Nanjing Bistro

Authentic Chinese! Enjoyed the spicy curd and the stir fried green beans were the best I’ve ever had.

Ate there twice. 2.5 stars because their appetizers aren’t worth the money.
Both times H&S soup was not very good. 1^st time poor, 2^nd time only fair.
Dumplings are horrible. Very poorly made.
Kung Pao Chicken was good
Chicken w/​Hot Garlic Sauce was excellent two times.
Bottom line — if your appetizers are not good then you will be like 100 Degree Celsius — I will go there for only select dishes and go somewhere else for appetizers and I will not take my family there.

They started to collect dishes even before we checked out, so the waitress can see how much tips we gave to them. They ENFORCE us to give certain amounts of tips and asked us to come back to pay more tips. Very unhappy with their service and attitude. Will NEVER come back again.

great place to try out more authentic szechuan dishes. So happy to have this place nearby! I’m not an authority on the quality, real chinese food is so scarcely found in this country (for some strange reason), it’s only for places like this that people can start to get to know it. I’m excited to keep sampling different dishes. What I usually get at authentic szechuan places:
spicy garlic cucumber, spicy beef noodle soup, hot pot, dan dan noodles, porn bun, thousand layer pancake. But I’d like to learn about other things to try. Especially more vegetables and less greasy items.
Anyway I was pleased with what we ordered, for the most part. Just glad to have it in the area.

Came here last night with some friend — had this place booked mark for a while now… as soon as we walked in, we noticed everyone that was eating there was Chinese… which means this HAS to be good! As we were escorted to our table, i quickly scanned the room to see what everyone else had ordered… and later found out the menu had pictures of the entrées! Double score! Whooo-​hoo! Wez on a roll! Ordered wonton soup, spare ribs, flower fish, spicy garlic pork, some black bean noodles, salt/​pepper shrimp, and something that was like beef chow fun… food was delish! Flavorful and not too oily. my favorite was the spicy garlic pork and the ribs… if your ever in the neighborhood, def stop by

Overall it’s a decent place offering pretty authentic nanjin style chinese food.
We got the meat buns, sour cabbage fish, salty duck, and garlic pork belly.
I enjoyed the sour cabbage fish and garlic pork belly a lot. The other two, not so much.
The meat buns were $ 2 per piece, I got to the meat after 3 bites… I bite big! As for the salty duck… Hummm other than being salty… not much good flavors

I came here with couple of friends to try this place out. It is located in a shopping center near Fairfax Station, so plenty of parking. We came on a tuesday night so wasn’t that crowded. The service was okay.
My husband ordered the beef noodle soup and I ordered the beijing noodle beed (dried). My other two friends ordered the pork sweet and spicy sauce… Overall the food isn’t that great, it is all spicy and the noodle i got was mostly in sauce and nothing else, didn’t taste the meat. If you can’t handle spicy, don’t come here, since almost everything is spicy here.
The price is okay, typical chinese place, not cheap either. I tried but won’t come back though.

I had two meals here preciously and they were great, ingredient was fresh, taste was right on, and you can feel a lot of care is put into making the food and running the restaurant. I had been recommending this place as the restaurant run by the younger generation and serving food and dining experience closer to what you have in China these days.
Today we made our third visit, and everything is different. The meat and crispy rice dish barely had any meat, and not much flavor either. None of the other dishes we had were close to what they were before.
I’m not sure if owner changed or chef changed, but it is just not the same place anymore, won’t come here anymore.

This is our first time in Nanjing Bistro and we had a great dinner tonight. For appetizer we ordered salty duck, sweet lotus root, and preserved cucumber and all of them taste great! For entrée we ordered cumin beef, flower fish and braised pork rib all taste spectecular. I thought the food was very authentic, definitely not your typical Americanized Chinese food. Our servers, although not the most attentive, are pleasant and helpful. Overall we are very impressed with our food tonight and definitely will come back again to check out other dishes.

I used to be a patron of this place because of their delicious food, superior customer service, and cosy and neat environment. However, my recent visits were not so good, and I’m not sure if I would go back and give it another shot. Their food quality is declining, and service is getting slow. Last time we waited half an hour for a single dish when there was barely people in the restaurant. Waited to order, waited to have water, and waited for a check, several long waits make me feel annoyed.
I hope they would change back to what they used to be, since they really have built a good reputation around Fairfax area, and they could do better to maintain that reputation.

Great food yet poor and slow service. Instead of dividing the tables to accommodate our party of two, they had us wait standing for almost 10 minutes, but when more parties of two guests came in, they divided the tables to seat them immediately. They forgot about a simple noodle dish we ordered and offered no apology. When the dishes came, they didn’t say which dish it was; at the end, we ordered a bubble tea to go, separate from the dine-​in tab, so they had me go to the register to pay for it instead of handing me the bill at the table. From the beginning to the end, the hostess didn’t greet us, or say «thank you.» The tapioca pearls in the bubble tea were not cooked through; I asked for a cold bubble tea with less ice and it came with no ice at all. All in all, fine, delicious and authentic cuisines but the lousy service makes me want to get takeout only in the future.

The good
–quality ingredients
–good balance in seasoning
–clean
–friendly service
–close to my girlfriends house =)
–authentic, not «Americanized»
The bad
–little pushy with trying to get us to add items
Glad to have some funky authentic Chinese food with not typical ingredients in an area like Fairfax

We frequent here … It used to be great. Very good service and friendly people… Very nice food (and we hardly eat Chinese food because we usually find it extremely adulterated) however nanjing seemed a lot cleaner and flavorful
Our last visit was a bit disappointing though … They were out of rice cakes (I wanted to try them)
There was a big gloopy piece of stock in our fish that wasn’t mixed properly and the colour of the fish was off too
The service was blah they gave entrees before appetizers!
Will go back again maybe one more time to see if this place is a fluke or the real deal

This place is the BEST… the bestin the USA. The staff (Rex) and the team there treated me like a family member for the three weeks I was in the area. They made me special dishes and took care of me. Everything I ate there was great. From noodles, to cucumbers, to Oil Boiled Fish (my favorite).
If you want authentic

After reading about all the rave Unilocal reviews I knew I had to give Nanjing Bistro a try. As much as I wanted to find a new favorite Chinese restaurant, this place was very average. Service is quick and friendly, and the restaurant is bright and clean.
We ordered:
— salted duck: wayyy too salty; needs some other spices to bring out some flavor
— spicy Nanjing smal wonton: not too bad, right amount of spice
— sweet and sour spare ribs: drenched in sauce! every bite was sauce-​filled; if you scrape off all the sauce there’s not much flavor left in the ribs
— flower fish: the waitress explained this was one of their specialty dishes, however, like the sweet and sour spare ribs its covered in sauce! I did enjoy the crispy, tender fish meat but $ 30 is rather steep for this dish
All in all, the dishes here are way too salty to the point where it’s off-​putting. My family and I frequent authentic Chinese restaurants regularly in the DMV area so I can confidently say Nanjing Bistro really did not meet our expectations. Unfortunately, I don’t think I’ll be returning anytime soon.

Move over, China Star! A new Chinese restaurant has filled the void. In the early 2000s, my family and I would frequent China Star quite often for authentic and fairly inexpensive Chinese food. However, once they changed chefs, the quality of food went down and we were left with essentially no authentic restaurants in the immediate Fairfax area to quench our cravings (there are some in Chantilly, but that’s a decent drive away).
Recently, we found Nanjing Bistro. Chinese food flows through my veins given my heritage. My parents, especially, know what’s good Chinese food. We were all impressed by Nanjing Bistro. We ordered four entrees and they even threw in a free box of fried rice.
+Sichuan boiled fish
+Tiger eye meatball
+Pork and bamboo in a spicy garlic sauce
+Dried bean curd shreds and shrimp soup
The Sichuan boiled fish, which is one of my favorite dishes of all time, was good although I wasn’t too crazy about the cellophane noodles (粉丝) they added. This is the first restaurant I’ve been to that serves Sichuan boiled fish with cellophane noodles, and I have to say I much prefer the dish without the noodles. The tiger eye meatball was delicious. It’s very similar to Lion’s Head but they add half a hard boiled egg to each meatball. I thought the hard boiled egg was a little too hard for my liking, but I liked the meatball and the dish also has some tofu. I loved the pork and bamboo in the spicy garlic sauce! I could eat that dish for days. And the bean curd shreds and shrimp soup was tasty.
Aside from the Sichuan boiled fish, the other dishes were all very reminiscent of Nanjing/​Jiangsu province (hence the name of the restaurant) — my hometown! It’s rare to find restaurants in the DC area that cater to the Jiangsu province and with this restaurant being so close distance-​wise, I’m sure this won’t be our last visit to Nanjing Bistro.
Recommend trying the Nanjing salted duck too. We didn’t order this dish because my mom makes amazing Nanjing salted duck at home, but it’s a really, really delicious dish that I would recommend to anyone.

Good to great food and uneven service. By uneven, I mean that service went from warm and friendly to cold and negligent in one setting (same server). Additionally, the restaurant is pretty spartan, though mostly clean, save for the pee-​splattered toilet in the men’s room (I know only because of my husband). The bathroom issue can’t really be helped and isn’t really their fault; however, I hope that maintenance happens somewhat regularly so not every man has to deal with yucky toilet.
True to their name, Nanjing Bistro serves up Nanjing specialties, such as sweet and sour fish (called something else on the menu) and a «salt duck special,» that Tyler Cowen references in his review.
We ordered the Kilin egpplant, fish with doujian peppers, and dried (shitake) mushrooms with bokchoy. The best of the lot was the fish. It was wonderfully savory. The sauce had a white wine-​like flavor (Shaoxing wine, maybe?) and was peppered (forgive the pun) with fiery green and red specks. Definitely on the spicier side, handle with care. The Kilin eggplant dish was good, similar to the eggplant you can get during dimsum at Cantonese restaurants – crispy with a mashed shrimp topping, tender interior, and syrupy and slightly sweet sauce over top. Note: The Kilin eggplant topping also contains chicken. I unknowingly took a bite and am feeling lucky that my stomach didn’t revolt later that night.
So my service complaint – We were greeted and quickly helped to our table. Our server initially seemed warm and sweet. A different side of her emerged when I asked very nicely for a new chopstick. The one at my table was sticky. Would you expect your guests at your home to eat from a soapy, sticky pair of chopsticks? I don’t think so. Should be the same if not more so for restaurant patrons. She gave me a dirty look and grudgingly brought me another pair. After that, she ignored us for the rest of the evening and took her dear time in bringing the check away. AND we had to ask for our check, too. Customer service fail. Maybe this is minute to some, but I thought it was a fixable, and unforgivable slight on their part.
Nanjing may offer distinct, unusual dishes, but I’m hesitant to return because of that not so understanding server.

YUM! Nanjing Bistro, situated in a little plaza off of Lee Highway, offers both authentic and Americanized Chinese fare, including dishes like dry pot pork intestine with hot pepper, jelly fish salad, bean curd skins, sliced beef in Szechuan sauce, Nanjing salty duck, Kung Pao chicken, and Beijing style noodles with soy bean paste. The hubs and I came here for dinner, and we were shocked at how packed the place was. We didn’t know you needed a reservation for the weekend, as the tables were all reserved for large groups (!). Luckily, we were first seated at the bar area and then moved to a table once available. We started off with the Nanjing Small Wonton soup — this was SO DELICIOUS! I couldn’t believe at how tasty the clear broth was, as it had a nice kick to it — it kind of reminded me of Ahnsungtangmyun ramyun broth: D It was filled generously with pork dumplings that were juicy, and I loooved the sliced pickles that were randomly found within the soup that added a nice salty crunch to it. Definitely one of the best soups I’ve had in quite some time!!! For the entrees, we tried the Three Pepper Stir-​Fried Chicken (you can also opt for either spare ribs or fish) — I actually enjoyed this dish as well, as it had generous amount of lightly-​battered chicken with ample amounts of red and green peppers, hot chili peppers, whole peppercorns (watch out for these!), scallions, and largely-​sliced onions — I just wished that it was sauteed a bit more and there was more sauce, as eating this with the rice was yummy. Just a note, it was slightly salty, so keep that in mind! We were recommended to try the Fatty Beef in Sour Soup dish that happened to be a special — while it was filled generously with fatty brisket, the generous bowl of the broth was just way too pungent, way too vinegary, and way too sour for our tastebuds. Complimentary orange slices were served at the end. Our server, Ethan, was sooo sweet and had a great sense of humor — he made sure that everything was all good. I would love to come back and try out their other items, like the casserole pots and the salty duck, and for sure, the wonton soup!
+Nanjing Small Wonton soup: D :D :D
+Three Pepper Stir-​Fried Chicken
+ask for Ethan: D
+larger parties need reservations, especially on the weekends

A solid 5 stars.
Improved quite a lot
Dish portion is very generous and price is affordable.
I like quite a few 家常菜 here.
Will be back often.

— Mini Wonton Soup– best i’ve had in the area
— Spicy Szechuan Fish– i love it here, this was the highlight of our dinner. Comes with thick round rice vermicelli noodles
— Fishball soup– not exactly sure what it is called but it tasted/​looked like homemade fishballs in a thick soup but it was WAY too peppery. It tasted like straight up white pepper.
— Salted Duck– average but nothing to rave about.
— fried egg plant with sweet sauce (?) — the eggplant was apparently suppoed to have fish stuffed in it, I couldn’t see or taste any. The egg plant itself was good but the sauce was way too sweet and overpowering and it could be that the sauce overpowered the fish. They literally dumped a ton of sweet sauce and it covered all of the eggplants.