Nu Chinese Bistro

NU Chinese Bistro isn’t quite a 4 star establishment but because of their large portions and 12% off daily lunch special, I think they deserve a notch above 3 stars.
The aesthetics of the restaurant is quite gorgeous and the waitstaff are dressed in traditional Chinese uniforms. There are several antique vases and paintings throughout the restaurant, giving it a cool high-​end feel. The dishes and teapot provided are also quite fancy, while everything is set on unique plates and bowls.
I found the food to be quite authentic, with the portions being the most impressive part. We actually couldn’t finish our beef noodle soup nor rice even though they were quite tasty. Overall, I liked the experience but the food didn’t actually stand out in Richmond’s vast ocean of Chinese restaurants. I think it would be fun to take a tourist here though, since stepping into the restaurants feels like you’re leaving Canada!

Overall, I really liked Nu Chinese Bistro.
We stopped by on a Sunday, right when they opened, and there was only one other table in the restaurant. Overall, it is a nice space on the second floor of the complex. Since this was going to be our last meal in Richmond before heading back to Issaquah, we decided to order what we wanted and take the leftovers home. We ordered:
Chinese donut: too strong of an ammonia smell for my personal taste
Smoked fish: nice cold starter to order (nice flavor)
Xiao long bao: ok, but the skin is too thick
Salted soy milk: I don’t usually order this, but my wife wanted it. She didn’t like it since it was a little spicy.
Peking duck: probably crazy to order Peking duck two ways with only two people, but we wanted duck. Overall, the duck was really tasty, with crispy skin. For the second course, we got the duck with lettuce wraps, and that was also good.
Normally, we would go to Shanghai River for Shanghai-​style food in Richmond, but since they aren’t open for lunch on Sunday, we were happy that we got to try Nu Chinese Bistro instead. I heard that one of the Shanghai River cooks is now here, so that is definitely a good thing.

Great food! Great service! Loved their Beijing Peking duck! Everything was presented really well! I loved their private room as well.
Edit: extra minimal meal fee for reservation of the VIP rooms :)

Very good service and good food, hard to make reservations for weekends.

Came here on a weekend for dinner — very busy, but luckily, I had a reservation booked a few days prior, so I got me a table.
The food was great! And the service was also very good.

It used to be good. But today was a disappointment. Way too much MSG in all the dishes. We ordered chicken and veggies noodle, wonton, and pan fried dumplings… Everything was overly salty. Also not sure what kinda theme they were going for. They used to be a Shanghai restaurant, but now they serve dishes normally seem at Canton restaurants…

My mom raved about this place and especially of the deep fried sesame ball with creamy salty egg yolks inside that she knows my hubby will love. She did mention the chef was poached from Shanghai River and a new management is in place to make things better.
It seems that this place has changed chefs and management few times in the past so I’m skeptic as to the relativity of other reviews way back. Of the dishes we had few stood out for me:
1) Steamed Soupy Buns or XiaoLongBao — almost translucent thin skin with sizeable filling and flavourful broth. Pretty good.
2) Pan-​fried Pork Buns — the crispy sesame bottom reminds me of the ones I had in Shanghai and while the skin is not paper-​thin the filling is sizeable, and the soupy broth is yum.
3) Chicken noodle — the soup is light in salt and quite savoury. shanghainese style noodle is used and it is mixed with diced vegetable, Chinese mushrooms and diced chicken. I drank it all and didn’t feel the MSG-​discomfort after so I don’t believe there’s MSG used
4) Peking Duck — I’d suggest you to order this in advance as it is quite in demand. This duck is sliced Beijing style for sure because you get the meat and skin instead of the Cantonese-​shoe Peking duck that the skin is completely separated from the meat and the meat seem to be solely used for the diced mixture for lettuce wrap. The duck we had was very juicy and I love the thin and non-​doughy pancake.
I hear the management is considering not to make the sesame dessert I mentioned in the beginning and it would certainly be regrettable because that is quite the delicious niche you can’t find somewhere else.
Cheerio!

To be honest, not much has changed. I’m quite surprised that the negative reviews have lessened since I last reviewed this restaurant many months ago.
We came here again at the behest of some family friends who really wanted to try the place out. The restaurant is under new ownership now, which probably explains why the reviews this time around are slightly more favourable. The bizarre reservation still exists however, and you can only make reservation for parties of 5 or more.
The shanghainese fare is still average, and the bill still took a long time to come. It wasn’t even that busy but everything took forever. I’m quite sure the prices were jacked up by the new owners, and there were many instances where it was clear they were trying to cut corners.
Now when someone wants to eat here, I’m definitely going to suggest we eat elsewhere. There are so many other places that have better food, better service, and can provide a better dining experience overall.

0 Star!
Waited so long to get seated even reservation’s make.
Bad and slow service.
They got the guts to ask why I pad less than 5% tips
I later found out they have recently changed name due to the old one bankrupted to avoid all the the debt.
Same crap, different name

Nu Shanghainese Bistro is another new Shanghai/​Chinese restaurant in Richmond. It located at McKim Way and Garden city on 2/​F. There are a lot of parking spots in the mall.
I saw most of the reviews are complain about slow service, waiting time and average food. Therefore, we went there on weekday for early dinner to avoid these problems.
We made the rsvn at 6pm on Wed night and got seated right the way. The interior is simple but classy. The atmosphere is quite causal but comfortable. The menu well-​designed and loaded with mouth-​watering food pictures.
My friend was recommended the Peking duck in 2 ways, each slices cut in thin duck meat. Just perfectly wrapped with pancakes, it was delicious!
The other dish was double cooked duck with cabbage, it was great just a bit greasy.
Stir fried mixed vegetables, the oyster mushroom was tasty and a lot of mixed vegetables.
Napa cabbage in soup was tasty but too oily.
Overall, the foods were good and service was decent in the sense of topping up our tea and changing plates in the middle of the meal.
I still prefer Canton cuisine coz not greasy as Shanghainese cuisine.

Curious, just where have all the bad reviews gone? Seems like it has been slated clean. No wonder it now has «climbed up» to 3 stars.
Excited to try this place 2 wks ago but left very disappointed. We could have overlooked the 30mins wait for a table (no revs for 2) and a few inexperienced servers as these are expected for any «new opening» joint, however their Shanghai staple dimsum dishes are all majorly subpar, not at food court quality. Even with the nice upscale atmosphere & décor, it is no excuse for charging such bad quality dishes for this price range.
Service: On the contrary to other reviews, we received great service the minute we sat down. Management likely had addressed the staff attitude issue that many had cited. Like their special tea pot that always keeps it hot.
Food:
XLB — Served hot rite out of stove. Skin had a bit of chew but its too thin so it broken upon being picked up or stuck to nearby buns. Minced pork inside was mushy with no substance as it comprised primarily of small bits of visible white pork fat with very little ground pork — which led us to clue in for the relatively Cantonese-​tasting oily bun soup. Gross.
Green onion pancake. Pic in menu was nice, not fired however all pcs came out totally deep fried. Had one bit; couldn’t even taste the flour nor the green onion. Other than being crispy, it was totally dry, had no chew /​texture. Heading back to the kitchen.
Marinated beef in pancake wrap roll. Again the wrap was deep fried, not pan fried, super dry and thick like a cow skin. Completing the dry theme, also were those big chunks of cucumber served to replace fresh green onion, and those hard beef slices in little wrap sauce. Ended up throwing out most of the ingredients and savaged those beef slices.
Braised Beef noodle in soup. Surprisingly acceptable giving it is not a traditional shanghai dish by def. Good portion too. Though noodles were not handmade but at least the soup base was tasty and noodles were cooked to retain a good chew. Most beef chunks, if not all, were half tender and had some taste at least. We were able to finish the whole dish.
We were glad that we didn’t ordered pot stickers as originally planned as it would be made with similar type of dough. Our next table were equally unimpressed with theirs judging by expression.
Save your money for better shanghai dimsum. Will not be back for lunch. Had just turned down an «invite» to come here for group lunch. Uncertain if we should bother trying dinner as the mgt has the tendency to cut corners on the food.
Waiting for the next restaurant in the same spot.

I have to say this is one of the bright stars lately in the Richmond food scene… Shanghai food is not easy to be good… this restaurant is able to deliver the flavour of Shanghai in a way that is not too oily and yet flavourful…
Try their SLB… the skin is thin and the soup inside is just right not greasy… other notable dishes are Jelly Fish and Cloud Ear Salad.

Have been here twice and the food has not disappoint. However, there was a dessert I wanted to order but because their kitchen was ‘too busy’ that evening, they refused the order as it takes a little longer to make. The restaurant at that time was only half full.
Pricing is fair and portions are reasonable. I tried to make reservations for another evening and they wouldn’t take reservations for less than 5 people. Not sure if it was a holiday thing.

Hard to make a reservation because they are always «fully booked». It was our 5^th time booking over the phone and they finally have a table for us. Unbelievable.
I really like the decoration and bathroom looks fancy. Food is average. So you are paying to eat in a nice environment!
Steam dumplings are good. I love it.
We had lunch there and each paid close to $ 20, got a few left overs.
Will go back if making a reservation is easier instead of getting rejected 4 times first. Why make life so difficult? There are too many choices in Richmond for good food anyways.

Overall good Shanghainese food, nice décor and venue. Added bonus of two private rooms available. We had Peking Duck, very nice. Fried pork buns, good. Only thing that was just ok was the xiao long bao which unfortunately a few were broken or stuck to each other.

It seems that this place is always busy. The food is quite good. Some of the food like the stir fried noodles has a lot of oil/​msg so I would recommend their lighter dishes. The soup with dumplings and chicken was delicious. The service was on good except the hostess. Also if its your birthday they play a super cute song in the restaurant

The food at Nu Shanghainese Bistro is average. Nothing special nor fancy to other restaurants in Metro Vancouver. The décor in the restaurant looks nice and there’s adequate parking available in the parkade. However, there are other businesses in the same plaza so parking fills up quickly during peak hours.
I gave two stars because the service was awful. The hostesses gave me the look as if they don’t want to work or something… the attitude and tone of their voice made me feel uncomfortable eating there again.

Food was average quality. But the service and the wait for the food was horrible! We were seating for almost 2 hours and some of the food had not arrived. When we asked for the bill, items that have not arrived were still on the bill. We had to flag staff to revise the bill. Make sure you received what you ordered and double check the bill!
There was a baby who needed his diaper changed and the staff refused to open the handicap restroom for parents and baby. Staff stated it was against rules. I’m not sure if they open the handicap restroom for others who really do need the space.
New restaurant to the area. The décor is nice. There is free 2 hour parking on the plaza for customers.
There is a VIP card which gives you a discount. Is this enough to motivate me to come back? Not really. There are plenty of other restaurants to choose from in Richmond.

011 shredded chicken and mung bean pasta salad $ 7.95 ³⁄₅ — too bad there wasn’t any cucumber and peanut. The texture of the fen pi (mung bean sheet) was above average.
156 ham and winter melon soup $ 12.95 3.5÷5 — Portion was big. Too bad they used bacon instead of Chinese ham. It was a little saltier than I wanted.
183 sticky rice wrap with dried seaweed $ 4.95 3.75÷5 — Very crispy with a softer centre.
185 deep fried Chinese donut $ 2.95 ⁴⁄₅ — I’m pretty sure they were freshly deep fried in-​house. The filling was very moist too. Nothing comparable to those they were re-​fried.
186 xiao long bao (juicy pork dumplings) $ 5.95 3.5÷5 — lots of soup inside. I found the skin thin but still able to hold the weight.
224 pumpkin pancake $ 5.95 ³⁄₅ — The menu didn’t say it has red bean filling. I was expecting something similar to the deep-​fried Yam Rice Cake from City 1. Very disappointing.
portions were bigger than expected. I heard this place was pricy with small portions. I found $ 15/​pp pretty reasonable.

Bad Service, bad attitudes, bad experience! Avoid at all costs!
My mom wanted to try out this new Shanghai styled restaurant. So we made a reservation and came in to a pretty busy restaurant. We were seated about 5 minutes later and presented with a vast menu. The menu was nice as it had lots of pictures for the dishes.
After sitting there for 10 minutes we still had no tea as the waitresses seems to be running around constantly. 15 minutes later my sister and her fiancée arrived we finally got someone drop off a pot of tea. It was a good thing we weren’t thirsty. After selecting seven dishes we put in our order. We wrote down the dish number according to the menu and when the waitress came we were told that they can’t use the numbers for ordering! I was like, why are there numbers on the dishes then? So we had to flip through the menu finding all the items again and then telling the waitress the name of the dish.
The dishes started to come out about 10 minutes later. First the duck dish, which was pretty small but I guess for a price of $ 6 it was alright. Then the next three dishes came out. We asked the waitress that dropped off the second dish for a glass of water but instead they somehow thought we asked for a pot of hot water… how they thought that, I don’t know.
After that, there was a lull of 10 minutes till the fifth dish came out. We finished off the dish pretty quickly and we were waiting for the last two dishes — one fried rice dish and one soya chicken dish. 10 more minutes of nothing. By this time it was 8:20 and we flagged down a waitress asking where our last two dishes were. She said that she’s going to check the dishes but with an attitude that why are you bothering me.
We wait again and it’s now 8:45 and a waitress comes over to our table and tells us that they have run out of rice and that we would need to order something. At this point the chicken dish has still not come out either. My question is why did it take another 30 minutes to be notified they ran out of rice? And where was the chicken dish? This was enough and we demanded that the chicken dish either be taken off our bill or be served to us within 5 minutes! Low and behold, it comes out 2 minutes later. This was just chicken pieces with soya sauce in a bowl! Why was it delayed for 40 minutes?!
In addition to this great kitchen service, the waitresses all had a bad attitude. They were rude and had this snobby «I’m better than you» attitude. I mean as a waitress in a restaurant, you are there to service people, not give them attitude.