Ho Sum Bistro — Restaurant in Newport Beach

Amazing Food, Horrible Service =( Avoid Ordering Anything To-Go

First of all, let me say I really love the food here, but I'm just shocked at the lack of service for a simple request.

I've been coming to Ho Sum Bistro for the past 4 years and their Chinese Chicken Salad is to die for, but my last visit put me off quite a bit. My friend and I wanted to pick up some lunch and head to the beach for a picnic. The last time I ordered the salad to-go for a picnic, it was extremely messy!

If you order their large salad to-go, it is packed into a container, literally about to burst, which is a little inconvenient but usually not so bad if I'm at home. Since this time I knew we would not have the luxury of using my kitchen, I asked the girl over the phone if they would be kind enough to put the salad into 2 separate containers.

She told me she would have to ask her manager, so I asked to speak with him. I explained to the manager, David, that we were going on a picnic and that it would be wonderful if they wouldn't mind putting the large salad in 2 containers for me, because the salad was so messy and it was very windy at the beach.

He refused.

I insisted that I would pay for the container. Surprised, he asked if I only wanted the container. I asked if I bought the container, if they could separate it for me while they were packing my order.

He refused, and said either he would have to charge me for 2 half-orders of the salad or I could purchase the extra container and separate the salad myself.......

What is going on here? I really didn't feel like this was an unreasonable request, even after pleading with the manager, saying that I would be more than happy to leave a good tip, he still refused without any sound explanation as to why he couldn't help me. I didn't want this to ruin our experience at Ho Sum Bistro, but the friend I was trying to introduce to this place that day didn't even want to pick up our order.

--------------------------------------------------­---------------------------------------------- David, you are a manager and you can do whatever you want to make a customer happy. I really do not understand why you couldn't separate a Large Chinese Chicken Salad into 2 containers for a customer who was willing to pay for the container and tip for the service. I was willing you work with you, but you wouldn't do anything to...

The Sesame chicken salad has a better dressing than the Ho Sum (ginger) chicken salad. But the Ho Sum salad has better ingredients. So I recommend getting the combination salad. The hot kitchen operates way slower than the cold kitchen, so I highly recommend starting with a salad first, and feel free to order everything at the same time because the hot items will arrive way after the cold items. Also get a side of sesame dressing because it goes great with everything from the lettuce wraps to the dumplings. The salads are huge - a half size salad could easily feed 3 to 4 people. While the full size salad feeds 6 to 8 people! The soups are nice too. The hot and sour soup is great. The wonton soup has a nice rich broth and comes with the soft boiled chicken dumplings that are also available as Dim Sum. I love the red sauce that comes with the "Poached Wrapped Wontons" (which is really dimsum soft boiled chicken dumplings), and it's only mildly spicy. The quenelles have the same great chicken filling inside but are just different shape. The chicken potstickers are good, while the shrimp potstickers are average. The Ho Sum dumplings are just average and have somewhat of a Greek flavor to them with the minced herbs sauce. The combination fried rice is somewhat flavorless and needs soy sauce. The Lo Mein noodles are also somewhat flavorless, but are improved by asking for a side of Ho Sum BBQ sauce which is actually their home made version of Asian Hoisin sauce. By the way this place is very loud. It's a small place, but the sound bounces off the walls in...

And it's not often that I can get down to Newport Beach this day I was working and I had time enough for lunch maybe 30 minutes so I went to an old favorite of mine that had not been to in years Ho Sum Bistro I got the lunch special which is half order of Chinese chicken salad and half order of chicken fried rice both were super yummy if you've not tried the Chinese chicken salad you have to come in to Ho Sum Bistro just for this one delicacy I also added potstickers because I love them and I feel like they hit the spot now the fried rice is in a bowl it's like a size of a cereal bowl it's not very big but you're getting a smaller portion of the fried rice and the Chinese chicken salad for a deal I think combined they were like $9 my server was great girl she gave great service and was very pleasant and I was able to get out in 30 - 35 minutes and did not have to put any extra time in the meter I parked along the side street right before Ho Sum Bistro which is on Newport Boulevard after Lido Isle if you're down in Newport and want to go to for lunch or dinner this Asian fusion place is really delicious they even do lettuce wraps better than PF Chang's and the decor is very Beach Town it looks like frozen yogurt shop or an ice cream parlor more than a Chinese restaurant but the food is excellent and the service is great and friendly and I highly...