Yao’s China Bistro

We order from these guys quite often! Love anything they make with snow peas! We usually have dinner delivered and they always deliver in a timely manor to my boyfriends apartment downtown! Never a complaint with these guys!

The food is pretty good but it takes forever for it to be delivered and I live four blocks from the place. It’s unacceptable for it to repeatedly take so long without a phone call. It’s certainly not my only option downtown.

Mediocre food in an unpleasant atmosphere. They keep about half the lights turned off in the main dining area… presumable to save on the bill… this creates a depressing feeling.
I’ve eaten here 3 times, each time I leave wondering why I came.

Disappointing. It’s a vast space that used to be occupied by a nicer place in its past (Wang’s). But this place is really seemingly just a family run hole in the wall Chinese place moonlighting as something nicer. Vast space with a large bar, but seemingly no attention to detail (different furniture, random fixtures stuffed in the corner). Menu has a lot of standard American Chinese fare which was completely hit or miss. Egg drop soup was not hot, and in fact atrociously thick as they clearly used too much corn starch that it was as thick as a saucy jello type consistency that would stick to the spoon even if you turned to its side. How they managed to serve this is beyond me. The generals tsos chicken was thankfully good. Very thick and crunchy. Whether that was on purpose, well let’s just hope it was because it seemed to work. The whole fried fish was ok, a little pricey but the fish itself had little meat and mostly bone. We also decided to try the Peking duck and it came out burnt. The second it came out I sensed something was not right when i saw it was blackish in color and not the golden brown skin we were used to. Some pieces were overly cooked clearly, and why the color was black, who knows. Beyond the over cooked skin it actually tasted respectable if you could get beyond the fact it was… well black… questionable whether I’d dine here again, but I guess with few dining choices downtown I guess I would if I needed Chinese, but do some research before you order. Some things clearly are better than others

Disgusting!!! My chicken had slime and the dumb waiter fought with me over my military ID being legitimate
Oh yea, my CHICKEN HAD SLIME!!!

Since I live in the downtown area, I usually order takeout from here at least once per month. The food is very good. I usually order pork fried rice and BBQ spare ribs but have had a lot of other things on the menu. I noticed that the interior of the restaurant is old looking so atmosphere for eating in is not glamorous. But the food is good and that’s what counts to me (especially for takeout).

Had this place delivered for lunch and it was actually pretty good, I loved the orange chicken because it has a spice to it. The chicken low mein was amazing as well, but the fried rice could’ve used some flavor, over all great food!!! I’ll order again!

Horrible food!!! Second time ordering delivery and should have learned my lesson the first time. The reviewers who give this place more than one star clearly have no idea what decent, let alone good, Chinese food is. Can’t give less than one star so… The General Tso’s chicken was over-​battered, dry and came in a radioactive red sauce that had no taste. Potstickers… the frozen variety that anyone can get from their grocery store frozen food section and they sent the wrong dipping sauce I get that the Italians (via Marco Polo) learned about noodles from the Chinese but when you open a box of Chinese lo mein and it is made with out-​of-​the box linguine (as in Italian pasta) well the proprietors clearly do not care much about the quality of their food. The only thing Chinese about this restaurant must be the owners… certainly not the food.
BTW, this is my first review of any restaurant… ever. It was so bad, I feel compelled to say so… Wow…really bad.

I recently had a craving for Chinese food and after a quick search I found that Yao’s was the closest. Despite the «meh» reviews, I decided to give it a try (mainly due to my severe crab rangoon craving).
I placed an order for deliver and it was at my door within 25 minutes, which I was impressed with. I ordered crab rangoons & shrimp fried rice. The crab rangoons didn’t come with sweet & sour sauce, which was disappointing. I guess I should have requested it, but I just assumed that all crab rangoons come with sweet & sour.
The meal was ok, nothing spectacular but not horrible. About what you would expect from an average Chinese place.

When you walk in it looks like the place belongs «in the hood.» There are several tables with cigarette ash burns in them and they don’t bother to change it out. Furniture is from the 70’s, food is basically your typical non authentic Chinese fast food, fries egg roll and shrimp fried rice. I will not go back because the quality of food is bad and so is the atmosphere.

Food was delicious!!! We went quite early on a Monday so restaurant was basically empty. But cheap food by Australian Standards and was seriously yummy!

With all the competition with the Asian places to eat, this place pales by comparison. The food is typical bland buffer Chinese food. Like Chinese McDonalds. Also not to be rude but usually there’s no one in there but even so the service I got was terrible. And my friends got the Wonton soup and both got food poisoning ! We’re sure it was bc of this place by they were the only ones who ate that. Would definitely not recommend in this area.

The food was delicious and the delivery was right on time with hot food!!! I will most definitely order from them again!

Downtown Memphis for Friday afternoon lunch, this restaurant has a great buffet, reasonable price. Greeted at the door and welcomed that was a very nice impression. The restaurant atmosphere is friendly, the lighting, a little dark. fixtures tables and chairs seem to be a little dated, but the restaurant buffet bar makes up for that. Food is very good, with a wide variety of selections. With a fantastic view the Mid America mall Main Street This is a great stop for afternoon lunch on Main Street in downtown Memphis.

Waiting an hour and a half sucks but then finding out they never made your food.
And on top of that they say sorry have a nice day. I don’t usually write reviews but I feel better now that I have.

I have been to this place a few times and it is never busy, I’m not sure how they stay open with all the competition around. Maybe the lunch buffet keeps them going. The owner is very nice and welcoming, along with the staff. The food is good, probably the best general tsos I have had in memphis, but then again I haven’t been to another Chinese place in town with good general tsos. The fried rice wasn’t bad, but I prefer their steamed rice. Honestly, it isn’t a bad place… just nothing about the food that gets me excited.

This review is for buffet only:
From San Diego to Portland, Maine you can walk into any number of Chinese buffets exactly like this one, with the exact same recipes and menu selections with the exact same level of disappointment and discomfort to follow. Somewhere there must be a central warehouse shipping out these sickly sweet General Taos Chicken and gummy Kung Pow whatever it is recipes alongside the room temperature cream cheese/​Krab (with a «K») sushi pieces across this great country of ours with a business model focused upon lowering epicurean expectations and depleting our national supply of MSG and High Fructose Corn Syrup. All for the low cost of $ 7.00 you can experience the same level of regret and impending nausea as I do every few years when I visit one of these places having forgotten how much I hate them.
Yaos Bistro Buffet is one of them. Cleanish… sure, nice cashier… definitely. Is it possible that the menu items are better than the buffet? Maybe. I’ll never know.
So, if it wasn’t made clear by the one star rating… I’d advise avoiding this place. Even if everywhere else nearby has a long line, you are probably better off opting for an afternoon fast. As I sit here with my blood pressure skyrocketing and my ears ringing from an MSG overdose… I sure wish I had.

We order take out from this place ALL the time! They are very friendly and will fix something for you, even if it’s not on menu! I’ve never actually eaten inside the restaurant, but their delivery service is organized and quick! We’ve probably ordered from them 30 times and our food has never been wrong!

This food deserves a mr yuck sticker!
Terrible!
General tsos is dry and fatty and over fried and poorly flavored. No wonder nobody is ever at this restaurant that’s in a prime location. I truly wish there was good Chinese downtown Memphis.

There was a talk thread recently where the creator was wondering how certain restaurants stay open. This is definitely one of those restaurants.
I don’t mean to be cruel by any means but there is never anyone in there! I walk by there all of the time and it is completely empty. Last night a few of us decided to go because we were up for something new. As expected, we were the only ones in the restaurant. It was 7:00 and they didn’t even have all their lights on in the main room.
We should have known it was best to leave when our waiter said they weren’t «making martinis tonight.» Ummm you have a full bar and I’m looking at the ingredients… what does that even mean?! Instead we settled from shitty «champagne» and «merlot».
The only good thing from the night was my egg drop soup. My sweet and sour chicken was barely edible. I poked at it while my company ate their honey chicken and shrimp.
The reason this place gets two instead of one? The adorable owner. He was really very nice… minus telling us martinis weren’t in the cards for the night.
I really don’t know how this place has one «Best Of» awards in the past.