CHI | Chinese and Sushi Bar — Restaurant in Bend

Environment: 4.5 stars. They have done a great job with the space and giving intimacy yet openness. They have a water feature outside to drown out the nearby traffic. Very clever. Location... that one is why it is down .5 stars. It is in a strange location with a chaotic parking lot. Not a lot they can do about that.

Staff: 2 stars. Most of the time we get great wait staff. And 1 out of 5 times, they tend to forget about us. We did recently have a very poor experience with them. We ordered gluten free Orange Chicken extra crispy (it is our go-to order) and they came out as chicken covered with orange sauce... no batter. We didn't want to be a bother and made a mention of it to the waitress (who was absolutely amazing) and she very kindly offered to take it back to the kitchen for them to redo it. They essentially threw it back on the stovetop and it seems that they did something else to do it because it was not gluten free when we got it back. My wife had a bad reaction and was sick for the next 24 hours.

Management: 1 stars. This is a new category for me. Management from the customer is typically not noticed. Three times this has happened: we call and get a voicemail that tells us that they will be closed on some date in the future or in the past, we check online, facebook and a few other places to ensure they will be open. Only to arrive and they say on the door that they are closed for the next for days. This would be fine if we lived in Bend, but if we come down from Sisters, we waste an entire hour trip. It is bad enough that I will actually need to give this a 1 star.

Food: 3 stars. It is pretty decent Chinese food and much better quality than Chan's. I haven't tried the sushi, and I hear good things about it. I don't think it would qualify as a 5 star rating, and 4 stars is the most I would give a decent food restaurant (you'd have to hit a home run to get 5 stars in my book). However, because of our recent experience of them drying out the chicken by throwing the already cooked chicken back on the pan and calling it good showed their hand at being lazy, so I had to knock it...

I had a really unfortunate experience for my first visit to Chi. They were busy, which is understandable, as they are popular, upscale, and one of few Asian restaurants in the Bend area. I waited a while for service, and was given a complimentary cucumber salad which was very nice. My problems begin when the sushi arrived. I ordered Salmon Belly sashimi (a very rich, expensive cut) [and expected good things] as well as the Snow White and the Sushi Chefs roll. The salmon belly was largely inedible. It was seared, which I wasn’t aware of, and laid on a bed of vinegary cucumber salad. Also, it had a high percentage of connective tissue and was largely inedible unfortunately. I also found a large fish scale in my mouth after trying to chew a piece. The roll was a marked improvement, until another hard scale-like chunk was found in one piece. I voiced my concerns with the waitress, who was sympathetic and removed the salmon belly from my check (good thing too, as it was $14 for 3 small pieces!). However, I still paid almost $40 for a largely inedible meal. I’m not sure if I caught the sushi chefs on a bad night or if it’s just safer to order from the cooked food menu at Chi. Either way, I’m very disappointed to say I won’t be back. I wish this evening had turned out differently. Also I hate making a stink at a restaurant and I’m not the type of person to complain about food, but sushi is my passion food, and for so expensive a dish, I truly expect high quality.

I forgot to mention seeing crab meat labeled 9/15 in the sushi cooler, which would make it 14 days old at the time of my visit. When I worked in food service, we would toss anything past 7 days. This observation sealed the deal that I will not be back. Very unfortunate, I really wanted to like this place after hearing good things...

Man really disappointed with this spot because It had great reviews. Placed a 75 dollar pick up order and my husband sat and waited for 15 min while the food sat at the host stand. Not that big of a deal.

They were busy so I understand that. Unfortunately food was super cold, dishes were missing sauces, Sushi rolls were not edible as were the other dishes. Honestly I’ve had better Chinese and sushi from Safeway. Our dogs had a great dinner but we ended up calling for a refund and that lead to being put on hold and hung up on twice. Again not the end of the world.

The gal said she’d call back later in the night or the next day to resolve the issue with her manager. She called back about 3 hours later and 30 min before they closed to relay to me her manager couldn’t refund me unless I drove back down to show them the food? Now if I had known this say 3 hours ago when I originally called about the order no problem sure I can drive back down. However I’ve already fed the scraps to my dogs, thrown the remains in the trash, drove and gotten a pizza and now I’m watching the bachelorette so that ship has sailed. PLUS the manager couldn’t take the time to talk to me and told the sweet girl on the phone to tell me that “ it’s like returning a pair of shoes, if we can’t see them we can’t refund them” uhh I’m sorry but I’ve been in the service Industry for 10 years and I’ve never heard that. Again happy to show you the food but you didn’t call me for three hours and I didn’t realize it was this much work to get refunded for dog food. What kind of place are you running? Horrible customer service coming from management... dine here at your own risk it’s over priced, food is terrible and you won’t be able to get your money...