GMG Chinese Bistro

Very good American Chinese food in a nice setting with good service. What’s wrong with it you say? Well it’s not Chinese food. There’s nothing wrong with that but if you like the authentic stuff this isn’t my favorite. Still, I have to be fair, everything else about the place is good and I do go there occasionally.

Yummy. Best Chinese food in Oro Valley.
8 Jewel Blossom is da bomb.

I was very impressed with place. Food and service were great. Big portions for dinner and I’m sure we took home more than we ate. I would have preferred it to be spicier (sesame chicken and general Tsao’s chicken) and I’ll ask them to spice it up next time. Prices very reasonable.

Good! It’s a good Chinese-​American place with most of your classic dishes, and pretty close to us.
We ordered the dinner special of house lo mein and Mongolian beef for two. About 24 $, also green beans cooked with garlic 7 – 8 $? I forget…
The dinner special came with some appetizers: «chips», sweet n sour sauce, wasabi mustard ish sauce (didn’t like), 2 fried shrimp, 2 egg rolls, egg drop soup or hot n sour soup. All of it was good! Wasn’t too salty, good real pork flavor in the egg rolls and soup.
Main dishes
These were a little salty, but good and generous portions. After my husband and I ate and got full, I could probably still make 3 – 4 meals out of the leftovers. So even though it was kind of expensive (though it’s merited), it will be worth it.
Environment
For a Chinese restaurant, it was so clean and pretty! Classy but not too classy that you’d have to dress up to go there. Bathroom was clean and smelled good so that was just very appreciated.
Good job gmg! We’ll be back!

I was craving Chinese food while out shopping. I decided to swing by somewhere in Oro Valley on my way home. I read reviews for another place and they were mixed, somewhat negative reviews. This one however had pictures of what I was thinking about ordering and it looked delicious (shout out to whoever posted those! :)). I wound up getting there at 2:45pm, just before the lunch specials were over.
I had my 9-​month old baby with me and was really hoping it wouldn’t take long as people were dining in and she’d likely get fussy waiting. Nope, didn’t have to worry. It took less than 10-​minutes and my food was ready to go. It was hot! So hot I actually burned myself eating the soup when I opened it too fast. Anyhow, the Hunan Chicken was really good and strange as it seems I like fried rice without a ton of vegetables (not sure GMG’s had any veggies at all, actually) so that was good to me! The only thing I didn’t care for and didn’t realize it came with was the eggroll. I think it might have been pork, which I don’t eat, so I took one bite and moved on.
We’ll be back as a family next time so we can dine in.

Good food, bad service. Only two tables open that fit six, they would not seat a party of three. Also, sign on door «no lunch specials on Mothers Day» tacky ??? why do that to your customers??? Go to Cheng beijing.

So my husband & I do enjoy the food @ GMG However the last time we were in we ordered a dish that did not state it included broccoli. Due to his food allergy, we specifically stated is could not include broccoli due to my husband’s allergy. The dish was one of their most expensive entrée @ $ 11.98.
Upon arriving home, my husband opened his dish… broccoli. I phoned making them aware of the mistake & potential health risk. They offered to remake if we wanted to come back. I said it was inconvenient so they said they would give up the credit for amt of the dish which had to be tossed. Great.
So today we decided to try again, ordered s&s children for him, again informing them it could not include broccoli even as a garnish. Then I ordered hunan chicken for me which does include broccoli. I informed them this entrée was for me & can include broccoli.
So when I went to pick up the order, rather than giving credit for the $ 11.98 entrée we paid for & tossed, they said the s&s chicken would be comped… didn’t think this was what was right based on their past mistake.
Wait…upon arriving home… good thing: no broccoli in my hubby’s s&s chicken… but they omitted the broccoli from my dish.
I understand a mistake but I felt odd opening up each dish b4 I left but you may want to do just that!

The flavor was good, except I got flour tortillas instead of Chinese pancakes with my Moo Shu Pork. Weird!

Contemporary classy décor. A nice variety of meal options. The flavor of our dishes was good. However, the cashew chicken was so salty I couldn’t finish it. The service was friendly. Overall a pleasant experience… just too much salt.

This place is decent food which if it had great service would be a 3 – 4 star. Very American Chinese based. Which is fine that is their customers in oro valley. What I can’t stand about this place is the management. I have come the last 3 times with 4 adults plus a 3 year old and a baby. I always ask for a bigger table which they reserve for 5 or more adult people. I was ok the first because I was lied to and told they had reservations which fine. But then I tried to place a reservation and they said they don’t take reservations. All times they sat us it’s been at a table for 4 which is cramped with 2 high chairs. Last 3 times we have been placed the same.
And as I write this no one is sitting in either of their 6 people tables the entire time I’ve been there. But they would rather their customers be uncomfortable then lose out on money.
Ooooo and it gets better both of the tables that have the ability to seat 6 have families of 3 sitting at them. Screw this place.

Good enough. Service is typical Chinese restaurant. Server didn’t remember my soda or who ordered what meal. And the staff sat at a table in the back and texted.
But great food. Let us order lunch when we came in at 3. The food was good and it was hot, like you could tell was just made.
It’s a cute little place. It has a bar and a tv which surprised me.
All in all, pretty good. Definitely worth a visit if it’s close to you.

I’m not one to suggest Chinese food when I go out to eat, but this place pleasantly surprised me. First, you walk in, and the environment is very clean and very modern. They have friendly staff who are very attentive. Definitely go for lunch, their lunch specials are at a great price and you get a lot of food. Loved the wonton soup.

The prices for the food is pretty on point for the area. And you get pretty great sized portions. Even more so at lunch, their food is really cheap and you get A LOT of food. I encourage you to come for lunch to try a couple dishes if you’re feeling a little unsure of the place ($ 7 for fried rice, soup, veggie egg roll, soup, and the entrée is really good value). I’ve been here a total of four times for takeout, ordering various things but I’ve only liked a couple of the items I’ve ordered.
Appetizers:
Crab Puffs: These things are ginormous. As far as amount of food, these suckers are packed. Are they more cream cheese than anything else? Yes. Are they still pretty delicious? Yes. Can you eat more than 1 or 2 without getting sick? Probably not. This is definitely a share with 3 maybe even 4 people (it comes with 10 humongous puffs). It’s really rich, and quite honestly the down side is I can’t eat more than 2 in a sitting without hating myself.
Meat Dumplings: These things are also really big. These are more dense and a little doughier than the average dumpling but the flavor and the dipping sauce are pretty good.
Entrees:
Orange Chicken: I only sampled this one and it wasn’t my cup of tea. The chicken and really every chicken dish I’ve eaten from GMG was soggy. Soggy Orange chicken is enough said. The sauce is interesting as well, I’m on the fence about it. It’s not particularly great but it doesn’t have that fake orange-​y taste either. So… maybe get this item for lunch and see what you think.
Honey Walnut Shrimp: This was the most expensive item that I tried on their menu. About $ 12, the amount of shrimp and walnut was pretty decent. And the first few bites were actually good too, but after a few bites that’s all I could really handle. They lay on the sauce really thick, and as it cools it’s extremely viscous to the point where you’re biting into this gooey clumpy sauce more than you are anything else. Not great for leftovers either :/​
Beef and Broccoli: Beef i kind of had the same structural and textural problems as the chicken. The dish was kind of bland, I ended up dipping the broccoli in the sauce and the rice, I probably left about half my beef. And my favorite meat ever by far is beef… just saying. :/​
Lunch Special Shrimp Lo Mein: This was probably my favorite entrée by far. The shrimp is probably the only protein here when tossed in a sauce that structurally held up. The chicken and the beef they use isn’t a particularly great cut so you get this soggy, semi rubbery texture. This special comes with fried rice (simple but tasty stuff), egg drop or hot and sour soup (I can’t really give you an informed opinion on the soups, I don’t prefer them ever), veggie roll (OK), and the Lo Mein. I ate half the Lo Mein and half the rice and the roll and saved the rest for leftovers. It was plenty of food, and it reheated well.
Lunch Special House Chow Mein: It was kind of bland, the veggies were decent with the sauce but it was picked at and about half way through given up on. Finished all the rice and the egg roll, and kind of just called it a wash.
It’s definitely not the best Chinese food I’ve had but for the area it’s probably one of the only options for Chinese. I have to agree with another Unilocaler when they said their food is more bland and it definitely fits more of an American palate. I wish I liked it more. It’s probably got a few decent items like the Lo Mein and appetizers and at Lunch prices I can be more forgiving on some of the food. That being said, hit them up for lunch and see what you think, otherwise go at your own wallet’s risk.

Good food, nice people. There’s a reason why it’s busy. The only criticism I have of the place is the placement of a TV in the restaurant. Why do we need to see a freakin’ TV every place we go. It’s an eyesore and detracts from an otherwise pleasant and comfortable experience.
KILL THE TV !!! :)

This is one of my favorite places for a sit-​down Chinese meal. Good service and fresh, delicious food, nicely presented. Variety of vegetarian options. Polite, smiling staff. My friend who grew up in Hong Kong loves it, too, so that’s saying something. Since it’s a popular place you do need reservations or have an early lunch or dinner.

Hailing from the San Francisco Bay Area, I’m used to having rather cheap, authentic Chinese food. After a bad experience in Flagstaff, my expectations for Chinese cuisine in Arizona dropped. That is, until we paid a visit to GMG.
The first thing that surprised me were the extremely low prices. ($ 5 for lunch specials? Less than $ 10 for dinner? Wow.) We ordered the wonton noodle soup and pineapple chicken. The wonton noodle soup was great, not overly salty like the previous restaurant we had ate at, and was a rather large portion. A+. Pineapple chicken was cooked well. I didn’t expect it to be fried, but oh well. I do have to admit it would have been nice to include details about each item on the menu. Overall, we got much more than we paid for.
Service was good, too. We waited for less than 5 minutes for a table, and our waitress was kind and attentive. Bathrooms were clean and nice. Definitely coming here again.
Edit: When we asked for a take-​out box for the rice and pineapple chicken, the waitress boxed it for us. It was nice of her to do. Plus, we got almond cookies as a New Years treat. Awesome.

If i were just rating the food quality or wait staff, it’d be 5-​stars for sure. However, there is so much more to a good dining experience.
We actually tried to eat there two weeks earlier, but (and this is one of the problems) if you are a party of more than 4 people, good luck getting a seat in any reasonable amount of time. We showed up with 6 and were fine to wait. They even pointed to the table we’d have as soon as they cleared. We watched the party leave and then the staff came to clear the tables. I ran to the restroom and by the time I came back, they had split the tables and seated two smaller parties. My wife said she heard them whispering that they wanted to clear out the waiting area and to sit the two parties (who came in much later than us) early. We left.
I was surprised then when my wife booked us in for an early Christmas eve dinner. We booked a party of 14 two weeks in advance. When we called earlier on the arrival date, they were confused about the arrangements but reassured us that we’d have the tables ready when we arrived.
They weren’t. And when the tables became available, I watched them start splitting them up and noticed a 2-​person party getting seated at one of the tables. Unfortunately I had to go back into the dining area and explain to them that you can’t sit 14 people at 2 tables which are designed to hold 4 each. They said that another party was about to leave and then they’d pull over that table. I asked them why they gave away our table when we had a reservation, it was 20+ minutes past the time and we had enough tables to be seated?
They had to go to the poor couple and take away their table to put ours back together. (They were left sitting there with no table for almost 10 minutes.)
Once we got settled the food and service was great. What an unfortunate set of events. It’s a shame when an obviously popular restaurant inflicts their own wounds that take away from an otherwise great experience.
We’d probably do take out in the future so we can enjoy the food without the hassle.

Last nights experience ended my relationship with GMG. Since they opened we have regularly made take out orders but never had such a bad experience. I placed my phone order at 4:30 for a 5:15 pick up. Get the food home and we all sit down to eat at 5:25and it is ICE COLD. Everything was cold, from the soup to the rice to the 3 main meals. I called immediately, they told me they would refund my 60.00+ order.
Next thing my phone rings and a rather rude «Ralph» states the food was not cooked in advance and that it could not be cold. if I wanted my money back I would need to bring the food back. Needless to say with a house full of people that did not happen.
Being from NY we would order from the local Chinese restaurant 5 blocks away, in the middle of a snow storm. get my delivery on bicycle and NEVER had cold food.
What a disgrace…

I wasn’t a huge fan of GMG. The food was fresh and the restaurant was clean when I went to pick up takeout, but overall there were leftovers in the fridge for almost a week.
This is purely a type of Chinese food preference, however. I grew up on the East Coast and the style of East Coast Chinese food is vastly different than what they offer in California and Arizona.
The takeout process was very quick and the lady taking my order (in person) was helpful, kind and friendly. Price point was on the medium high side for Chinese food, but I will say that the produce and meats were fresh that were used.
While I was waiting for my takeout order, I noticed that the restaurant itself was clean and they seemed to have a good system going for teamwork in terms of service and efficiency.
I ordered a couple of the dinners that come with soup and a choice of eggroll or crab puff, as well as the eggplant dish I’ve been wanting to try. General consensus from both my husband and myself was that the general tsao’s chicken was good, though the sauce a little sweeter than I typically find. The lo mein noodles were the huge noodles which I do not prefer — recently a friend told me that they switch the noodles from the skinny ones on the east coast to the thicker ones out here. The flavor was okay — could have used a little more garlic. The fried rice was meh — I make better at home. The eggplant dish was okay — it was just a little more one note in terms of flavor than I was hoping for.
I will say that this is probably one of the better Chinese food places I’ve found in AZ in terms of cleanliness and customer service. I just won’t be back as it is not my preferred style of Chinese food.

I think GMG is one of the Perks for living here in the summer. Great food to bring home. If you don’t want to cook, call, order, and pick up. That easy and that fresh.