Bistro City

Susan and family always provides the best service and food here. This has been one of our go to places for steamed fish, steamed vegetables, and soups. The sesame balls are always great to eat after a meal as well.

Super super fast amazing portions delicious and friendly. Absolutely perfect dining experience.

Came in to pick up food for my mom and I asked for hot chili oil and the girl gave me on and I asked for two more and the owner told the girl to give us only one more so she came out the back and said «oh we only have 1 left»…
I have been picking up orders from Susan over 3 years and I would have dinner parties here and refer my friends and family. Can’t believe she wouldn’t even offer another chili oil. How do you expect to build relationships with your customers…
Probably going to order from Golden Chop Sticks from now on. They put a whole jar of hot chili oil out the table…
Customer service is everything to me even if the food is decent.

Once again, I’m surprised I haven’t written a review for this place yet seeing how many themes I’ve been here now. It’s a pretty cool restaurant with a large menu to choose from. Nice décor, and the staff is pretty excellent, and never a wait to get seated. I’ve came here about 3 – 4 times now, and each time has been always great. Recently, dropped by here for Thanksgiving, as the family didn’t want to cook. Ended up with a roast duck, sweet & sour pork, egg drop soup, shrimp fried rice, calamari, and a beef vegetable dish. Hot, delicious and not too long of a wait. Can’t wait for my next visit!

Great food and decent service. This is my first visit and I was disappointed to find out they don’t offer a lunch menu on holidays. (even Veterans day). His information they probably should have had posted on the front door or at least communicated as they sat people because I overheard more than once this policy having to be explained after someone had already made a decision of what they wanted to order only to find out it was not available today.
The food itself I would give four stars and will probably be back… but I think their customer service could be improved.

I am now a previous regular customer of this restaurant. I’ve been eating here with my family for years and I’ve recommended this place several times but not anymore. I ordered take out from this place last night and this afternoon I gave my daughter some left overs, she said she didn’t want to eat it anymore which was random because she loves the food. When I asked why she said look and to my surprise there was a cooked fly in the food. Absolutely disgusting. Please check your food before you eat it if you decide to go there again. I will not be going back and you shouldn’t either.

Best service and chinese food around in National city and they cook with no MSG. Always fast service but dishes are prepared fast and fresh.

Food was excellent. «A lot of bang for a buck.» A good amount of food at a reasonable price & the quality is excellent. Friendly and prompt customer service.
What I personally like is the fact that their house specials for certain dishes (i.e. Fried rice) has all their different kinds of meat (chicken, grilled beef, bbq pork, shrimp) that I tend to crave with Asian dishes. Have ordered a large amount of take-​out and have dined in a few times. Each visit they remember me.
Will definitely continue coming here.

Best salt and pepper wings anywhere. Mongolian beef was the best I ever had too. Prices are good for what you get. Best Chinese place in San Diego.

I love the salt and pepper chicken wings! Way better in the flavor department than the other Chinese restaurants in National City. The crispy beef and the jing-​do pork chop are also among my favorites.
The owner is always so friendly and welcoming when we decide to dine in. Whenever my son is there, she is sure to give him and almond cookie or buchi ball!

Best Chinese food I’ve had in the longest time. I drive 45 mins out of my way to get their food. they are like family. It reasonable for the huge amount of food you get

Came here last night because we were craving some Chinese food. It’s been a real struggle to find amazing Chinese food here in San Diego, and while this wasn’t amazingly-​mind-​blowing-​life-​changing, it was still good, We both decided it was a worth a return.
ORDERED:
— Salt and Pepper Tofu
— Pan Fried Noodles with Tofu and Vegetables
— Cashew Chicken
— Vegetable Egg Rolls
— Tofu and Vegetable Fried Rice
= $ 40 for everything, pre tip, post tax.
We’ve had salt and pepper chicken from Royal Mandarin down the street, but it was way too salty/​msg-​y for me. We didn’t end up finishing the order of salt and pepper chicken because it was incredibly salt. The salt and pepper tofu here is perfect! It’s not crazy salty, the outside is crispy, and the inside of soft. Perfectly cooked and definitely not soggy.
We’ve had the pan fried noodles here before and they’re really yummy. I love the sauce that they’re in and there is a perfect ratio of cripsy and soft noodles in the dish. It comes with tons of vegetables — definite plus!
Cashew Chicken was not the regular type of Cashew Chicken I was expecting. I’ve been eating low-​carb lately so the dish ended up being the perfect pair. All veggies and chicken. Nothing fried. It was in a clear broth as opposed to some type of fish or oyster sauce, but it was still equally delicious. Since I don’t eat Chinese food oftet, I didn’t mind, but if you’re a die-​hard Cashew Chicken lover, I don’t recommend ordering it here because it probably won’t be what you’d expect.
The Vegetable Egg Rolls didn’t look to have much filling, but they were delicious. They were a little on the greasy side. Not dripping down your finger greasy or a puddle of grease on the plate, but your fingers were definitely shiny after handling. The egg rolls were perfectly crisp and flaky on the outside.
Tofu and Vegetable fried rice was pretty good. I’m not a big rice fan, but my boyfriend absolutely love it here. It does have good flavor and there were lots of veggies and pieces of tofu in the dish.
Not only was the food great, but the lady who was serving us was funny and very friendly. She kept making jokes with us all night long and she made some great recommendations. She definitely contributed to our good experience here at Bistro City.

Worst service ever… It wasn’t always like this. They’re usually friendly when it’s not busy. Sunday, my family came in. There were only three parties dining in… We sat and started ordering when more people started coming in. It got busy. People came in ordering take outs, calls and atleast four parties to be seated and there’s only two servers.
Well, it got hectic and our server is not paying attention to our orders anymore. First we ordered two Dr. Pepper, a sprite and a coke, she came out with two Dr. Pepper and forgot the other two drinks. It was like 45 minutes before the other server asked us if we were okay then we were given the other two drinks. Second was I wanted to incorporate veggies on top of the six orders I had asked. I asked her about one of their menu if she could make it all veggies or add the snow peas in it. She repeated it fast and I heard with snow peas then off she goes to her fellowmen and left. So I was like okay I think she got it. The order came back without the bean sprouts but atleast the snow peas was in there. I told her and explained that I wanted the specific order plus the snow peas because it’s vital that there’s more veggies in there since most of my five orders is fried. Well she got mad and she was rude. I’m a customer and I feel that she should have met my orders and I told her nicely. My daughter too said she just ignored us when we wanted to tell her about our missing drinks. Not only she took our order not exactly as we asked, she kept attending to other customers while she’s talking to us and kept leaving. It’s like our business was not as important as the other customers. I am very understanding when it’s busy and you’re overwhelmed but to ignore your customers, and getting mad when you should have apologized for taking the order wrong was disrespectful and rude. And did I mention the other two drinks you missed while we watched as the other tables get served with their drinks. Food was great but we won’t dine in here anymore.

Love this place. Food is authentic Chinese and being from Singapore I can definitely judge. Food always cooked to order and delicious every time. The Honey walnut shrimp always on point and the salt and pepper chicken wings always cooked to perfection. The fried rice is always tasty too. Won’t be a disappointment!

This is so messed up. Ordered a tray of chicken wins. Got here at 430. Its 540 now. And I still don’t have them. I know its busy cause of the fight tonight. But they don’t number the orders. They gave people their orders who came in after me. So unorganized. They’re taking food out. People are just randomly saying its theirs. Never going here again. Never recommending. Total bs.
Update. 600. Almost a 2hour wait. Still no chicken tray. New goal. Cancel for a refund and never go here again

Food is always on point. Service is too. Susy always makes everyone feel at home… Started coming when I was prego and now even my daughter loves the food.

When looking for Chinese food, you look for tasty. The Salt and Pepper Chicken wings at Bistro City were tasty and crispy. They had a hint of sweet. If you like that then you’ll like the wings. If you don’t you won’t. I didn’t care for the sweet so I took one star. On the otherhand the wifey did like them.
As for the other selections, they all were tasty.
My favorite vegetable is Bok Choy, which you would think any Chinese restarant would carry, but they don’t. Not a t Royal Mandarine nor Golden Chopsticks. But Bistro City does carry the Bok Choy as a stir fry. Very good in my opinion.

Authentic but not that great of quality for some dishes. The dishes that were supposed to have tastes of ginger and scallions (I.e. Crab or lobster) were dull in flavor, and they use too much starch for the dishes to make the brothy sauces. And the salt and pepper shrimp have an abundance of batter on them, not thin and crispy as expected at most hong kong & canton style Chinese restaurants. I

Despite the language barrier, it is best to let their food do the talking. Just moved to South Bay, and have been setting up «my spots». For Chinese food, this is it!
I had the salt and pepper chicken, Broccoli beef, and some mixed vegetables with fried rice. Everything had exceptional flavor especially the salt-​and-​pepper chicken, and priced right.
My girl is rather picky with Chinese food, but was very pleased with this place. Thank you bistro city I will be back!

This place is hit or miss. You can order the same entrée and it can be completely different. I just ordered the sesame chicken, and its usually great, but this time you could tell they just re-​fried some old chicken they must have made earlier in the day. It was pretty gross.
When you order an entrée it comes with a choice of white rice or fried rice and while the fried rice that comes with it used to be great, now it is literally just rice and soy sauce. No egg, no veggies, nothing.
The salt and pepper shrimp is really good here. And the service is really friendly as well. However, to me it seems like this place is getting lazy and going downhill fast. Since theres better and cheaper places here in national city I won’t be going back.