Zang Asian Bistro

Beware… Tried to go to this place today but they are not open on Sunday’s as they advertise and what is on their window. :-(

I have been going here for years. A few of those years Zang’s was closed. I am glad they are open again. OK, so it is not the BEST Chinese place in the valley, but if you want a very good meal at reasonable prices AND you are in the downtown Glendale area, then Zang’s can’t be beat. I recommend the tempura chicken lunch. I had the rice noodle soup and added some soy sauce and chili oil for flavor. and mmm mmm good. My friend had the tempura chicken which is exactly what I will be getting next time. Welcome back David!!!

On my only visit to Zang I find this place to be hit and miss but I do note they do prepare chicken and beef very well and do give extremely large portions.
I ordered the Shanghai Chicken and it was very unique with battered eggplant in the dish. This dish was suppose to also have lotus root but I couldn’t find any in the dish. I did say something to my waitress about the lotus root and she insisted that it was in there but chopped up very tiny so whatever. This was an extremely large portion and both me and my husband ate it because we really didn’t care for the Sichuan Beef.
The Sichuan beef had nicely cooked vegetables and beef in the dish but the sauce was too sweet for us and soy saucy. I didn’t want to complain about it because I already complained about not finding lotus root in the Shanghai Chicken.
Worth a try when your in the area but I wouldn’t travel to dine here.
2.75 stars

Loved this place… Stumbled a crossed it many years ago with a friend and really liked the place. If you are looking for the Extreme Elegant place this is not it but if you are looking an Urban Cozy Chic place this is it. Food Snobs not welcome. (read some of the other reviews) LOL
The food is great. My fiancé and I come here every so often and really wanted to have this place for our rehearsal dinner because they have this great little private patio but just found out that the owner closed the restaurant for a short time due to illness. I hope every thing goes well for him and he comes back with a grand opening soon. My sympathy is with you in regards to your mom. Thanks for all the years of service.

Nothing special here. The Chinese food is as Americanized as it can get. Actually Panda Express tastes better to me. The rice I got was soooo dry and the chicken I had was very bland.
I won’t be coming back to try it again.

Not a bad place by any means. The food was pretty good. We were the only people there so we got all the attention we could handle. I may go back if they offer another Groupon.

Great service! Great Food!

I went here this weekend with my mom, her boyfriend, my brother and sister in law (who frequent this restaurant) and I thought it was pretty good Chinese food. We started with egg rolls and hot and sour soup. Let me start by saying that these two items are not items I generally would order or like BUT I loved both of them here! The egg roll was very cool, in my opinion, because it had a potato type filling and came with 3 different sauces that were all good (sweet, spicy, and mustard). They were very tasty and I liked that it was a bit different. The hot and sour soup is wonderful! It isn’t terribly spicy, but it has a ton of flavor. I would definitely have this again. For entrees we had the beef chow mein, the pad thai, the sesame chicken, and the sizzling platter. The chow mein was good, with crunchy fresh tasting noodles. The sesame chicken was Wonderful! It is lightly fried, which is a nice departure from most sesame chicken dishes and the sauce was light, but pleasant. The pad thai was just alright in my opinion, but I suppose that’s what I get for ordering Thai food in a Chinese food restaurant. I didn’t try the sizzling platter, as I don’t eat seafood, but it smelled wonderful! One of the best parts of this restaurant is the great and friendly service and the fact that the restaurant is family owned and run. I think maybe this restaurant is one where you need to know what to order in order to be pleased, which isn’t always a good thing, but it’s nice to support a local restaurant. I would go back if I were in the neighborhood.

I used a Groupon for this place today (never been there before) and the long and short of it? I threw everything away within 45 minutes of them handing the bag off to me. They need to completely revamp their menu (or at least the items I got). I now see that the reviews I read prior to going were more than accurate, but hey, I had the Groupon and thought I had nothing to lose. Wrong… oh so wrong.
I live in Tempe so it was a little trek to get there; traffic was cooperative though as I did 80 down the freeway… blazing a trail to what I thought would be a memorable experience… yeah, it was memorable but not for the right reasons; lol.
The Groupon was for $ 20 and I was getting this to go so I had to carefully choose this over that to reach that amount. My order: one order of potstickers; one order of eggrolls and an order of chicken teriyaki. I initially just ordered the last two things, but it was about $ 2.25 short to reach the Groupon limit (paid $ 7 which included a $ 2 tip). There are deserts (Mohave; Death Valley; etc) out there that have more moisture than the potstickers had. They put some kind of sauce in a little cup for dipping them in, but it smelled a lil off and tasted the same so it became the first casualty in this war on food.
The eggrolls… WOWEE ZOWEE… who in the world puts mashed potatoes in an eggroll??? WHO? Zang’s does. They were supposed to have chicken in them, but the amount of chicken I ran into after eating 1 ½ of them wouldn’t be able to make a single chicken mcnugget at McDonald’s…I’m serious. Neither the eggrolls or potstickers were very hot at all. As I reached for the chicken teriyaki (which was steaming), I thought that would save the day… no, I KNEW it would save the day. Wrong again. The texture of the chicken was like they took sponges and cut them in chicken shapes and sizes because (I kid you not) the texture of the chicken was just like that. It seemed to be VERY overcooked. The sauce was a wanna-​be that never really was. nice pieces of bell pepper and onion though… the seasoning must’ve been on vacation because it sho wasn’t there. I wondered how much of my meal was already done when I ordered it, because it only took them about 5 – 7 minutes to get it all together and I was just getting into my Angry Birds game when they had the audacity to tell me my order was ready. Lol. After I tossed the food, I went to Bueno Burger for the first time… they did not disappoint. Never again Mr. Z.

I went today with a friend and my 3 year old for lunch. I wanted to like Zang, I really did. They don’t use MSG (I didn’t ask, but I can tell, especially when a place lies, like Takamatsu!) The restaurant was clean, we were greated immediately, and the décor was nice. A man that I assume is the owner came out and talked to us, including my daughter. He gave her an origami star which she was in awe of. The wait staff was attentive (they offered to refill our drinks like 3 times during a lunch, that’s service!), friendly, and fun. Unfortunately, you don’t go to a restaurant ONLY for the service.
We had a groupon for $ 20, and my daughter announced she wanted rice AND noodles for lunch. We were looking at the $ 5 lunch menu, which the waitress graciously let us order off of, in spite of using a Groupon. I ordered my daughter the lettuce wrap with noodles, and I got the pork with mushrooms and broccoli, and rice. My friend ordered the sweet and spicy chicken with noodles. All were served with a salad and an egg roll. The salad was good, it was iceberg lettuce with a tasty dressing.
Our food came out ridiculously quick. The pork with mushrooms and broccoli was solid. The pork was tender, almost chicken like in consistency. The broccoli was crisp and delicious. The sauce was very salty, I’m still sucking down water 10 hours later. It was on par with mall Chinese food, which I happen to like, but know is not authentic and will make me retain water like crazy.
The lettuce wrap was weird. I’m glad that it wasn’t my only lunch because it wasn’t very filling. I have no idea what kind of meat was in it. It was unidentifiable. There were chunks of green pepper in it, which added to the texture, but it was a really unremarkable dish. I can’t remember, 10 hours later, if it was good or bad. That’s bad.
The noodles had no vegetables and they were dark brown, which for lo mein noodles indicates a lot of soy sauce used, in my experience. They weren’t bad, but they weren’t good. My rice loving kiddo didn’t eat much of it, it was just meh for rice.
My friend said her sweet and spicy chicken was neither sweet nor spicy. She said she had expectations of the dish that were not met. The breaded chicken wasn’t crispy, it was like it had been sitting for awhile after it had been tossed in the sauce. She thinks it would have been better had they tossed it in the sauce right before serving it.
The egg rolls were odd. They were unlike any egg roll I’ve ever had. The texture inside was smooth, like it was made with mashed potato or something. It didn’t have a lot of flavor, so I put some soy sauce on it.
Maybe the problem was that we ordered from the $ 5 value lunch specials. I know the food was sitting in the back, ready to be dished up. There’s no way they made the food as quickly as it came out. I’m going to give it another go another time and order off another menu. I saw an eggplant dish that looked really tasty, maybe we’ll have better luck then.

I have to say I was very disappointed in my visit to Zang! I want the person who ranked them #3 and PF Chang’s #4 in 2011 to be arrested!
I enjoy the very typical Asian/​dumbed down for Americans cuisine. I order Pad Thai it is one of my favorites, I asked for mild to medium heat. We ordered Lettuce Wraps, Egg rolls and egg foo young.
1^st the lettuce wraps were just OK. They had green bell pepper in them which seemed odd to me; but I thought what the heck & like I said it was OK. It seemed more like my grandmothers take on Asian; or even a hamburger helper type version. Meaning you could make better at home.
2^nd the egg rolls came: YUCK! At first they came out looking golden and delicious! Then they committed a food felony! They were disgusting! They were wrapped with about 20 layers of dough, the first being crispy the rest being doughy and soaked with oil, the vegetables on the inside were mush so much so that you could not determine what kind of vegetables they were and tasteless no seasoning at all! Ugh not only did they taste bad like a mouth full of vegetable oil but the texture was awful too! This hasn’t happened to me very often but I thought I was going to vomit! These were the worst egg rolls I have ever eaten or ever hope to eat. From now on I cut my egg rolls open first to see what I am dealing with. Yea they were that bad. I didn’t even take them home for my dog!
I don’t eat egg foo young but my friend who ordered it said it was sweet and had way to much sauce.
My pad Thai was gross, it was very sweet no spice and the noodles were mushy like they had been in water all day. They were falling apart on the fork! I have never seen a noodle split apart on top of a fork.
The service was OK, but what bugged me most is that after we had sent back both of our main courses; the owner comes over with pre-​printed cards instructing us to login to Unilocal to give him a good rating. WTF are you kidding me? One of the things I like about Unilocal is that I can come here and get the scoop from real people with their own opinions. I heard him tell the table behind us to rate him 5 stars!
Bad Bad Zang left a bad taste in my mouth literally, I will not be back!
Also don’t be fooled by the pictures on the website the food doesn’t look like that in person.

I suppose its more of a 2.5 stars for me, but since ‘meh’ is how I felt, 2 stars it is.
I used a Groupon, and most places I used a Groupon to have become fast faves. I love the location because downtown Glendale is super cute. The décor is very attractive, and the service is friendly.
But I go to restaurants to eat, and that’s where they lost me. I know some Unilocalers don’t like it when a review is based off one experience, but I doubt Ill be back. I ordered the Chicken with Broccoli and Mushrooms, friend ordered the Lemon Pepper Chicken. Now maybe I’m being picky, but I’m not really sure I know of other chinese places that don’t serve anything but rice with the entrée. Don’t you typically get an egg roll, crab puff, cup of soup… something? Anyhow, mine looked delicious– his, not so much. Chicken should not be as white as the plate its served on. Other than the pepper on it, it looked so bland, undercooked and unappetizing that I just kept saying no when he told me to try it. I finally gave in though– I was right. I just did not like the flavor at all. Mine on the other hand had good flavor, just not very much of it! I actually had to salt my food, which is something I really just don’t do unless I’m hungover and need super salty eggs. Oh, and the rice they served wasn’t very full, so I asked for more. And got charged for it. Just throughly unimpressed.

A nice upgrade from traditional asian restaurants. This place is tastefully decorated and spacious. Our server was friendly and attentive. The menu was more varied than your typical Chinese restaurant. The fare is sampled from all around the pacific rim but there’s something familiar about each dish. They could use descriptions of each dish but I know sesame chicken when I see it.
I ordered that ($ 10) while my better half ordered the Shrimp with vegetables ($ 16). The portions are huge. You will not eat all in one sitting. Good for sharing. A large bowl of white rice accompanied our meal. My chicken was crispy and golden. Not greasy or soggy. And came in a sweet sauce with peppers. My wife’s had lots of large shrimp and crispy colorful steamed veggies in a garlic sauce.
Overall a good time. The only negative I can think of is the server had a hard time estimating how many boxes we needed to take all our left overs home. We had to keep asking him for more.

If you’ve been looking for great chinese food but haven’t found any place worth mentioning in AZ then you’re not the only one… UNTIL you get here! And yes I know they aren’t technically a chinese restaurant since they serve a selection of chinese/​japanese/​vietnamese/​etc here, but what can I say! When I think of Japanese food = sushi/​tempora/​ramen, Vietnamese food= spicy/​sauteed, and well when I get a craving for yummy-​delicious chinese food… I think of Zang!
I live in Tempe and when I come visit my parents (in Glendale), I come here and literally stuff my face & stomach to the brink of explosion that it kind of hurts to drive that half hour back to my house! And yes I take all the doggie bags.
These are what I’ve tried so far (well the ones I can remember from my last trip there!!)
1. Lettuce Wrap-​chicken (appetizer) Delicious! If you’re going to get a starter GET THIS!
2.Pineaple & Cashew Chicken (main) It’s sweet and the pineapple pieces in the dish goes crazy good with the chicken! (I’m not a fan of fruits in main dishes but these work really great together!)
3. Beef & Broccoli (main) you would think such a simple dish would be easy enough for any chinese restaurant to make, but then you would be wrong. But Zang definitely hits all the right notes with this one! (… alright I’m asian and I can’t make beef & broccoli so I guess it’s more a simple-​dish-​name then a simple dish to make!)
4.Shanghai Beef (main) Another delicious dish! Perfectly cooked beef with vegetables seasoned to perfection. (Trust me, I’m not a huge fan of veggies but they flavor everything here SOOOO good I would actually be happy with a vegetarian dish here… not that my carnivore side would actually let me nix the meat)
5. Sichuan Dan Dan Noodles. On the menu this item has a red pepper indicating that this is a hot dish… it is definitely not! Actually all the dishes I’ve tried with that ‘logo’ on it hasn’t had that kick that it promises! Hahaha! I LOVE spicy things, but never the less this noodle dish is D~lish! To me it tasted a little bit sweet then spicy but it’s so good that you forget that it’s even suppose to be spicy :)
Alright I can’t BELIEVE I wrote so freakin much! I’ve never written a review on line before and I think I may have gotten a little carried away… hahahaha! But I truly love this place and once I started rolling I couldn’t stop! (and yes when I text I use A LOT of exclamation points also!!) I just hope that somebody who reads this will go there love it and tell somebody who’ll go there … and so on and so forth. I want this place to rack in the $ so they’ll want to maybe expand and open another one in TEMPE! … Zang… are you listening…?

I thought this place was pretty good. IMO, not quite a 4 star restaurant, but a solid 3… Today at least.
The décor is very nice and tidy. The service was good. The food was incredibly fresh, and it was refreshing to see such fresh veggies being used.
I ordered kung pow chicken, and it was just ok. Sean had sesame chicken, and it was really good. The hot and sour soup was good, a little thick for my taste, but since I had never had it before, I don’t have anything to judge it on. Something different and I liked that about it.
All in all, I’ll go back again, but I will order something else.

OK. I suppose that a place that draws me back for lunch on a monthly basis needs to get the full 4 stars. I was in here yesterday and got to try their new shrimp and vegetables ($ 8.95) from the lunch menu. I liked it. The service is always good, they work as a team and it is not uncommon to have 2 to 4 servers involved with your meal. They just rewrote their lunch menu keeping a half dozen of their best sellers and adding a half dozen more. Now that I am a regular and they know I am going to order a lunch entrée they bring my salad when they come to take my order. They also have inexpensive rice bowls (4.95) on their lunch menu. The owner will sometimes take a wander through the place and stop to talk with the customers.
A few hints: If you like the place get signed up on their Facebook and email list on their website so you can hear about the specials. In order to get the specials you usually have to ask for them as well as their frequent diner card. They are closed on Mondays.

Zang’s offers a good collage and mixture of cuisine from all over Asia; Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, Thai, etc. It’s tucked around the corner off the main drag through the Glendale square. It is a locally owned place that is in a renovated old building just off the historic square. They have more room inside that what it looks like from the outside but don’t be fooled, this placed was packed for lunch!
For lunch we started with Chicken Lettuce Wraps which were good, fresh and had a good balance of seasoning and meat to veggie ratio. Hot & Sour soup was ok but a bit too pricey for what you get. It was more broth and had less veggies, tofu and meat compared to what I’m used to. Main course of Sichuan Dan Dan noodles. It was also good but did not have the kick of heat that I was expecting. Their Chicken with broccoli and mushroom was exceptional and my friend finished it all! Portions are good sized and everything was well prepared but my Dan Dan noodles could have been seasoned with a bit more heat.
Their prices are comparable to the larger «chain» type of Asian restaurants which can be a bit pricey when ordering a variety of things to eat. I was glad to see they offer lunch deals of several plates to choose from for $ 5.95 that is served with an egg roll and your choice of rice or noodles. They also have Rice Bowl specials at lunch time as well for $ 4.95 which looked very good. I think I will try their Teriyaki Chicken Rice Bowl on my next trip.
This is a solid 3 plus to 4 star rating for me and plan to visit them again soon.

I don’t go to this place nearly enough, but then I don’t get to downtown Glendale as much as I used to, either.
I’ve done takeout from here and sit down service. The takeout was quite good (even impressed a couple of visitors from the Northeast) and the sit down service was even better.
The selection of menu items is relatively sparse, but that leads to a variety of cuisines from Asia. The quality of the food is excellent and the wait staff appear to know what they’re talking about when questioned about ingredients, preparation, etc.
Very reasonably priced appetizers and meals with large portions. Nice ambience for such a small, out of the way place, and some of the most interesting restrooms you’ll ever «go» in.

The Phoenix Foodies (
) had their first dinner here and everything was spot-​on. The owner was very flexible in planning, and the food was excellent quality, and a nice, happy medium between American Chinese food and authentic Chinese food. I think it might be worth to try some of their other dishes, and if something isn’t good, I would tell the owner (Dave), and he would fix it. But we didn’t have to! This place offers a great value, and is worth checking out.
Their deserts look really interesting too…

Like I’ve started so many of my other reviews… as a transplant, I’ve been pretty consistently underwhlemed with «Asian» food in Arizona. Don’t get me wrong, there are some exceptions out there… my experience with Zang was that it is not one of them.
Full disclosure, the sum total of my experience with this establishment has been two lunch specials. I came across Zang because a co-​worker had a «$ 5.50 Lunch Specials» menu. I figured for $ 5.50 I would give it a try. The menu also indicated that the meal comes with a salad with «chef’s signature dressing». For an extra $ 1.50 I opted to also include an egg roll and soda.
Where do I begin?
The soda was on par with a «small» from your typical chain restaurant and mostly filled with ice. The salad was warm. Alright, we’re in AZ and it was carryout, I can excuse that because the dressing was pretty good (never mind that I was told I couldn’t get it on the side when I asked).
The egg roll tasted like it came out of a plastic bag and someone had vainly doused it in pepper to mask that flavor. Both times I made a vain attempt to eat the entire egg roll, but never managed to make it more than half-​way.
The first time I tried Zang I went with the Teriyaki Chicken Bowl. The nicest thing I can say about it was that after a long morning, it smelled really good. Otherwise, it was drowning in their take on Teriyaki sauce and slightly overcooked. My second choice, a few weeks later, was the Chicken Lo Mien bowl. Again, it smelled good and was essentially filling… but I’ve had equally good meals from Trader Joe’s microwave box noodles or Panda Express.
Despite all of the above, I may still give Zang Asian Bistro the benefit of the doubt, i.e. a third chance, and actually go there for a sit down meal. As I’ve said before, I’ve only been there for carryout and those times they have been extremely busy. The place is decorated well (I like their use of wood) and from their presentation, etc. it «seems» like the food «should» be better. On the other hand, parking in downtown Glendale may be too great an exercise for this to actually occur. If it does, I’ll be sure to update.