Oriental Bistro

We gave this restaurant a try because of the variety and all the positive reviews and glad we did. Very well decorated and comfortable setting, bordering classy, but still casual. Ordered gyoza and crab rangoon which came with a trio of sauces. Both were fresh, crispy and delicious. My spouse loved her Thai basil with shrimp and my beef bulgogi didn’t disappoint. Portions were plentiful. Service was very friendly and professional. We will definitely be back.

My husband and I were first time diners. We enjoyed the meal and atmosphere and were pleased at the variety of their menu. The yellow curry and pineapple fried rice was very good. My husband had a Chinese dish that he enjoyed also. The restaurant was about a third full early in the evening, our waiter was excellent. I will reserve the 5^th star for a later date if this experience becomes consistent.

I’ve driven by this place so many times and wondered what it’s like. After reading lots of positive Unilocal reviews, I decided it was time to see for myself.
The exterior of the restaurant struck me as very Americanized; it worried me a little bit, but the inside is totally different. The interior is VERY clean and sophisticated. It’s very classy and cozy. There are nice little touches of Asain décor throughout the restaurant; there was some Chinese pop playing in the background which was pretty cool!
The menu has a lot of variety – anything from Chinese to Thai to Japanese to Korean and beyond. They have lots of food to choose from! (I will note that I didn’t see tofu options on their menu – they can and will put tofu in any applicable dishes [noodles, stir fry, etc.]) I ordered the yakisoba with tofu and man… it’s some good stuff. I’ve found that other restaurant’s tofu is very bland and not cooked very well. Oriental Bistro’s tofu was cooked and seasoned wonderfully – so much so that my mom, who has been very skeptical of tofu since the 80’s, actually tried a piece and liked it. The portions are very generous so ask for a box!
Our waiter was incredibly nice and attentive. My sister’s fiancée was pretty sure that he was the owner – I didn’t catch his name, but he definitely wanted our experience to be the very best it could be. It definitely was! The other waiters in the area seemed very nice, too. It was a very well-​organized establishment overall.
I’d like to see more of Oriental Bistro before bumping this place up to 5 stars – definitely try this place out for yourself sometime soon!

I had not been back to this restaurant for over three years, since I was disappointed by my experience here three years ago. Based on a recommendation from a friend, I decided to give it another try. What a change! This restaurant has dramatically improved. They now have good wine choices and a separate authentic Chinese menu. They now also are able to accommodate special dietary preferences, such as sauces without chicken stock or MSG.
This time we tried the Yakitori with scallops, the Thai basil shrimp, and the coral reef roll. All were good. We will be back for sure to try some of the other options, including those on the separate authentic Chinese menu.

Generally tasty Chinese. Good lunch specials, «authentic» menu. Nice and attentive service.

Tied with Panda and Plum for the best Chinese restaurant in town. Check out their authentic Chinese menu. 揚州炒飯 (Yangzhou fried rice) is divine.

I LOVE LOVE LOVE this place!!! Not only is their food really good, but they are so friendly! I ordered delivery tonight. I was letting my husband sleep and watching our baby on my own cuz it’s been a long week for him. When the guy (I wish I got his name) delivered our food, I opened the door while holding my baby. When I was trying to sign my receipt while holding my baby at the same time, my crazy little dog ran out. I wasn’t expecting it, but the guy actually ran down and brought my dog back for me! I am so thankful for his help. I wish I gave him a bigger tip! Every time I eat in their restaurant or order delivery, everybody that works there is always so kind. Everything we’ve tried there has been amazing too! My husband and I particularly love their fried rice and shrimp, chicken pad thaii, their sushi, gyozas, and plum wine! They have a huge variety of food on their menu for reasonable prices (especially for the big portions they serve). I love everything about this restaurant

his is my favorite place for a special occasion meal!

Me and my girl friend come here on special occasion. I took her here when she first moved into town. Both me and her love Asian food and this place is vary special to us. The wait staff are vary friendly and the place has a calm atmosphere and decorations.
They have a Vary Large menu’s. There is the Lunch menu witch has Bento Box’s with lunch portions. A Dinner Menu with appatisors then dishs and lastly sushi in the back of that. They have a Sushi menu that you can write on for your table and a Othentic Chines menu.
Recommendations:
App) I really like there Summer Rolls there fried like egg rolls but are a bit more crunchy and light and come with two sauces a Dark ritch sauce and a light creamy sauce.
Dinn) They have Pad Tai that is grate here. Also there Drunken noodle and Black Pepper Beef *Chinese menu* are also vary tasty.
Sushi) I love there Samurai Roll and there Crunchy Roll. They also have some Smoked salmon sashimi witch is a grate addition to a sushi plate.
Soup) I really recomend there soups here there Misu soup is grate as well as there hot and sour soup aslo they have Wonton but its not my thing.
This place is Clean fun and i can say it makes me happy when im having a nice dinner here!

The thia basil chicken pot, phở, and Taiwanese beef bok choy soup are all must-​haves! This is my new favorite place for a special occasion meal! I was also pleasingly surprised by how good the dirty martini was! All I can say is yum! Try the Chinese menu. I’ve only touched the surface of what this place has to offer.

This is by far my favorite place to get Asian food in Lawrence. The food is always fresh and delicious, and the service is usually great, as well. I also love the décor of the restaurant. Our go-​to orders usually include crab rangoon, triple delight, and beef phở. We also usually have some type of sushi roll as an appetizer, and I’ve never been disappointed. If you haven’t tried this place, you need to.

Been there a couple of times, and found the quality became worse. The server was kind of dishonest about their serving leftover rice. I was quite shocked and disgusted to see sauce on the rice and the spoon in the rice bowl.

This restaurant is one of the best asian restaurants I have been to. They offered a huge selection of different ethnic foods (including authentic foods) on their menu, which is what I can’t find in other places. The price is very reasonable, there is foods you could get for under $ 10. I recommend to try out the may different variety of Bento box they have, it is a big plate consist of different foods depend on the option you choose. It give you a chance to taste different foods by spending one price. Also, their sushi is very delicious, it’s not over price and it’s made from good amount of delicious ingredients.

I don’t really like Chinese food but Jeremy does. This place has really grown on me. I always order the General Tsos Chicken. It’s the sweetest sauce I’ve ever had and I like it. It’s also not too spicy, just mild chillie flavor. Jeremy always has something different each time and has enjoyed it all. We also get egg rolls and gyoza as appetizers. I have to give it 5 stars for being best in the category.

Lawrence has a variety of good and bad asian restaurants. A friend wanted to go out for a late lunch, so we decided on Oriental Bistro.
Being an iDine location was very appealing, allowing the diner to earn miles on a variety of airlines.
The staff were friendly, restaurant was clean and well decorated and the food was very good.
I returned recently and was pleased to see they had online ordering. There was a $ 1.25~ fee, but it seemed worth it. The spicy tuna roll and salmon sashimi was very good and tasted fresh. The sweet and sour chicken was good, though had a bit too much sauce on it. I think I’ll try a different dish next time, but I was very pleased with the meal as a whole.

I would give 4.5 if I could. It isn’t quite 5 only because the quality is inconsistent– always delicious, but to varying degrees. I’ve mostly eaten from the authentic Chinese menu, but have also had the excellent futomaki roll. Saki is $ 1 all the time! My favorite dishes are the a choy, sizzling tofu and spicy green beans. Service is almost always excellent, although a couple of times I have been ignored for a very long time after being seated.

Came back here after 3 years and food quality is still as good as before. Never disappoint!

This is possibly our favorite restaurant in Lawrence.
They do have a diverse main menu, with American Chinese food, and Thai and Korean and sushi, but I’ve never tried any of that. The key is to ask for the Chinese menu. Nowadays they even have a translated version of the Chinese menu in English! Ask for recommendations if you need them. There are so many delicious items. I’m a vegetarian and there are good options for me, as well as a ton of meat options for others. I adore the puckered green beans, the sizzling tofu, the eggs and chives, and a garlicky green leafy vegetable that’s just amazing. We usually chose two of those and share them.
They also have dollar carafes of warm sake, which is fantastic. Great deal.
The most amazing thing about this restaurant, for me, is that they carry gluten free soy sauce and can make all my favorite dishes safe for me to eat. I was crushed when after I got celiac disease I realized I couldn’t eat here anymore… But not much later they started carrying tamari! It’s so great to have delicious, authentic, gluten-​free Chinese food in Lawrence.
It’s also a comfortable atmosphere with friendly, helpful staff. Theres a lot of seating and we rarely ever have had to wait. They also do carry-​out.
We will continue coming back several times a month!

These dish reviews are for delivery orders. :-)
Food from Oriental Bistro is either perfect or horrifying. I’ve learned what to order from experience — the pad thai is awful, but the Thai red curry with basil is absolutely outstanding; the coconut curry is outstanding; the pineapple rice is awful. There’s no middle with the food — it’s great or it’s bad, but it’s never mediocre. I also highly recommend their gyoza. Ommm nom nom nom.
«Wellbeing eggplant.» Get some. Rich, sweet, spicy eggplant over their delicious rice. So, so good.
EDIT: the last time I ordered this in Jan 2014 it was freaking awful. Very sad. Hopefully whoever usually makes it was just on vacation. [[[[The most important thing to know about Oriental Bistro is that they make Taiwanese beef noodle soup. If you’re ever feeling down, tired, sick, or just in need of some nourishing, this is the thing to order. They make it with oxtail and it is incredibly rich and beautifully seasoned and flavored with lots of bok choy. The broth could bring a dead man back to life, it is that good. You eat a spoonful and it’s nearly cartoony how quickly it just makes you feel BETTER. Like, your vision seems suddenly clearer and sharper, your mind clarifies, your cheeks feel a little pinker, your tummy feels loved.]]]]]
The egg noodles come on the side to stay firm, and you can add as much noodle as you like to your soup. The soup is about $ 12 but will easily feed two, or just you for two meals. Because the meat is mostly oxtail, many Americans (unless they’re Hawaiian or Asian-​American) might recoil from the presence of the bone and fat. I get that. I actually pick all my oxtail pieces and meat out of the soup, let it cool, trim it, and add it back to the soup. Because I’m a weenie. It’s worth the effort.
You can’t make soup broth this good at home unless you have a LOT of free time. The times I’ve had it, it seemed like the kind of broth that has been enriched and added to and deepened and boiled off and skimmed (it is beautifully clear but it shows none of the signs of being commercial — not salty, not bland, not metallic, not waxy — it must be homemade or at least mostly homemade) all week. The person or people responsible for this broth put a lot of love into it. Nothing less could make a dish so profoundly nourishing.

This is probably the best Asian food in Lawrence. You have choices between Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Thai cuisine, as well as a great variety of sushi. $ 1 sakes every day are a huge plus in my book. I am very partial to the Yaki-​Udon myself.
–1 Star because the service is subpar every time I go. But, it hasn’t stopped me from returning!