Encore Asian Bistro (Encore Cafe) — Restaurant in Lawrence

Encore Café Encore Café is an Asian cuisine located at 1007 Massachusetts Street in Lawrence, Kansas. Mass Street is in the heart of Lawrence and has a great atmosphere and a lot of things to do. Upon entering friendly staff greeted me and lead me to my seat. I went with a couple friends so we could all order different things and try a little of everything. The inside is full of tables with booths lined up along the walls. Inside it’s nicely lit and the windows at the front of the building give off some nice natural light. There is also a full bar directly in front of where you walk in. We were lead to a booth tucked in the back corner, and a waiter came to our table promptly and told us his favorite things on the menu. The sound was at a perfect volume and it was a nice and calming feel. The smell was so delightful it made my stomach growl, and the restaurant felt so comfy and welcoming that after eating I wanted to nap right there. For starters we ordered some pot-stickers or dumplings, (though they had a different name for them), pot-stickers are steam-fried wantons wrapped around pork with a sauce to dip in. They came out steaming after only a couple minutes, and after having one all four of us were instantly hooked. They almost melted in your mouth but had a crispy edge making it a perfect dumpling. For our main entrees we ordered the Kung Pao Chicken, General Tsao’s chicken, Teriyaki beef, and the sesame chicken which all cost about nine dollars. We also got a large order of fried rice. After about 15 minutes our food came out sizzling and the feast began. The Kung Pao chicken was diced into squares with cashew peanuts and greens; it was the hottest of the dishes but one of the group’s favorites. The General Tsao’s chicken was a brownish-red, thick sauce over chunks of breaded and sauce coated chicken. It was mellow a lot like the other two dishes, but differed with its distinct sauce flavor. The Teriyaki beef was my personal favorite; it came in a bamboo container with fried rice intermixed with the teriyaki flavored beef. The beef itself was thinly sliced and cooked perfect. The beef itself wasn’t chewy or hard; it was the right amount of tender and made a delicious dish. It was honestly one of the best Chinese dishes I have ever eaten. My least favorite dish was the sesame chicken, not to say it was bad in any sense, just compared to the other three it definitely lacked the wow factor. The sesame chicken was a thick brown sauce coating breaded chicken. It tasted a lot blander than the others and the meat was a bit chewier than I like. All these dishes went amazing with the fried rice we ordered as well. The fried rice had egg and onion in the rice too. After finishing I honestly couldn’t move, it was one of the better meals I have eaten in a long time. Our waiter politely asked if we were ready for our checks and brought us fortune cookies with our bill. Overall Encore was one of the best restaurants I’d say I’ve ever eaten at. Their service was friendly and courteous, and the food came so fast I was amazed we were at a sit down restaurant. Encore did a great job of combining a professional clean look with a casual anybody is welcome feel. The inside of Encore was a melting pot with people of all ages and dressed in varying levels. The food was also some of the best Chinese I have ever had, it will make you think differently next time you think about Panda Express. I give this restaurant a four star rating because the quality of food for the price is astonishing and the...

Apologies for the long review but I received terrible customer service from the manager. I placed a large catering order (over $400) from here, I made sure to place the order well in advance of pickup (3 weeks ahead of needing it) and when I called to pay for the order, the manager was very rude about it. Towards the end of the call, she asked if I wanted to include a tip (I wasn't upset about being asked for a tip, but I was slightly surprised that gratuity wasn't already factored into the pricing for catering orders and I was caught off guard by being asked right then and there instead of when I went to pick up the food, assuming I would have to sign a receipt upon pick up like normal places) when I told her how much I wanted to tip (25%) I felt bad because my new total was going to be over $500 and since I wasn't using my own personal card to pay, it was someone else's, I wasn't comfortable paying that amount without prior approval from the card owner. After explaining this to the manager, I asked to change my tip amount and she agreed, albeit with a very apparent attitude. When I went to pick up the food, she brought it out and my friend and I were going to take the boxes to my car when she OFFERED to help us with the remaining 2 boxes but seemed very upset that she was having to help me out to my car when she was the one who offered to help us even though we were perfectly capable of handling it ourselves. Well the following week I called back to ask if they could email me a copy of the receipt because we had mistakenly not kept it for my records and the manager had an attitude again when I told her my email and she said "okay, I sent it" and so I waited the entire day to receive it and even checked my spam folder but never got it. I called the next day to see if she could re-send it and she said "yeah, it's sitting back there. the email is sunny something. I just have to send it to you" which means she never sent it when she said she did. I didn’t appreciate being lied to. I said "okay, well if you could send it as soon as you can I'd really appreciate it as we need it for our records. I'd also like to confirm which email you're sending it to" and she said "I already have that" and I said "well what you said earlier is not correct. My name isn't sunny" and she said "okay well what is it" and I began to tell her and spell it out as many people misspell my name and she interrupted me and said "yeah, that's what I have.” I do understand being busy as I worked in the customer service industry for 6 years but there’s no reason to be flat out rude for no reason, especially when you’re the manager of an establishment. Very disappointed in my experience here, and as of writing this review, I still haven’t...

We will not be making an encore return to Encore. Ok, the food is good here but their service and management are not. We have a group of about 16 people that meet up every week somewhere in Lawrence and we only patronize locally owned restaurants to show our support for our community. Most restaurants love to have our group as we are known to tip well. However, tonight was the final straw. Our leader called the restaurant multiple times, in advance, to make sure they could accommodate our numbers. We were told on two different occasions that they don't take reservations but since our group was meeting at 5:45pm we were told it wouldn't be a problem, since it was so early, to move tables together to accommodate us. We show up at the restaurant at 5:45 pm and we were told by the staff that they couldn't do this (they had maybe six people in their restaurant). The hostess had a pained look on her face as we were just a pain in her rear. We promptly marched out, walked one half block to the South and had a fabulous dinner at one of our favorites, Aladdin Cafe and walked in, unannounced, and they quickly seated our large group in their back room and we had a great time with great food and wonderful service with a smile. These restaurants still exist and Encore probably lost out on $500 of business (yes, we have some folks that like to drink expensive drinks). Unfortunately, Encore will be off our rotation permanently. Many in our group love Asian food, so Nagoya and Jade Garden will benefit from Encore's actions. This isn't the first time we have had this experience and have been seated together before...