Beijing Bistro Red Bank — Restaurant in Red Bank

The first time I experienced this restaurant was in December and I ate in with a friend. We chose this restaurant due to her gluten sensitivity and they have a decent amount of gluten free options for her to choose. The service was great as well as the food! My second experience with this restaurant was not so great. I was with this same friend on Friday night of last week. She was visiting me from Point Pleasant. I live in Long Branch. Again, to accommodate her allergies we chose to order from Temple. We ordered three items to go. The order consisted of the sesame noodles, gluten-free sesame chicken, and the black pepper chicken. The restaurant closed at 8 PM and we placed our order around 7:15. We drove into Red Bank, picked up our food and drove back into Long Branch. By the time we opened our food for dinner it was past 8 PM. Unfortunately the food was not to par. The sesame noodles were dry with no seasoning and extremely bland. The pepper chicken was just dried pieces of fried chicken with Chinese five spice seasoning that was dumped on sporadic pieces of chicken and not evenly distributed. Fortunately my friend enjoyed her dish. I was so disappointed having just spent over $50.00 on "gourmet" Chinese food that was no where near a gourmet experience and taste. I called the next morning due to the restaurant being closed by the time we opened our food to eat. I left a voicemail explaining the night before and had asked to receive a phone call back to discuss accommodation due to my inconvenience and unsatisfactory experience. I had not received a phone call all morning. I then decided to call later in the afternoon thinking someone had to be there because it was past lunch time. I spoke to a gentlemen who was very nice and listened to my complaint. They assured me that they would inform a manager and the manager would call me back. He mentioned that the manager was not in at the time. Well, here I am now almost a week later and well, I'm still waiting for that phone call back. At this point I have forgotten about the sub par food and now am more upset about the lack of communication with the restaurant manager/s. I probably would not be taking the time to sit her and write this if I would have just received a simple call back. That is poor business. Moving forward, I will be choosing a new gluten-free accommodating restaurant when my friend comes to...

As I write this review, I regret the fact that I didn't snap some photos to include along with it.

There were 6 of us (3 couples) who met for dinner this past Saturday evening at Beijing Bistro. For most of us, this was our first time dining here.

We arrived just before 6pm and were surprised that that place was initially empty. This was rather surprising given the fact it was a weekend dinner time slot, but perhaps not so surprising given the heatwave and the prospect that everyone was down at the beach.

In any event, we ordered quite a bit of food that was to be shared amongst us all.

The appetizers were mostly amazing. I would highly recommend the Crispy Creamy Spicy shrimp and Grand Marnier Prawns. Additionally, the Chicken Lettuce Wraps were excellent. The only appetizer some of us were disappointed with was the Filet Mignon Egg Roll which while huge, had shredded pieces of meat inside that were hardly detectable.

For our main course, my friends had the Peking Duck while my girlfriend and I shared the Mango Chicken and Kung Pao Chicken, both which were excellent. We also had a huge plate of lobster rice that was sensational.

In all, the food was excellent. Just as impressive was the wait staff who warmly greeted and seated us, patiently guided us through our order and often showed up to make certain we had everything we needed. I was very impressed with the level of service here.

By the time we finished our meal, some 90 minutes later, the restaurant was quite busy which was nice to see. We wish the owners much success and we plan to come back...

Honestly this was really disappointing.

I used to go to Temple all the time before I moved out of the area. My partner and I stopped on our way home from the beach as we used to love this place.

Firstly, we weren't offered the specials even though we overheard several tables offered. It was incredibly difficult to get a refill for my partner's drink. They took my partner's plate before asking if he was finished. I was asked dif I wanted dessert while I still had my fork in my hand eating dinner.

The filet mignon egg rolls were bland and tasted like dry roast beef and wilted cabbage. The chicken egg drop soup was barely more than lukewarm. He ordered the duck, which was supposed to be half a duck. Wasn't anticipating half a duck would be two drumsticks/thighs. The skin was perfect but the duck was incredibly oily and poorly cooked. I ordered the scallops tangerine. Half of them were cooked well and half had raw batter inside.

The restaurant is clearly in need of maintenance. While the aesthetic is beautiful, it's the same decor and paint for approximately 15 years and there's clear gouges in the walls with white chunks showing beneath the dark grey paint. The bathrooms were in poor condition.

The restaurant had maybe 6 other tables on a Saturday at 6pm so the quality of service isn't acceptable. It was very slow inside the restaurant for inattentive service, the amount of pressure to finish quickly, and the poor quality of food.

We were very excited to return to a restaurant we loved for years and now we won't...