Qin’s Asian Bistro and Bar

This use to be my favorite hangout spot, mainly because my brother was the bartender and I got free drink’s haha! But seriously you can’t deny that the interior is amazing, the actual bar is one of a kind, and in the beginning the food was incredible due to the chef they had at the time.
Unfortunately since then they’ve really went downhill there food isn’t that great anymore, there new staff is lacking personality, and the crowd on the club night’s coincide with the idea that even though you polish a turd its still a turd none the less! I really hope this place turns itself around because it really does have an amazing décor.

So this place is decsent (for Antioch)
I have been here twice now, the last time I went was actually quite entertaining and fun.
The place tries hard, but does a pretty descent job to give the appearance of an upscale/​Vegas style nightclub,(personally think it could use a little touch up) with the chandeliers centered over the main bar, enclosed around a neon lit bar with white seating chairs situated down behind the wooden wall, separating the rest of the restaurant creating that very cool, dimmed light lounge atmosphere. White lounge furniture is a little worn out and dirty so my friend and I opted to sit at the wooden benches situated close by.
I was mostly impressed with the cocktail selection definitely different from your typical bar (especially here in Antioch) I was in a toss between the Lychee Martini (which might I add is Phenomenal, I get mind a little extra sweet) The Pomegranate martini,
Dave’s Ginger Martini (which come to find out, is not sweet and nothing what I expected, so I passed)
Julie’s Persian Slipper a.k.a. Tiffany’s Stockholm Royale which is svedka citron vodka, triple sec, lemon juice champagne & château Monet liqueur framboise (Sweet and sour a little overwhelmed by the sour part but still refreshing and nice) just to name a few.
The drinks were great (strong) though, I was even more so impressed with how prompt and friendly the staff were. As surprisingly packed as it got in there, they maintained upbeat, and were quick with delivering your order– all with a friendly smile. Being we had ate before coming here, we ordered a quick appetizer of the crab ragoon-​which is cream cheese and imitation crab meat fried and served along with a sweet dipping sauce, which was average in taste.
This was a Friday night and Wow! I never expected it to get as packed as it did. They had a DJ and the house was pumpin… lol I guess this is the place to go now on Friday, Saturday nights if you’re stuck in Antioch.
Overall I’d rather go here on a friday night than most places in Antioch however, if I truely want to do the club thing or anything similar, I think I’LL TAKE THE DRIVE ELSEWHERE.
Oh and the bathrooms are nicely designed however, please do something with your sinks!

Fusion food is hard to pull of. Its either trumendously better or horrendously worse than the 2 different food influences. I went here for lunch. Their food didn’t have a lasting impression but it wasn’t terrible. It was okay.

I’ve been here once for dinner way back when. Not too memorable, but I did remember it being like a P.F. Chang knockoff. Not something I’d jump to my feet to experience again.
With that aside, I went here last night for some karaōke. Yes. karaōke on Wednesdays at Qins (pronounced «Chins») from 8 – 11. My homegirl Suzzette, the KJ I met at Mike’s Beef and Brew last weekend, told me about karaōke Wednesdays at Qins.
The karaōke was set-​up, tucked away in the corner which people sing at the head of the restaurant. While this might seem like good placement, it felt a little too far from the people watching… so much so that when you sing, it was a little impersonal.
The good thing, though, is that the acoustics in the entire restaurant were like nothing I’ve ever heard in a karaōke venue. You can hear the sound of your own voice bounce off the walls… so crisp and clean. It was an acoustic heaven.
For a drink, I ordered a lychee martini. Man… that was mighty strong. Got my money’s worth for a 6 dollar drink. Must’ve had a shot of gin and a shot of vodka each. The lychee flavor was faint. If it were me, I would’ve drowned my drink with lychee syrup to even out the alcohol. Having barely eaten dinner, this drink hit me like a ton of bricks.
Overall, a pretty good night for a Wednesday.

Wow… this places has gone down hill very fast. I keep trying to give it another chance but I think I’m just done. The only good thing left is the hot and sour soup.
The chicken is boinky. The beef is… I dunno what to call it… too soft? The fried rice has a weird smell to it. The only good things about Qin’s are their little wonton chips and sweet/​sour sauce and again, the soup. Oh, and the wait staff, they’re wonderful.
Qin’s– get your act together! Start using quality meats again and maybe you’ll be able to save yourself and get your old loyal customers back.

This place doesn’t deserve 39 reviews.
Nice atmosphere — nice wait staff — pretty good house wine for lunch (at $ 20 a bottle, it should be).
Lots of meat in the beef and chicken chow meins. Fair flavor or less. Not much Thai in the Thai Beef Curry.
They’re now closed at lunch Mon-Thurs…not enough diners. Our waitress told us the week night business was weak.
Let me guess — tooooo many items that they don’t do any of them really good. Sushi with a hidden sushi bar? Is that normal in this area? They aren’t certain what they are… japanese, chinese, thai… but mainly all of them just so-​so.
eh!

Fun for the 50+. Leaving room for an extra star after another visit. The baby brothers and pals repeatedly used the word «cougar» although I think the population was even older than the bracket you’d maybe use the phrasing for.
Not sure what to make if the mix. While a portion of the menu claims fusion, the menu is really a reflection of the most common dishes from the most likely to be recognized dishes in each Asian food category. Cocktails were overly sweet (made our desserts seem bland in comparison). Wine list all over the map — catering to the white zin and brand name only drinkers with some hidden local gems that will most likely stay hidden.
Appreciate they make the effort for something like this in the area! Live music is the real standout. The lounge servers wear the bare minimum, but do not know if that is the requested «uniform» — they were sweet though.

I first visited Qin’s when meeting up with some girls that I haven’t seen in forever! Mainly drinks and… wait did we eat? Prob not.
So my friend ends up having a b-​day celebration here at the bar. They had live music and we drank till our hearts content.
I actually did eat this time — but unfortunately I don’t remember what I ate (man I need to stop drinkin’ so much!!) Altho I do remember it was good food. Prices weren’t out of control… and by the ambiance, setup, atmosphere you would think they could & would charge a pretty penny.
The bartenders are fun and remembered us so I thought that was cool.
Love this place!
Try the Sugar Magnolia cocktail… but beware it’s a creeper!~

I went there once and the service was terribly slow!
Not to mention I was expecting a better sushi turn out on the menu.
The décor is definitely nice but the food wasn’t as good as everyone was saying.
Our waitress didn’t come to check on us to see how the food was until the bill was ready to be given.
Did I mention I came on a Sunday night and it was dead inside…
They did mention to us that they were short on servers but last time I checked there were only 5 tables tops and they only had 2 – 5 people per booth…
hmmm.

Not too bad. The restaurant itself was pretty nice on the inside. More new age décor than some of these asian places around here that have been here forever.
The food was good. Went there for lunch and the lunch portions were pretty large, too much for me to finish. Service was good. No major complaints and no major over the top great items worth mentioning.

Good price ($ 8) for lunch
Staff was nice… food just so-​so…
The door kept being left open and it was really chilly (they couldn’t move us tables either)
I’ve been here for the bar scenee (pricey drinks) Good dj (I was kinda drunk) But it was good to dance in not the typical ghetto Antioch spot (ie tailgaters, mutony, pee wees)

I’m a firm believer that any restaurant that serves Asian food shouldn’t be so gosh darned over-​priced and fancy looking inside.
That being said, people don’t go to Qin’s for the food. Trust me. I’m Asian, I know. The food is decent, nothing to write home about, nothing to rave about. I’ve only had very select items, the price is overkill.
Yea, the price is a bit over-​kill. This is Antioch. NOT Walnut Creek, Danville, etc. Asian food isn’t meant to be overpriced. You’re kinda paying for ambiance in my opinion,
It’s a good place to meet with friends and get drinks. It is really cool looking inside. A nice thing to have in Antioch.
As for dim sum, I refuse to even try. Dim sum is meant for Oakland on carts with ladies asking you if you want whatever their peddling, but you can barely understand them. (now THAT’s dim sum!)
I’ll give them ONE MORE TRY for food. Otherwise, I’ll just drink there.
At least the service has always been great.

Meh. I’ve experienced better. ~ — - EXACTLY.
If I had to describe Qin’s, it’ll be a P.F. Changs rip off.
Yea, it is refreshing to see this type of place in Antioch. But its sooooo overly priced and the food’s not that great. It’s ok but not great.
I was there for DimSum with my sisters. You all know DimSum is small right? Well this place serve smaller size DimSum. And yes, overpriced.
After our meal, the lady gave me my receipt. It was wrong-​I would’ve paid for it if it was cheaper. But hell no– it was much more than our order.
2^nd time, she gave me my supposed right receipt. It’s still wrong. For the 3^rd try, she wanted me to go with her by the register so I can tell her exactly what Ive order. Are you effing kidding me?
Although I had that little issue… I still wanted to try the bar area. I do believe in 2^nd chances. LOL
I went for drinks with a friend a couple of nights ago. Although the kitchen’s closed, we still got our drinks. We both got the RubyDragon. It was surprisingly good. For $ 8– that’s normal for drinks anyways.
We will try the Fri/​Sat nite lounge thing soon. I’ll update this then.

I’m not a big fan of updating my reviews since I go to some of the same places over and over and over and could write a new review everytime. This time however, I felt compelled to update my original.
We did a sneak dining a few months back and as a bonus we were given 20.00 in giftcards to redeem here later.
Well, later has happened and I enjoyed our food and service and drinks so much more than our original visit.
I suppose it takes time to get everyone and everything up to speed. Last night it was totally up to speed.
I had two long islands and they were two of the best I’ve had in a long time. Very tasty and very strong without tasting like jet fuel. That can get me into trouble.
We shared the salt and pepper calamari and a dragonfly roll. They were tasty and fresh and based on those two items I’d certainly go back.
We sat in the bar on this visit — maybe that has something to do with it?
The place was not crowded but had a healthy amount of people.
The bathroom here continues to be my favorite bathroom — EVER!
If you are anywhere near here and have no desire of dining, at least swing by to use their facilities — I’m telling you, If I were reviewing their bathrooms alone I’d give them five stars!

5 stars simply for service! AMANDA was fantastical!
3 stars for food!
negative stars for not serving edamame! :’(
ok back to the service… seriously… i see lots of bad reviews because the service wasn’t soo hip. i recommend that all who reads this specifically ask for the manager amanda to be your server! she is funny, nice and most definitely on her game! she was sooo awesome that my girlfriends and i actually invited her to hang out with us after she got off work! HAZAH!
le food… it was very reasonably priced. i opted for rice and pot stickers; which were pretty good and only $ 7! :) sadly they didn’t have edamame which truly broke my heart. my friends ordered drinks and i had to take just a tiny sip. bravo bartender for making a stiff drink. if i was-​a-​boozin, i woulda been poundin’ them back like it was my mutha fookin’ j-​o-​b!
after 10pm the dj came in. HAHAHAHAHA… WOW only the best of antioch came out for this. if you’re a people watcher, i truly recommend a visit on friday or saturday night to see this. :D just to give an idea: ghetto B’s walking around in no shoes and dudes with cornrows. :p
overall-​a very enjoyable time! it’s a bit of a hike for me, but if my girls wanted to go back, i’d be down for sure!

Been here twice and so far inconsistent. The first visit was on Sunday at 3 pm. Place was near empty. Requested booster for my 2 year old and never got it. Ended up walking to the side and grabbing my own. Never got the drink menu either. Do I look like I don’t drink??? Geez.
Our waiter never gave us the won ton chips with dipping sauce and since it was my first visit I didn’t want to embarrass myself by asking for it. My sister had gone and told me that’s what you get as a free app. Anyway, no won tons. Our food arrived hot. We shared the singapore noodles, beef chow fun, kung pao chicken, and mongolian beef. These are all safe dishes. The food was a little above average. My drink was the Ruby Dragon and that was pretty good. Lots of vodka.
Second visit was on a Friday night. We get there at the hopping hour of 8:30 with 2 year old in tow. She’s wide awake and ready to party too. No, we don’t sit in the bar but one look from the hostess and she wants to seat us way in the back of the restaurant. Uh no, I told her I need a booth and the one I point to is right in the corner (where everyone can see us!) She frowns and reluctantly shows us to our table. I tell her my daughter is very well behaved and not to worry. (wink wink).
I got excited when I saw the server coming with our won ton chips! When I tasted it, they were stale and cold. Boo! The hostess also forgot our drink menu — again… WTF! After flagging down our server, we got our drinks. Me: pinot grigio, him: beer. after 15 minutes of just drinking and eating our stale won ton chips, we are passed by the water guy at least 20 times. I think he’s ignoring us. My daughter starts to get thirsty and I almost hand her my wine.
I should have stuck with our original fail safe food order from our original visit. No, I venture out of the box and order salmon. Who the hell gets salmon at an asian restaurant???
I do.
My husband orders the clay pot which looked like goulash to me. First off I ask our server how the salmon is prepared and what it’s served on. She’s not sure. Note to Qin management: Please make sure servers know how food is prepared and what it’s served with (ie. Rice, vegetables, etc)
Quiz them.
I wanted to know if my salmon came with rice. She didn’t know so I ordered the side of coconut rice. 20 minutes later, my salmon shows up on a bed of rice and topped with some sweet brown shit, and pieces of pineapple. YUCK. I hate pineapple on my food! So now I’m surrounded by rice which no one wants to eat… I’ve got brown sweet sauce on my rice, and I can’t even give the coconut rice away. Too sweet! I just scrape off the sweet pineapple brown sauce medley, and just eat my salmon. My husband who «just eats» doesn’t complain about his goulash.
We order another round as alcohol is now our dinner. Oh at 10 pm on Friday and Saturday nights the bar area has live DJ music. Antioch’s finest cougars are out in full hunt. Yes, we do see the kittens with their hair extensions, fake tans, and fake boobies but not as many… RAAAR! I bop to the beat and want to stay and watch the show but my husband reminds me that we have a toddler in our midst and we need to look responsible and leave like real parents.
All in all, an okay visit. Too many inconsistencies. Stick to fail safes. I will, however, come again as Qins is one of the few «nice» places that Antioch has. I am dying to sit in the bar during their happy hour. BTW: nice bathrooms. I have lived in A-​town for 10 years and remember when all we had was Applebees. We were begging for places like this 10 years ago.

The family and I came here this weekend after hearing this place serves dim sum. so yeah we went here instead of going to oakland chinatown like we usually do. man, do i wish we went to oakland.
first of all, yes, Qins looks nice. it should, its brand spankin new. the place was somewhat busy, since it was lunch time, but not that busy. the 5 of us were immediately seated in a comfy booth.
we started off by ordering a few dim sum items for starters, only to find out that they are out of a few things. the fried lotus cake, and beef stuffed noodle (cherng fun), which happen to be 2 of my favorites! theres my first disappointing moment. we also order a beef chow fun, a side of garlic lime fries, and a sesame chicken lunch bowl.
heres where it all goes downhill
dim sum: tiny, bland, served at room temp, possibly from costco? the lotus wrapped sticky rice (my other favorite) was TINY! like ¹⁄₃ of the normal size tiny! and undercooked. the rice on the inside was still hard, and not even sticky.
beef chow fun: too salty. and small portion.
garlic lime fries: cold, soggy, hardly any garlic, and did not taste any hint of lime.
sesame chicken lunch: soggy fried rice. and they forgot the soup that came was supposed to come with it. out of all the food we ordered, the sesame chicken was the «best». not best as in «best in the world», but best meaning, edible.
overall a disappointing overpriced lunch outting. like vic w said, a wannabe pf changs, but worse! at least at pf changs they gave me free appetizers, cooked their food all the way, and didnt run out of anything before noon.
i probably could have taken my family to panda express and have gotten a more fulfilling meal [mmm orange chicken], and at a better price at that!

UPDATE: SECOND VISIT — a week later.
I want QINS to survive and I hope their growing pains can be worked out. Waiting an hour for our entrees was enough. My husband and I will check back in a month or so. Right now, we are burned out by the inconsistent service. The food was still great.. at least what we ordered.
JUNE 22, 2009 — first visit
Qin’s is in the stages of learning what works.
First of all, the food was pretty good, however, the service is very slow,. Overall, Qin’s would get four stars because of the food, but their service just brings down the experience. If they can tighten up the problems about slow service, water refills and entrees coming out together, they could easily be one of the best restaurants in Antioch.

An extra star just for having the balls to open such a classy restaurant in Antioch! The décor is not at all what you would expect around here – it’s sophisticated and fine enough for Walnut Creek or even the city. There is a varied sushi roll selection, but the restaurant is mostly Chinese.
We’ve only had 1 meal there so far, and while it wasn’t stellar, we’ll be back. Food-​wise, I’d say our meal was about 3 stars. We had the bacon-​wrapped shrimp as appetizer. Very yum.
I followed that with the Thai steak salad. The vinaigrette was too sweet and not vinegary enough for my taste, but I can see where others might enjoy it. There were some bits of artichoke hearts and tiny strips of lightly fried potatoes that gave the dish a more interesting twist. The steak however was disappointing. Compared to the salad which was tossed in the vinaigrette, the steak seemed dry and out of place. It wasn’t bad steak (had a bit of curry rub) and probably would have been more enjoyable on its own rather than combined with the salad.
I ordered the Peking duck cuz I luvs my Peking duck! They even had the buns, shredded scallions, and plum sauce to go with it. I enjoyed this dish very much, but don’t expect it to be on the caliber of that served in SF. It’s more a single serving of the traditional Peking duck dish. Still very filling. Though I could have used an extra bun or two – nobody ever gives you enough buns!
My boyfriend had the beef ribs which came on a hot sizzling platter. It was very tender and flavorful, though I couldn’t help but be reminded of the beef that comes in chow mein (like the kind you can get at Wong’s near Raley’s).
While we’re on the subject of chow mein, their garlic noodles also reminded me of just that. My boyfriend said they were the first garlic noodles he’s had that did not overwhelm. He said it like it was a good thing. To me, it wasn’t garlicky at all and lacked flavor. I ended up drenching it with soy sauce. No wonder it was just $ 3. This is one area I really hope Qin’s improves on since it’s such a simple thing.
The service we received was good. I could tell the waiters were really trying.
Overall, while the food here may not be the best and the price a bit high given that fact, it’s the ambiance that’s the main attraction here (so far anyway). We hope this place does well and we will definitely be returning.

Was I in Antioch or San Francisco while in this restaurant? Beautifully decorated, comfortable, with the bar being at the center of it all. Oh yes must go back for a drinky poo here. The music was trendy… something like what the Geisha Lounge would have on in L.A.
We came for lunch. Had the Pacific Roll to start which was a presentation of art in itself. Even the wasabi was formed like a leaf. It was very good, and actually almost a meal in itself.
I ordered the Kung Pao Shrimp which was not as spicey as I like, but had a nice flavor none the less. My lunch partner opted for the Beef and Broccoli without the overly thick sauce. Both dishes were served over rice in a huge bowl, and were good. I swear another 2 people could have eaten.
It’s nice to have a trendy restaurant like this in the area. I certainly want to come back in the evening some time.