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    Yau's Chinese Bistro

    3.6 (184 reviews)
    InexpensiveChinese

    Yau's Chinese Bistro Photos

    YAU'S CHINESE BISTRO ATMOSPHERE

    What's the vibe?
    Casual
    Moderate noise
    Good for groups
    Good for kids

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    4 Piece Pork Dumplings
    Jenny Z.

    There was not much I disliked about my takeout tonight. I ordered several menu items from ubereats and got a nice 50% off discount tonight. I won't let that bias my review though! I ordered eggplant with squid, fried rice, lo mein, steamed dumplings, wontons... it was the perfect festive meal to celebrate lunar new year after a few drinks at our neighborhood cocktail bar. The dishes were a little over salted for my taste but that is not so unusual. Overall value was great and everything was tasty and flavorful. My favorite was probably the steamed pork dumplings. I am always partial to steamed dumplings on a menu (vs fried) because it just makes me nostalgic and feels so much more authentically chinese/asian. I also loved the eggplant which was cooked really nicely. I've never ordered eggplant with squid (almost always with chicken) but really enjoyed this combo. Happy lunar new year!

    Pork Fried Rice
    Terrianna A.

    portion size for the sweet and sour chicken is kinda wack but it was good. not really a fan of the green pepper though. the pork fried rice had nice flavor, i would recommend

    General Tso's Chicken
    Dey T.

    This was a place I would frequent often in college so it was nice when I was in the area and needed a meal. The chicken was crispy and still warm when I picked it up and walked it to my lunch location. The sauce was a bit sweeter than I remember and would prefer more savory and spicy out of my general tso's. Actually, I want a lot more spice but I tend to not get that no matter what I ask for The fried rice was the big let down here. It was dry, bland and didn't have anything added to it. No veggies, no egg and even though it was brown it did not taste of soy sauce. I will go back to give them a second chance based on their meat preparation but this particular meal did not do much but stir my nostalgia and leave me wanting some really good Chinese food.

    Salted Fish Chicken Fried Rice
    Sania H.

    The food itself was not great... definitely won't be back again. I had the salty fish chicken fried rice, extra spicy. The salty fish is indeed very salty and unfortunately very fishy tasting- the bites with fish we're definitely overpowered. The food, in my opinion, deserved 1 star, however this entire portion, "small", filled an entire to go box, and was only $8.50. The price and size made this order a little better, however my dissatisfaction with the food itself overpowers any positives.

    Salted fish fried rice without the chicken
    Tika R.

    Love this place and I get it at least once a week. Best Chinese on campus. I've done a lot of trial and error with most things on the menu and I can say the best dishes to recommend are: Roasted Duck schezuan lamb - fried potato wedges with braised lamb chunks in a spicy sauce! Beef fried rice - Fried rice is a darker color which gives more flavor salted fish fried rice - if you know you know Fried pork dumplings - the best part of this small plate is the spicy soy sauce that comes with the dumplings

    Egg noodle soup Wonton Soup with duck on the side
    Diana N.

    Get the spicy wings, get the egg noodle soup with duck and wontons, get the dumpling sauce! It is so good. This place is tucked away on south campus and it is a treasure.

    Fried rice, spicy pork chop
    Mark K.

    I don't know why it took so long to come here. A bit out of my way, I guess, but it is worth a detour. On the far south edge of campus sits this little "bistro." It is not fancy. It isn't very big. But the food is really, really good. I got crab Rangoon and the spicy pork chop. The Rangoon was pretty good, with big chunks of "crab." There's a jar of hot sauce/oil on the table, which made me nervous, but it's really not all that hot. Granted, I love spice, so my taste buds may be different than yours. The spicy pork chop was deep fried bits of pork chop, perfectly cooked, and sized just right for chopsticks. Again, not as spicy as I was afraid it might be, but I did have a pleasant tingle on my lips and tongue when I was done. I would call it moderately spicy, not overwhelming. There are pepper seeds mixed in, and chunks of pepper that I thought would be hot but were very mild. All in all, the heat was just right, adding flavor but not much pain. I had the fried rice with it, and it was very plain. A good counterpoint to the meat, but no veggies, etc. Drinks are in cans, but there is real silverware and nice chopsticks. Service was basic but good. Prices were okay for how much you get, and how good it is. I will absolutely be back (and not just because I stupidly left my jacket there...)

    Stir-fried tomato and eggs with fish
    Arvid Y.

    Yau's is a good Chinese restaurant with a focus on Cantonese dishes. The portion size to price ratio is excellent and you will be hard-pressed to find a better value. It makes sense that Yau's is located on campus and i'm sure it's a popular take-out spot. Based on other Yelp reviews I ordered the Szechuan wontons to start and the Tomato Egg Stir Fried Fish Fillet for my main course. The wontons were okay, but the accompanying sauce was a little too sweet for me. $4.95 gets you 8 wontons, which is a great deal. Tomato Egg Stir Fry Fish sounds like a weird dish, but it's a popular Cantonese comfort food. Yau's does a good job with this dish. Once again the portions are large. Even the small order is plenty for a one person, with plenty of fish fillets and tomatoes. It goes really well over rice. My only qualm was the absent scrambled egg in this version of the dish. The eggs are definitely a key component and something that i'm used to finding in this dish. Maybe they ran out of eggs? I guess anything is possible. I also had an issue with their "fried rice" that comes with entrees. It's basically white rice with soy sauce and a total misnomer. Anyways, Yau's is a good Chinese food option, especially if you live near campus. The value is hard to beat and you'll be able to find some Cantonese favorites. I was not blown away by their dishes, but I am pretty picky when it comes to Chinese food. I'll be back to try some of their stir-fry noodles dishes.

    Spicy wonton
    Steven H.

    This was my first time trying this place after reading the reviews. I must say i wasnt disappointed the food was so good we had the the spicy pork chops, roast duck soup, spicy shrimp, fried rice all of them was so flavorful. The food came out so fast and hot the food taste more authentic than the other Chinese places i have had in the past the owner was so friendly and helpful she explained the different types of food she also made suggestions on what to get since this was our first time. The place is not that big but thats fine with me as long as i can sit down and enjoy some authentic chinese food. So dont let the look of the place fool you, because if you do you will be missing out.

    House Pan Fried Noodles and Clay pot fish and tofu
    Tiffany T.

    I love this place! I come here when I miss my parents food, the noodle soup especially. I like that it is also so close to campus. They have a really great duck noodle soup, fish and tofu in clay pot, and pan fried noodle! I like to take friends here. It's a bit of a hole in the wall, not super fancy looking and very understated but good quality food. Service is fast and polite. It's nice if you want something a bit more authentic, and your friends want American Chinese food since they have both. They also have good wontons as an appetizer with hot chili oil!

    Tofu Entree With Bean Sprouts
    Steve A.

    I avoided Yau's because of the location. It's located in that area north of the Short North yet not on campus. The best time to come is probably afternoon or early evening beause of safety reasons. It's still a pretty sketchy area, but safety has improved since there are new upscale businesses and residences that need protected. To those able to make it, there's some pretty authentic Chinese among the Americanized stuff. Yau's has several tofu items on the menu. Additionally, the staff is good about dietary concerns. The tofu items include tofu with asparagus, baked or fried tofu with bamboo shoots, tofu with Chinese broccoli, tofu with Chinese mushrooms, tofu Satay, sesame tofu, sliced tofu with bean sprouts, sweet and sour tofu, or tofu with tomato. It also has pad thai with tofu. The lunch portions are pretty good sized and about $7 to $10. It should be enough to fill you. There also is an authentic menu with much better quality. Staff will help you figure out choices. They also have daily authentic specials. I could come here a lot more often than I have if it were closer and there were fewer Chinese options here. It's good but not worth coming unless there's another thing I need to do around there. You will like this if you're a fan of authentic Chinese menus and you order off this.

    Annie P.

    Yau's uses Postmates for delivery, which is essentially a rip-off service that hasn't been put out of business quite yet. We placed an order, it never arrived, and Yau's told us to work it out with Postmates. Well, half an hour later, we couldn't even get a refund on the food that never arrived. Sorry, Yau's, but you need to do better; if you use a terrible delivery service, that's reflection on your business. When you choose to use a business that has an average star rating of ONE star--in 869 reviews--you've made a terrible partnership that reflects on you.

    Egg drop soup

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    19 years ago

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    5 years ago

    Always quick, always very kind service. There's a reason I've been going here for the past 13 years. Thank you yaus staff!!

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    9 years ago

    Yau's Eggplant Pork is my favorite chinese dish ever! The noodle soups are also amazing! The food is always cooked within 10 minutes.

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    Page 3 of 5

    Yau's Chinese Bistro Reviews in Other Languages

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    Chuan Jiang Hao Zi

    Chuan Jiang Hao Zi

    4.4
    (153 reviews)
    2.1 mi

    Spectacular food. Chicken with green peppercorn is one of my favorite dishes in Columbus.read more

    I arrived at noon and the parking lot was already pretty full for this very unassuming Chinese…read morerestaurant from the outside. There is plenty of free parking which is nice. When I walked in the atmosphere was great, I could smell good food and heard conversations. There's a large area with large round tables to right and to the left are booths and almost all of them were full. The menu was a mix of Americanized Chinese, traditional Chinese and included Dim Sum as well. There were a number of dishes we didn't know much about and there were dishes being enjoyed by other customers that looked delicious. The wait staff was more than happy to explain the dishes and/or show us on the menu what someone was eating. They took very good care of us and shared the tasks of bringing our food, filling water, and just checking in. Now the food. The food came out very quickly! We all received a well filled bowl of rice. First out was the string beans, perfectly cooked, not droopy, and the flavors of garlic and hot peppers. Even though the peppers were there the heat was not overpowering at all. Next was the shredded pork with garlic sauce. The textures of the pork and bamboo shoots were a nice contrast and the sauce was perfectly balanced and craveable. The special grilled lamb, I was told, was some of the best in the city. It was tender and well spiced. Even when he said he was full he just couldn't stop eating it. For the dim sum order we got the shrimp dumplings, soup dumplings, scallion pancake, and sesame balls and they brought a soy sauce and a chili oil with them. The shrimp dumplings were tender but the dough was pretty sticky. I think this is normal and they were tasty with some of the oil on them. The scallion pancakes were very thin and gummy, this is the only thing we ordered that I would not get again. The soup dumplings were very small but packed a lot of flavor. The dough did stick together a bit so unfortunately some of the soup did leak out. The sesame balls were the hit and we're just the right amount of sweetness that we considered them desert. They were large, at least 2" in size, with a wonderful sesame seed covered exterior and a soft, sweet center. Chuan Jiang Hao Zi is a wonderful somewhat hidden gem. If you want traditional Chinese cuisine including all the different offal they have it and I would totally try it here over anyone else if I was brave enough. Portions were a good size for the price. I highly recommend checking them out!

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    Chuan Jiang Hao Zi
    Egg Drop Soup.  Was Good, Not Great.
    Egg Drop Soup. Was Good, Not Great.
    Lunch Kung Pao Chicken In Front, Honey Chicken In Back.

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    Lunch Kung Pao Chicken In Front, Honey Chicken In Back.
    Blasian Grill

    Blasian Grill

    4.3
    (32 reviews)
    4.0 mi

    I keep hearing good things about this, and I've been meaning to come for a while, but it's out of…read moremy way. Plus, I figured hibachi can take awhile, and I usually don't have a long time for lunch. Today I had a little more time, and I made a point to head over. It is a bit out of the commercial sprawl at the corner. Look for the food truck, that's the first thing I saw, and it helped me find where to turn in. I wasn't sure if there would be dine in, but there is, plenty of seating inside and out. Inside there are seats at the counter, plus booths, plus I think a couple tables. Menu is pretty basic: hibachi and a few sides. I got steak and chicken, with fried rice, and you pick two vegetables so I picked cabbage and bean sprouts. You get a Yum Yum sauce, and you can add others, but I didn't need them. And the sauce container they gave me was plenty big. The steak was tender and perfectly cooked, the chicken was tender and flavorful, cooked in a nice sauce. The fried rice was great. The vegetables were perfectly cooked. And it all came out in about five minutes. They had a steady stream of carry out customers, but they still got mine on the grill, apparently as soon as I ordered it. Fast and good, and competitively priced for hibachi. A big portion, but not a huge, two days' worth of leftovers portion. But I was stuffed and couldn't finish it all. When I saw the drink cooler with just water and a few juices, I figured I'd have to go with those, but they do have fountain drinks. And they actually have a pretty good variety, cola, diet cola, cream soda, blueberry, cherry I think, and a few others. Anyway, several pleasant surprises, the food lived up to its reputation, I was in and out fast, and for not a whole lot of money in this day and age. I will be back.

    Worst 12 dollars I spent on food ,Nobody notified me when my food was done and had my food was…read moresitting for 10mins smh

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    Inside
    Inside
    Double Egg Yolk Anyone!?
    Double Egg Yolk Anyone!?
    Egg yolk

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    Egg yolk

    Yau's Chinese Bistro - chinese - Updated July 2026

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