Tang’s Bistro

I remembered when this place used to be the old hole in the wall Chinese resto. It was cheap, the food was OK — you kinda get what you pay for.
Except now, they’ve hiked up the prices, plated everything on nicer plates, but thats what makes the food taste so much worse. I guess the extra that you’re paying for is just for the atmosphere! The rest of the food is pretty subpar and expensive.
Our waiter never seemed to know who ordered what. He even brought out a dish, and when we asked what it was, he said he didn’t know, and that «someone ordered it».
It was nice to catch up with friends, but we’ll be picking a different place next time!

Love the fact that they have a VEGAN menu (although we had to ask for it first) — it’s awesome when restaurants cater to different dietary lifestyles! I was disappointed that they were «out» of many of the things I wanted on that menu though… It seemed quite permanent, as they totally whited out some parts — they’re in need of a good menu revamp. Service was nice, efficient. Nice atmosphere inside with the modern and clean décor and table set-​up. Food-​wise, portions were more than decent, and the plating all looked very impressive, BUT… yes there’s a but… Everything was way too salty! After a while the food started tasting bitter. But I am Chinese and my demands are high and salinity tolerance low so take my review with a grain of salt — ha ha. The Mama Tofu was mediocre (black bean sauce is a staple in my household, so maybe I was just accustomed to it). My brother and father enjoyed the cumin lamb though (the bro claimed it was cooked to the perfect softness), and the veggie chow mein was full of veggies (yay) and noodles were awesome (didn’t get them fried — I love the chewiness and substance).
After skimming some other reviews I realized that they also never gave me my vegan bun with my Mama Tofu dish! How deceiving of them.
Thankyou for the vegan menu, but I will not return, even if they gave me two vegan buns sans $$.

The Chinese food here used to be classic and awesome, but they underwent a menu change and major renovations. I just recently went there and the atmosphere was a bit dull and overdone. The dim sum was daily, but is not as good as a good dim sum place. I was actually a bit disappointed, but I may have been there at too empty of a time.

Tang’s Bistro is the newly renovated Tang’s Noodle House, on the northwest corner of Broadway and Macdonald. It looks funky and hip, advertising fusion Asian fare. This is a far cry from the diner-​esque décor of before serving bowls of wonton noodle soup for $ 5.
We got here at 10:15 (and they still served us, though they closed at 10:30, which is much to their credit) and ordered a few items. I had a house special noodle soup (vegetables, some seafood and roast pork), and mushroom and chrysanthemum spring rolls. My friend had vegetable noodle soup and a goma-​ae trio.
The décor was dark, very fashionable with all the reclaimed wood and soft lighting through red lanterns to try and drive home the Asian aspect of the restaurant. All of that would have been nice if I could really easily see what I was eating! A lot of Asian restaurants have bright lighting for one good reason — they WANT you to see the food, since they want you to admire what they made. Anytime I have a lack of light, I start to wonder about whether the food would be good or not.
Unfortunately, my fears were quite well-​founded. The soup was large and had all the ingredients it advertised but the broth was basically the color of a very light soy sauce. This tends to belie not very good noodle soup, because the broth should usually be a clearer, almost consommé-​like color. The reason is because if there is too much salt from something like soy sauce, it will overpower everything in the soup and fast. This happened here, and so nothing really nice came out. The seafood was overcome, same with the noodles and the vegetables. The roast pork, being char siu flavored, somewhat shone, but the char siu also was kind of vinegary, which was a little surprising.
Now onto the spring rolls. Fusion food, from my understanding, is founded on the principle that adding new techniques and ingredients to old dishes can make them alive, and tasting better than before. Not in this case! Chrysanthemum was very present but it completely overshadowed the flavor of the mushrooms. The lack of a nice dipping sauce (they gave us a chili oil, a plum sauce and chili sauce) did not help much either. Had they added something with more citrus to it, maybe something with a cilantro or a scallion flavor to enliven the taste of the mushrooms, I’d dig. This was disappointing, though the casing was crispy and light, so that much was to their credit.
I tried a bit of my friend’s goma-​ae trio, which was asparagus, spinach and bok choy. The vegetables were done right but the goma-​ae tasted slightly of cooking wine or something alcoholic. That doesn’t match very well with the sesame flavor that usually is associated with goma-​ae, and it didn’t match well here.
Service was pretty good — the waitress replenished our tea whenever it ran out, and didn’t fawn excessively over us even though we were the last ones there. I like that a good deal, but unfortunately I come to a restaurant for the food.
The other thing that was a little odd was that the restaurant was freezing when we got in! I get that we were late, but that was a bit early to turn off the heater. We were freezing quite a bit and that was even taking into account that it’s a winter Thursday in Vancouver outside!
The bill came out to approximately $ 40 for 2 people, which is a lot for Chinese food. I was very disappointed with the overall results, though the techniques used seem to be quite up to snuff. They need to really recalibrate I feel.

I’ve only been here twice, and both times I ordered the prawn and veggie chow mein to go. I like the crispy noodles, and they give a generous helping of prawns, but the green peppers could be scaled back a bit… Although I’ve never actually stayed to eat, the café is clean and nicely decorated, and the staff are always friendly when I pick up my orders.

We went to try out some of the vegan items on their menu, since the redesign has been advertising quite seriously their availability.
We had vegan buns, Mama tofu, and BBQ Lover’s. The buns were good, flavourful from the filling. The BBQ Lover was just skewers of tofu and veggies, grilled and with barbecue sauce as a side – nothing amazing and somewhat pricey for what it was, so not really worth it. The Mama Tofu was the best dish of the three, thanks to a mildly spicy sauce that bathed the generous amount of tofu. I think less (and firmer) tofu might be better here, as it’s quite hard to handle with chopsticks past a certain point.
It’s not a bad place, in a pinch, but as far as vegetarian/​vegan options go, there are better options nearby.

The food was 3-​star — ok and about average (have not found great chinese delivery downtown).
This review is more on the delivery aspect, as it was a first for me. First they guy shows up with one of the bags full of liquid. I open the door and he’s like ‘sorry’ while pointing to all bag. I ask what it is… grease? He says no it’s the wonton soup. it spilled. Ok, guess there’s not much I can do about that.
I had paid via credit card over the phone and ask if there’s anything else. He says he ‘I haven’t gotten any money.’ Apparently he was new and didn’t know how the credit cards work… that’s fine. Then he asks me to sign the slip and I give him a 10% tip on a large order. This is what actually made me laugh — he looks at the cc slip and says «Can you give me more… I drove a long way to deliver.» That was a first.
I told him that’s rude to ask (and didn’t remind him that he was handing me a bag of spilled wonton soup).
Won’t order here again.

Alright — I’ve been twice now since the redesign. Both times I visited by myself, and both times the restaurant was completely empty except for my table — once at 9pm on a Wednesday and once at 6pm on a Saturday. Give this place a chance, people!
The vegan menu is really cute and well designed. They’ve got enough options that I have trouble choosing what I want to eat. The first time, I tried the vegan fried rice; it was good, but maybe too healthy and whole-​grain for me. Definitely a good choice for other people but I was kind of hoping for your typical oily fried rice with chunks of tofu in it.
The second time, I tried the BBQ Lover. OMG! This was incredible. Skewers of perfectly marinated, perfectly grilled tofu, mushroom, eggplant, zucchini, and yellow squash that were succulent and savoury, served over a tomato and onion sauce. The salad was a little limp but the skewers — I just didn’t want them to be over! So delicious.
Drink-​wise, I tried the Keefer 88 (delicious) and a glass of Red Rooster Merlot (very well priced for the pour size and quality of the wine). Very satisfying.
My one criticism is the service — both times it was pretty lacklustre. On my first visit I wasn’t quality checked at all, and had to get up and ask for hot sauce. She also cleared my plate and glass without offering the bill, and after giving her about 10 minutes, I just asked for it. This drives me nuts. The second time, my server was more attentive, but still not quite as present as I’d have liked — the quality check happened when I was ¾ finished my meal.
I will be back again and hopefully with friends. Looking forward to an improvement in the service and hoping to see some more folks in the restaurant next time!

Tang’s Noodle House has now become Tang’s Bistro and I was hoping that meant it was going to improve but that was not the case. The server said it was under new ownership but the food was still mediocre at best. Two server’s helped us out. One was very new and didn’t know what she was doing. The other was very pushy and tried to get us to order the steak served on a hot stone multiple times. We did not order it but all 5 dishes that we did order were super salty to the point where you almost couldn’t eat them. The mixed vegetables tasted like sea water and the Chicken Karaage was more like popcorn chicken with a very salty coating. Definitely won’t be back.

Tang’s Bistro was Tang’s Noodle House. Not any more, and this is not just a reno, this is a cosmic rebirthing. The signature noodle bowls are still available, but why bother, when you can lose yourself in a Lunch Set for $ 9.25, served on a wooden tray, and tasting of dreamy travels to Asia?
I had chicken with lemongrass with 3 side plates of pickle; seaweed, daikon, carrot, glass noodle… sweet corn and tofu soup, rice with black sesame seeds. Chicken was tender, skinless and boneless. Lots of tea served by the sweet server who was part of the former Noodle House. Chef could ramp up the spice quotient, and the menu may be a tad too ambitious for the startup phase. But be brave… this Bistro could mature into a real contender in Kits.
With a dark, cool interior finished in black and espresso with white accents and to-​die-​for lamps throughout (seriously, go in to check out the lighting) and a full bar (!) this lovely rebirth sources product from neighbouring stores, and is startlingly different from it’s former starving student self. Actually, it’s beautifully decorated. Washrooms nicely renovated.
Thoughtful wine, sake and beer listings. Traditional Chinese take-​out menu with Cantonese style chow mien, crispy or soft.
Located at West Broadway and MacDonald, next to Plenty.