Bistro Chen — Restaurant in Wheeling Township

We went here for our 19th anniversary and thoroughly enjoyed it, despite a few downsides. The decor is lovely and soothing with beautiful touches including a round bubble window looking into the kitchen and a really cool lighting fixture with giant chopsticks. Additional positive aspects:

Pork and Shrimp Siu Mai: Excellent - even better when warmed up at home.

Crispy Crab Claw: OMG - to die for - never had such an exquisite dim sum. My husband usually doesn't like crab and he loved this!

Taro Veggie Roll: Incredibly crispy and tasty - without a doubt the best spring roll I have ever eaten.

Fried Sesame Ball: Delicious, although a little too hot. The cold ones were even better as a dessert later at home. If you love sesame seeds, you have to try this divine delight!

Mango Pudding: I thought I died and went to dessert heaven. Exquisite, subtle taste and perfect smooth texture. It reminded me of a childhood favorite custard dessert called Junket, but better. I could eat this divine dessert all day long.

The roast duck was the most costly dim sum item we ordered and not worth the price. I would say more than 50% was inedible bone and fat and I have eaten far more tender duck. It was tough and a little too gamy for our tastes. The pan fried turnip cakes were not cooked enough and I didn't care for their jello-like texture. They were very tasty and much better after we re-fried the leftover pieces at home.

Even with the Local Flavor voucher, this was a little overpriced. I don't think we would come here without a deal. For the most part, our waiter was inattentive and disinterested. I would also suggest not ordering dessert until later - they brought the mango pudding at the same time as the hot dishes.

Overall a delightful and...

The place is very nice and very romantic looking. I just don't like the owner/manager of this place.

We were going to have a private party in this place and we were all set on the price and the food when the manager was asking us to pay extra on the service fees (to pay their waitress/waiter) plus tips (and they wanted to have a set amount of tips).

Too bad for them we were gonna give them more tips than what they were asking for, I just didn't like the fact that they wanted us to pay extra for the waiter and the waitress that's gonna serve in the party (what kind of restaurant doesn't have a waiter / waitress on their payroll). We just didn't feel secure and they didn't seem to value the business we were gonna bring to their restaurant so we just brought our business somewhere else.

In all honesty, the food wasn't that great anyways and its overpriced. They do have a lot of selections to pick from and the place is nice looking but other than that, there's nothing else special in this place.

FYI, when we were gonna negotiating with them for my party. They were so proud that on weekends they have a lot of customers that comes so they wanted to meet their quota. But a friend of mine that lives near them checked on how crowded they were that day and they didnt even have a lot of tables occupied. They could've had 70 people (thats also potential customers in the future for them) eating $2500 worth of food for only a couple of hours but they wanted more money.

Hopefully they will change their ways and stop that service fee for...

I was really disappointed in our dining experience. The resturant was clearly understaffed. We ordered egg rolls which were served cold. After letting them know, they warmed up the egg rolls and brought them back. We had to ask twice to get our tea served. I had ordered the Volcano Chicken with a side of steamed broccoli and Miso Soup. It took quite awhile for our food to be served. Three of our six entrées were brougt to the table. It took almost half an hour for the rest of the food to arrive. I think our waitress was helping prepare the food. She would be in the kictchen for long periods of time. When she did come out of the kitchen. We would have to flag her down to get her attention. I will say I did enjoy the Volcano Chicken. The steamed broccoli was also delicious and fresh. I never received the Miso Soup.

I just think there were not enough staff and kicthen was overwhelmed. The resturant staff seemed to be under alot of stress. Not...