Charisma Bay

I don’t know why this place has such low reviews. We’ve been here more than a handful of times and the food has always been fantastic. The service can be a little trying if they’re busy and the wait times can also be horrendous, but if you make a reservation or come on a slower day, you’re definitely guaranteed a great meal. The portions are also big enough to share between a family of 5 – 8. Our favorites are the round egg tofu and lobster sticky rice. We’ll definitely keep coming back as long as the food stays yummy!

I was here with my dad for Chinese New Year and ordered way too much food for 2 people but everything was delish! We ordered sweet and sour crispy ribs, lobster sticky rice, sauteed bean leaves and minced beef and egg drop soup. At first I thought the space was small but then realized that there was an upstairs area. The waiters are what you would normally expect at a Chinese restaurant, so nothing to comment on there. My family has come here a lot since they opened and trust that we will be back again!

The food is pretty good but service could definitely be improved. Their salt and pepper pork chops taste good, as well as their special fried rice that is crispy. There is additional seating upstairs, which could also be reserved as a private space if you have enough guests.

I ordered foods from Grubhub.
The delivery guy came with the foods, as soon as I open the bag to check the foods, I realize that they gave me the wrong foods.
I contacted the restaurant and ask either refund or replace the food with the correct one.
They did nothing.
Everyone, please stay away from this restaurant

This is the best restaurant I have ever tried. The service is good and the prices are reasonable. I will definitely coming back soon. I am highly recommend this restaurant to anyone who likes Cantonese food or even Asian food.

Arrived at 6:45pm and there was a line out the door. No idea why the low ratings on Unilocal.
Lobster with sticky rice= heaven.
Toisan cauliflower with fried squid, Peking pork chop, scallion chicken, veggys, tofu. .everything hot off the wok. I could feel the heat from every dish because it was fresh off the wok. love this place!

Totally not worth it. Food is not keep up to standard. All cold when brought to the table. Receipt in chinese which I can’t read. Service was terrible. Waiter pressured us to order more and we did. All the suggestion were pretty much sucks!
Overall: 1 star for interior design!

Terrible service and the food was extremely underwhelming. Waitress didn’t even know English, not even common terms such as duck sauce, or drinks. The menu isn’t even accurate, ordering the Egg Rolls (2pc) appetizer is actually four Spring Rolls, or maybe the waitress simply got the order wrong. We were never asked if we wanted anything to drink while the Asian family across from us had their drinks promptly. They didn’t have duck sauce — how does a Chinese restaurant not have duck sauce? The food (Pan Fried Noodles) was terrible, I had thought that they were stir-​fried and asked what kind of noodles they were close to but only received blank stares from the waitress; it was closer to eating an uncooked package of ramen noodles with meat and mushrooms thrown on top (which the meat looked like slices of traditional chicken that you see in «chicken and broccoli» though I asked for pork). The prices were way too expensive for the quality of food and service. They don’t even give you anything before your appetizer like bread and butter or crackers, when we asked, we were given salted peanuts. Very bad experience, never again.

This place is open till 2am. Has an A and serves delicious food in a Manhattan style Chinese restaurant décor at take out place prices … I dunno what people are complaining about I loved the place loved the food and although I wish they spoke better English — didn’t really mind all that much being a New Yorker
Now I want to recommend mi favorite dish but I can’t explain it lol it’s pork over greens that almost look like chives but nothing ever tasted sorta like wheat grass but still not … Anyway look at the pork pics — it looks like post over super thin chives … Maybe garlick sprouts???

My initial impression was bad. Like very bad (see the tip I left on this page). But as the dinner progressed, I realized the ‘waitress’ was really the manager, or owner. She should really stop trying to take orders because she leaves a bad impression (can’t get the menu correct, pressures customers and can’t tell what is available. She took the bill without saying thank you). We came for dinner on a Thursday night and spent $ 135 in cash.
Thankfully the actual waitstaff was great. They cleared plates repeatedly, had manners and came by to see if we needed anything. At least the waiter said thank you!
The food was good. Far from amazing, but none were bad. We ordered :
— lobster (ginger and scallion) which was standard and not totally worth getting — 2 lobsters for $ 40
— Braised goose with tofu skins in star anise sauce. Full of flavor, but remember that geese have less meat. You can order this in quarters.
— a plate of veggies (i never know what to call this one in particular).standard preparation of garlic, so nothing much to report on
— deep fried quail. The quail was pretty juicy, surprisingly tasty with crisp skin. We initially asked for salt and pepper quail, and the manager lady kept saying deep fried quail instead of telling us they don’t offer salt and pepper quail. We had to clarify before she said, ‘we only have deep fried quail ‘. They are not the same thing
— deep fried pork chops in sweet and sour. This was also standard fare. Pieces were lightly battered but pretty fatty. Flavor wasn’t bad and the sauce wasn’t overly starched.
— sautéed clams. Good flavor, also glad they didn’t overly starch the sauce. Not too many empty shells and kind of meaty clams
Comes with free salted roast peanuts. End of meal included thin watermelon slices.
Other than the bad manager (can’t say this enough), I would say this is a solid three stars.

Excellent Cantonese food. Compared to other Chinese restaurants in the area, the prices are moderate, and the quality is high. Came here with the family so a lot of food was ordered. Some items ordered below.
Fried Crispy Chicken, Lamb Chops w/​Black Peppercorn Sauce, Beef Chow fun, Fish Filet w/​Brown Sauce Casserole, Steak w/​Black Pepper Sauce

As one of the fairly new restaurant in 86^th street, Charisma Bay Inc, aesthetic-​wise, was astonishingly good. It had a lot of props that made the décor welcoming and grandeur overall. However, as in food, it was eh. My family and I ordered the Charisma Bay Home Style Sautéed Seafood & the Filet Steak W/​Chinese Broccoli. The first was not bad; i have tasted better in other places. The weird thing about this dish was the taro that was put into it. It didn’t really went well with the dish. The second was not good either. The beef was chewy and the sauce was just overwhelming salty, making it hard for us to finish.

My family and I decided to come to Charisma for lunch. I love the interior décor. The service was not bad. I just didn’t like how some waiter/​waitress kept looking at our table. My favorite dish was definitely the seafood, dry scallop fried rice! Give it a try, people. It is a great addition to the neighborhood.

It was my first time at this restaurant and the food was great. The service was wonderful and the place a nice décor.

This used to a an ayce hot pot/​sushi place, but not has been remodeled and rebuilt into a family style Chinese retaurant. It’s your typical Chinese cuisine for the family. Everything from shrimp in mayo to lobster rice is available here. One of the best dishes is probably the goat stew, it’s very good.

Food was okay. Waiters kept staring at us while we were eating. Service was okay too.

Made a reservation for 12 people tonight for 7:30pm. The lady on the phone says we have to make sure everyone arrives early so that we can get seated. Got the place exactly at 7:30pm and the man at the front (hostess) told us the wait was ANOTHER HOUR EVEN THOUGH WE MADE A RESERVATION. Crazy! Then we asked him why do we have to wait if we already made a reservation. He replied back saying that he don’t take reservations and only accept them if were for before 5:30pm or after 8:30pm.
Then we were like why didn’t anyone tell us on the phone and now all 12 of us are hungry and just standing here waiting for the table. The guy was like you guys are the next big table, but wait was still an hour.
We ended up just leaving and eating at another nearby table. Horrible service. I haven’t tried the food so can’t say anything about it.

This is a new restaurant. I started going since they opened. It was good for the first three week. Then, it was bad. The service was horrible. They change the menu and the price without printing the new menu AND blaming the customer when the price was different than the new but not yet printed menu. That is wrong! I really hope they would do well. But when service and attitude is that unacceptable and the taste and quality of dishes became unstable, then that’s it for me to continue going there.

Such slow service for dinner… It seems like there’s only one chef for two floors full of customers. I went there for dinner and when I came out, I saw daylight… Wtf is wrong with this place.

This place has incarnated to many restaurant over the years. The last one was a shabu shabu and sushi restaurant. The food was subpar at best. Now as Charisma Bay, this place seems promising. I got two dishes, Singaporean fried noodles and tofu and fried fish with rice. The Singaporean fried noodle wasn’t too oily or spicy. It has quite a bit of seafood and Chinese roasted pork slices in it. The bean sprouts also provided a good crunch and relief to the spiciness. For the tofu and fried fish with rice, the fried fish wasn’t heavy on the batter or have a stale oil taste. I’m sure it’s frozen fish, but it doesn’t have the fishy freezer thawed taste either. The tofu doesn’t have a strange sour taste which other restaurants sometimes have probably because it’s almost turning bad. Trust me, that may sound like a given but I’ve tried sour tofu way too many times from restaurants. Once it’s fried and cooked it’s really hard to tell until you bite into it.
The décor at Charisma is also lovely. It has that traditional Chinese feel. I just hope that they can keep up with the cleaning to make sure it doesn’t get dirty and tacky. This is definitely a good addition to the neighborhood and alternative to 86 Wong.