Beijing Bistro - Victoria

I came here in 2015 with a friend and enjoyed the food so thought it would be a safe bet to try again. Came back with my husband and was surprised by how terrible the food was. I had the vegetarian lunch special and it tasted of burned oil and chemical. My husband had sweet and sour pork and found it flavourless. After we finished our meal we sat forever waiting to pay so we could leave. My husband went to the counter to try to pay and the server told him she would bring the bill in a few minutes. She continued to ignore us for 10 minutes while our parking ran out and then finally said "ok you can pay now". I don't normally mind crappy service that much, but the combination of terrible service and inedible food made for an unpleasant experience overall. Also the vegetables in my stir fry were the kind that come frozen in a bag. Grosss.

We chaperoned a high school band from the US performing at Victoria days and stopped here with five students for dinner. The restaurant was entirely empty. Menu is plentiful, service excellent, food VERY good. It is authentic for sure. Not made in masses, then sits all day. We could easily tell by the wait that our dishes were cooked AFTER we ordered as it was piping hot and steaming! I had sweet and sour chicken and the sauce was excellent, not overly sweet and not gongealed goo like in the US. We had fried wonton as appetizer which was delicious, my daughter had broccoli beef which was also fresh and good, all vegetables were cooked fresh, not limp at all, cooked but still with a bit of crispness. Parking is on street as it is in the banking district.

Food was good, service fast and friendly, but prices could be better. I came solo for dinner and wished I had more options.

We went to this restaurant twice in February, 2017. The first time we were there the foods were awesome! We ordered 2 dishes: fish in spicy liquid and tofu in spicy sauce. We loved the foods so much that we went there again 2 days later. This time we ordered 2 other dishes: squid with veggie and shredded pork to be put in wraps. The squid was as hard as leather and tasteless. The shredded pork was super salty and the wraps were dry and hard that was bought from a supermarket as I saw the waitress taking them out of a package and put them on a plate to bring to us. They worst dishes I have ever tasted. Needless to say, we never went to this restaurant again.

Four of us had dinner here the other night, and we were impressed by the food. Both quality and portion sizes were excellent. We shared the vegetable spring rolls (fresh and piping hot), ½ Peking duck (delicious, and plenty for 4), the Kung Pao Chicken (a tad spicy for me but perfect for the others), sweet and sour shredded potato (crunchy and yummy), and spicy noodles. All the dishes were freshly prepared, and nothing was greasy. We had leftovers to take home, but for some reason they didn’t include the cucumber and spring onion slices left over from the Peking duck. (Even though we’d added them to the remains of the shredded potato.)We were disappointed that the bistro didn’t serve wine, but no problem — we ordered 4 bottles of Tsing Tao, our favourite Chinese beer. Further disappointment when we were told they only had 3 bottles left!! No other beer options. Next time we go, we’ll phone ahead to check the beer supply.The place was full the night we went, but in spite of that, the service was pretty good. Apart from us, everyone was Chinese — a great recommendation for authentic Chinese (Beijing style) food. The bistro is tastefully decorated but as far as ambiance goes, forget it. This is not a place for romantic dinners. The lighting was exceedingly bright.