Wu Zhao - Voted Bentonville's #1 Asian Restaurant — Restaurant in Bentonville

We arrived for an 8:00 reservation and were told our table wasn’t quite ready; asked to please wait in the lounge by the hostesses - both of whom were wearing red qipao dresses… (maybe the owner has never heard of cultural appropriation, but the decision for such a “uniform” is distasteful to say the least…)

We sat down in the lounge where there are several little cocktail tables and booths with their drink menu. The first thing we noticed was a terrible strobe light in the corner blasting the room with a variety of colors. It was not fitting for the space or atmosphere at all.

The second thing we noticed is the other 6-8 groups also waiting in the lounge did not have drinks and looked disappointed, just as we had become after waiting 10 minutes without seeing anyone come to the lounge to take drink orders. Finally I went to the bar where half the seats were empty, giving enough visibility for the three bar tenders working to see over 20 people in the lounge without service. We ordered our drinks, and sat back down to continue waiting for our table.

Another 10 minutes passed so I went to check on our reservation and was told “your table is available now but not ready because our dishwasher is very slow tonight and we don’t have the plate wear to seat you. Another 5-10 minutes and we will call your name.”

At this point we were frustrated and so was the rest of the room who all were waiting on their reservations. At 8:28 we decided we had waited enough and asked to cancel our reservation. The hostess said she was just about to come get us and that our table was finally ready, so we decided to stay.

When we sat down we were handed dirty, stained paper menus and filthy mismatched wine glasses. The server was quick to approach and apologized for the wait. Throughout the night she was nice and prompt with her service.

The cocktails didn’t “wow” us for the price, so we ordered waters and a few shareable plates (garlic edamame, spicy wontons, and the wonton soup). The appetizers were good and we were excited for the entrees.

We ordered the schezuan beef and the coconut-curry mussels. A few minutes later we were told they were out of the mussels. Our server suggested the typhoon scallops (“Garlicky Maine scallops with crispy typhoon crumbs.”) Little did we know we just paid $40 for a plate of batter fried “bang-bang” scallops. This again was a huge disappointment.

For a place that is hoping to be upscale (certainly by their prices), there is much left...

Side note - their Google rating is inflated by clearly fake reviews, unless you want to trust Halal Dog, Saffron Road, B Happy, Calavo, Westminster, and Texas Chili on your next meal. Nice try padding your rating.

@Wu Zhao - please spend a bit less time trying to deceive others and instead spend a bit more time on your food.

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I had been eagerly awaiting the opening of Wu Zhao, excited to finally experience quality Chinese cuisine in Bentonville, especially given Vincent Lim's credibility and engaging cooking videos. Unfortunately, my visit was rather underwhelming.

Starting with the misses, the Peking Duck was the biggest disappointment. While the duck portion was good, the meat was excessively dry. More perplexing, we received only three wrappers, and when requesting sweet bean sauce or hoisin sauce—which the menu explicitly mentions—the restaurant didn’t have either. For an Asian restaurant at this price point, this was notably surprising.

The Prawn and Pork Siu Mai, priced at $15, were decent but didn't match the authentic flavors and quality typically found in New York or Los Angeles Chinatowns for a fraction of the cost. The Spicy Wontons stood out with excellent flavor, though the spice level was mild. The Crispy Rice and Sesame Crispy Beef were also enjoyable, and the Zhao Fried Rice was reasonably tasty for $16.

Several dishes were decidedly mediocre. The Miso Cod, Enoki Chips, Salt and Pepper Calamari, Duck Fried Rice, and Szechuan Beef offered little memorable flavor, particularly disappointing and lacked any true authenticity given their premium prices. The drinks were acceptable, albeit expensive, and the service was pleasant. The server appeared new and understandably inexperienced, but still attentive and friendly.

The decor deserves special mention—it effectively captures an upscale, trendy vibe, and the tree placement in the center of the restaurant is a nice touch. However, the hosts wearing qipaos felt awkward and bordered on cultural appropriation rather than authenticity.

Ultimately, Wu Zhao felt short of expectations. Although it’s brand new, at $80 per person, I expected much higher consistency in both quality...

A couple of friends invited us to eat with them on Saturday night for some "dim sum" which the restaurant advertised. Boy were we in for a shock.

Turns out one of the owners has a social media following over a million people and the other is the previous owner Aoi (permanently closed).

The atmosphere and décor was nice (which is expected because it's brand new).

Let's get into the main reason for the review. I hardly leave any reviews because I want to support local businesses but I felt I had to with this one.

THE FOOD: a restaurant's main focus should be the food. The food was very lackluster in flavor and did not have any Authentic Asian taste whatsoever. You would think a chef that prides himself in "Authentic Asian" flavor would know this.

The calamari pretty much just seasoned with salt, that's the only thing we could taste.

Same with the Scallops: it was very salty. It seems to be only seasoned with salt, I think they used a combination of sea salt, table salt, and any other kind of salt they could find without any other seasoning.

Our waiter told us the Peking Duck would be a whole duck (surprised because $49 for a whole duck is a steal). Turns out we got a few dried up pieces that looked like a quarter of a duck. No flavor and very dry.

The Sesame crispy beef was so hard it was inedible. Tried to eat one piece and that was it.

The Sichuan Blistered Green Beans was also a big disappointment. No flavor whatsoever. Even P.F. Chang's (a franchise) tasted better than this.

Please take every review with a grain of salt and try for yourself and see. Also don't be fooled by these fake/paid 5* reviews without any description of their...