me - Arlington Heights, Illinois

Disappointing carryout food. Edamame was made with green peas instead of the normal soybeans in pod. Fried rice was just rice; no peas, carrots, onion or egg. Will not ever order there again. read more

Have eaten here a few times in the last few months. Everyone is very friendly and service is great. My first time I ordered Chicken with Vegetables, my favorite when eating Chinese. I was not happy with the high salt content. 2nd time I ordered Egg Foo Young and was blown away by the size and flavor. I do eat this dish with no gravy. Excellent 5* preparation. Will return since I've found my meal. Menu is huge. read more

Food is just OK. My meal came out just warm. Not hot. And staff fought with me about it. They wanted to warm it up which then would be much chewyer. I ask for the uneaten portion to be made fresh, and they refused. I can't recommend them. Dim lighting doesn't help either. Joy Yee in Evanston is outstanding. read more

Always very consistently good food. The Ma Po tofu is my favorite, hot and a little spicy. Wait staff is always helpful and friendly.

Great food l, great service. Our one of the favorite place to go dine in. Highly recommend

The dining room is nicely decorated, big chopsticks on the ceiling were cool, the staff was very kind, and the food was good. It was our first time here for dinner. We had the build your own bento box (highly recommended so you can try a little of bit everything) which includes: an eggroll, edamame, or crab rangoon, your choice of soup, your choice of 1 sushi roll, and 1 Chinese dish with fried rice, brown rice. We loved Mongolian beef and edamame was perfectly seasoned. The soups also were better than any other Chinese place I've had as well. Our food was delicious, fresh made and pretty big portions. Next time I've got to try the dim sum and crab rangoons. read more

See all

My favorite Chinese Restaurant, period!!! Went there a year ago when I was back in the Chicago area for my bro8ther's memorial and brought back two coolers full of their delicious dishes. I wish they could ship a nice order to me here in Knoxville TN as we don't have anything nearly as good as Chen's!!! read more

We love bistro chen. It's the best dim sum place in the suburbs. It's about as close to Chinatown dim sum as you will get in terms of number of options and the quality, and you get great service as well. We've ordered a lot off the menu as well and have not been disappointed with anything we ordered. We have been telling everyone about Bistro Chen when asked about dim sum or Chinese food in the west suburbs. read more

Tired of cruddy Chinese with that lackluster yellow, soggy wonton soup that does not excite the tastebuds? Look no further, Bistro Chen is the place to be with their fresh clear broth and plentiful firm, scrumptious wontons that causes a celebration in my mouth. No kidding! My favorites range from wonton soup, calamari, general Tao chicken, pot stickers, and sushi. Do your pallet a favor & stop in. They do have all you can eat on certain days. You order off a select menu, they make it fresh and bring it to your table. My family is now a huge fan & thanked me for introducing them to this fabulous place. The owner is the one working in the back putting this fabulous cuisine together. There is a young lady who is the regular server and she is warm and inviting. Ahe is always helpful in answering questions & giving recommendations. Enjoy!! read more

See all

We used to order from here fairly regularly, but that stopped today. The place has always been fairly inconsistent... Portion sizes wildly vary from order to order, along with ingredients themselves (sometimes a great mix of veggies, sometimes virtually no variety at all). Nevertheless, it was an okay go-to place for Chinese food. Yesterday, however, we ordered, and what used to be a $60-$65 dollar order was now an $80+ order. Menu prices went up, a delivery fee was now tacked on (which is also taxed), and not even a coupon to use. To add insult to injury, despite the price hike, the portion size of the most expensive main entree was even smaller than normal. A lot of small businesses will reward customer loyalty... this one does not appear to. Even despite the fact that I mentioned how expensive the order was on the phone compared to the past, nothing was done... not even waiving the $3 delivery fee, despite the fact that I always even added $10 onto the bill for the drivers anyway (including yesterday!) Price increases are a fact of life (esp. in today's market), but this one is a bit much. For the price we paid for Chinese delivery, we could have had a much "nicer" meal out (sushi, for example). We'll have to find another place for Chinese food, as this one is no longer cost-feasible. edit: Agreeing with another review here: They'd always sent emails asking "how was your order?" -- but never replied to any feedback (negative or otherwise). Also, they just switched out their online ordering service with a new one (Masa) which is absolutely horrible. A pain to order, a pain to review the menu. They're aware that it's not very good, and they only switched over due to the cheap price to use it. Place must be hurting... read more

Food is really good, great selection. Take out is very well organized. I highly recommend.

This restaurant has so many great deals! Excellent quality Asian food for a superb price. Not only were we here during happy hour - great food and drink discounts from 4-6pm - but the boys of the family also got to take part in the $25 all you can eat dim sum and sushi special. I decided to just order my own items and enjoyed every bite: Rainbow roll- glad they didn't mess this up! Fresh fish cuts Geisha roll- delicious and fresh Seaweed salad- not a huge fan of the apple slices in there but I do love my seaweed salad I also tried some of the dim sum dishes, but none were too memorable for my taste. I am a hardcore fan of sushi though, so I may have been too excited for that and wasn't feeling the Chinese. The best part was our server was so sweet and accommodating. I have yet to meet a more excited server who really wanted us to have a good time. Though the other servers that brought out our dishes weren't so great, this waitress was my favorite! read more

See all

I went here based on all of the positive yelp reviews but I have to say I was disappointed. I ordered food to go which was an ok process. The potstickers were large and had a good outside layer. However, the meat inside wasn't that flavorful and I didn't like how it was a mini sausage consistency. The spare rib dim sum. I have no idea what I ate. It did not look or taste like spare rib. I have no idea what I received. It also had bones in it even though it was a dumpling consistency. Overall, it didn't taste good and I was very confused about what I was even eating. read more

Bistro Chen - Pork pot stickers - Sushi Bars Near Me - Arlington Heights, Illinois

See all

There is a severe lack of dim sum choices in the northwest suburbs with Jockey and Royal Buffet being the main choices available. Therefore, I was excited when I heard that a new restaurant was opening in Arlington Heights with dim sum available. I went here on a Saturday afternoon and the experience did not disappoint. The interior is simple and comfortable -- without being either too traditional or too modern. The noise level was low and service was alright. Overall all the cuisine was generally light (you do not need to be overly salty or use a lot of sauce if you trust the quality of your ingredients). The oil used was light as well which makes this a healthier choice. All the dim sum is made in house and generally of high quality. There are currently 34 dim sum choices available which are prepared upon ordering so that crispy dishes come out crispy and all items are steaming hot when they arrive at your table. My biggest complaint is really the dim lighting inside the main dining room which made it difficult to take pictures of the food without flash, but that is a Yelper problem completely unrelated to the food (which was presented very nicely). Several Yelpers have complained about the prices and portion size, but remember that this is cook-to-order and house-made dim sum in the suburbs so you won't find the bargain basement prices available in Chinatown. Jasmine tea: It's clear that they use higher quality tea here. Served nicely in little glass cups with your own teapot that is refilled frequently. Spare rib with black bean: Spare rib was nicely cooked and fell off the bone easily. The black bean wasn't overpowering. Beef crepe: Crepe was soft although not chewy with a lightly flavored beef filling. Rice chicken lotus leaf: Probably the least salty version I've ever had. The sticky rice was very soft and served hot. Minced pork congee with preserved egg: A little expensive but the creamy texture of the congee was excellent. It had a nice savory flavor to it that wasn't too salty despite using preserved egg. The creamy texture does take a long time to prepare, so few people (outside Chinese food meccas like Toronto) will take the time to prepare it this way. Steamed BBQ pork bun: Nice fluffy texture to the bun with lightly flavored BBQ pork inside. Shrimp dumpling: Slightly sweet shrimp wrapped in a translucent skin. Could've had a bouncier texture to the shrimp but overall pretty good. Beef brisket daikon: The beef brisket and daikon were served firm to the tooth and could've been a little softer. The gravy was flavorful although a little thick. Egg tart: Slightly flaky crust with semi-sweet egg custard. The custard was a little lacking in flavor and could've been silkier but this is next to impossible to find in the suburbs. Fried dumpling with pork: Excellent crispy texture on the outside with chewy glutinous rice on the inside. Crispy crab meat ball: Nice fried exterior with nice shrimp inside. Bouncy texture to the filling although the crab was a little lacking in flavor. Chicken feet with black bean sauce: Cooked nicely with a chewy firm texture to the skin. Taro coconut: Done very well. You can taste the taro and coconut clearly without being too sweet. Probably better than any version done in Chinatown. Crispy Taro with Pork: Very nice fine nest-like exterior with a light taro flavor on the inside that matched well with the pork. Pan fried turnip cake: The best part about this dish is that the rice flour doesn't overpower the other flavors. This is also less oily than most versions you'll find elsewhere. Steamed beef tripe with ginger and onion: Nice and chewy/soft-crunchy texture (it's hard to describe how both textures can exist at once - you need to try to understand). The sauce was light enough were you can clearly taste the ginger and onion. Beef sui mai: One of the interesting things about this is that the filling is much like the steamed beef balls (ngao yuk) that is another dim sum specialty except in a smaller package. Mango pudding: Perfect way to end the meal. You can clearly taste the mango whose flavor is heightened with a touch of condensed milk. The dinner menu contains a nice variety of sushi, Japanese hot items, noodles, standard Cantonese and Mandarin dishes, salads, and vegetarian options which I'm excited to try sometime. For now, I'm just happy to have saved the gas cost, hours of travel time, and the challenge of finding parking in Chinatown. I can enjoy nearby dim sum in a quiet relaxing atmosphere without a 30 minute wait. read more

See all