East Meets West Chinese Restaurant / TAKEAWAY — Restaurant in Bath

Recently, at Bath's Hong Kong Bistro I was fortunate enough to chomp on a plate of Pad Thai. It was so wonderful that much like one would kick-start a gerbil with a brick, so it kick-started a train of thoughts that began with a reminiscence of a hotel in Thailand where I floundered about in the pool awaiting a seemingly-inevitable harpoon. My thoughts danced about a little further (pausing momentarily on a woman in Thailand who did something rather disturbing with a ping-pong ball for money) before finally settling on the idea that the only thing to make Bath's Hong Kong Bistro more authentic was for Bruce Lee to leap out of the kitchen and karate-chop me in the neck.

It could, of course, easily be determined that the latter was not the most rational of the thoughts buzzing and pinging about in my head that day, particularly given that Pad Thai is not one of the mainstays of Chinese cuisine and that Bruce Lee is sadly long-dead. It was however, yet another dish from the Hong Kong Bistro that compelled my taste buds to dance a merry jig and swiftly despatch a memo to my tummy to inform it that it would soon be very happy indeed.

I have visited the Hong Kong Bistro on more than one occasion, albeit only for lunch, and unlike making a visit to my bank, not once have I ever been so disappointed with the experience that I have pondered hurling through the door a wildly-shaken box of wasps.

While Bath's Hong Kong Bistro does not necessarily pride itself on either its decor or its service, it would be fair to suggest that the reason is simply because it does not need to. There is nothing wrong with either thing, and I would describe both as simple and effective. Sure, I would not object to being hand-fed truffles by supermodels while I sat on the back of a small platinum horse, but this is not the place for such necessities. Bath's Hong Kong Bistro is more a canteen for quick, awesome food, service with an absence of French waiters being snotty, rude and stereotyped, and for daydreaming about Bruce Lee or the cartoon character, Hong Kong Phooey.

In terms of price, it is roughly half as expensive as something that costs twice as much. My Pad Thai was, for example, half the price of almost six sandwiches from Waitrose, but in terms of value-for-money, unless someone shows me somewhere I can buy a clone of Cheryl Cole for thirty quid, there is little comparison in Bath.

On the whole, to conclude and at the end of the day an' that (know what I mean, innit?) Bath's Hong Kong Bistro is an excellent place for lunch. I may actually go there for dinner one day too. You should visit...

I would give 0 star if there were this choice! We were regular customers for a couple years before lockdown, my partner liked some of their dishes a lot, especial beef potatoes, it was about 11.5 pounds by then. So we visited them again after the lockdown was lifted, surprisingly, the quality of the food was plummeted! however the price was skyrocketed! the beef was 15.5 pounds! that's about 35% increase! We only ordered two dishes, another one was fish (10 pounds more expensive than before too, another 40% increase!!! The first fish they served had a hair in it, I spotted it immediately, then the waitress said they would make another one for me, I was a little stupid not changing another dish, because I actually did not know if they would really make another one or just take the old fish to the kitchen, get rid of the hair and the bring it back to me. So all together I had to wait about 40min to get my food, when there were only two tables at that time), plus beer and rice, that added up to around 71 pounds!!! this was the most expensive food we had in Bath, and it was not even good!!!we were shocked!!! they even added "service fee" now, which they did not have before lockdown, but the service was so bad! I understand that lockdown has given everyone a hard time, but is it really nice to milk the customers like this? ! we definitely will NOT go back there for sure, and will not recommend it to any of our friends or whoever sees...

Where do I start with this? The food came within less than 5 minutes of ordering, so had clearly just been microwaved. The wonton soup was bland and the pork dumplings within the soup tasted like they were off. We soldiered on to the mains, and ordered lamb and spring onions, which should be a dry-fried spicy dish. What we got instead was a bland, greasy mess with lamb prices that were barely edible. What an insult to Dongbei cuisine! We also ordered braised beef, which was at least 60% fat, so surgery was required on each price of meat before it was edible. Whilst I get that having some fat in the dish is the authentic way for it to be served, each dish we ordered cost between £15-£20 - for that price they shouldn’t serve such low quality cuts of meat. Overall, the presentation of all dishes was hideous, the vegetables in the dishes had generally just been cut in half or in random shapes…which just shows a general bad attitude and lack of effort in the kitchen. In total, for two meat dishes, the soup, a vegetable dish, some rice and a beer, the bill was £75, which I thought was outrageous. I generally steer clear of writing negative reviews for small businesses, but in this case I had to make an exception, since the food was just not good, it cost way too much and was a very bad experience. Hope they can...