Sao Asian Bistro

This review is shorter than normal to coincide with the laughable portion size. Had I not been traveling on the corporate card I would have not paid for this meal. Others have already commented on the ambiance and service. I won’t redouble the efforts. Hint though, if you are staying at the Hampton, stop at the front desk and get a 10% off coupon.
I ordered hot and sour soup and combination fried rice. The 16 ounce cup of soup was about ²⁄₃ full. Seriously? It was about $ 4. Crazy ripoff. Tasty, but not worth it. The combo fried rice was damn near $ 13. Again. Tasty. But a total, ripoff. In any major metro city, this meal is less than $ 10, easily. I feel sorry for the good people of Marion, Il. You’re being had.
I never eat at national establishments when I travel. Next time I’m here on business, I’ll be hitting the Applebee’s across the parking lot. At least I know in advance what’s in store.
Shame on you Sao Aslan Bistro. Boo.

The food is always good here but the restaurant really needs to be updated in the sense that the menus really need to be redone and just some other small touch ups that will really escalate the quality of the experience here.

Great spicy dumplings. Average curry. Okay lettuce rolls. Clean place. Friendly waitress. Great chicken pineapple.

Great food for the area — service is not good and seems like they are always out of the good wine/​beer selections

I worked there for two years and can’t find anything as good anywhere. They ruined me on Asian food all together. I can’t wait to go back and order all of my favorite dishes. The string bean with chicken is wonderful, I love the Korean pork and I’ve yet to have any fried rice that is up to par with the bistro. I would add bean sprouts and a little spicy to my combo fried rice, my favorite by far and the lo mien is perfect. The fried dumplings are great too, I would always dip them in my egg drop soup with a little soy sauce and chili oil.

This place has amazing food. Their staff is amazing, especially Trish. I asked for jasmine tea and they poured it over ice and added sweetner for me because she saw that I used sweet and low in my first glass. I asked for lemon for my beverages and she brought 4 slices and then replenished it when I used it all. Above and beyond service. A must if you’re in Marion or staying at the Hampton Inn right down the street. I would give it 10 stars. Wonderful. Fresh and delicious.

Beautiful restaurant. A bit pricey. The food is usually pretty good, but occasionally not. The crab Rangoon is very good. This is more of a fine dining restaurant than «fast» food.

This place was FANTABULOUS! I was acknowledged right away AND served like a queen! The female bartender was excellent and her recommendations were outstanding, given my carb counting-​high protein diet to maintain my figure. :). Anyway, do NOT let any of these reviews fool you. If you know what you want and how to EXPLAIN your desired preparation of your meals, you will NOT be disappointed. I have traveled around the world and know great foods, especially the flavors of Asia. Folks, work with your bartenders and waiters/​waitresses and I am sure your palate will thank you and your belly! Happy eating and embrace the good people of this wonderful place who, I am sure, will make you feel right at home! :)

Not good! It took a while for someone to come to our table. The food had absolutely no flavor. The owner walked around and came to our table. He tried to make things right by taking $ 1 off (really!?!). I ate all my food, but my husband didn’t finish his. I ordered the vegetable stir fry and my husband order vegetable fried rice. Was a complete waste of money.

Horrible. If you like spaghetti, get the pad thai. Expensive, and gross. $ 18 for the worse pad thai I’ve ever had. Peppered steak could have been dog food.

I love the food here, but the service is terrible. I’ve gone in on multiple occasions where there are less than five tables occupied and still it takes forever to get service, and you have to flag someone down for refills. I continue to go because I love the food, but they should really work on training their servers better.

Food was delicious. Plates were a bit on the small side, be prepared to get a second dish for a full size meal.

Very clean. Great service. Hot and sour soup was fine. Brown rice available! So… why the 2 stars? I was very sick that evening in my hotel, and I’m pretty sure it was the chicken I are there. Not awesome for a work trip, and I can’t say I will ever be back, though I really wanted to love it!

Waited a while for someone to come to our table. While my boyfriend was in the restroom he watched an employee try to leave without washing his hands. Then we finally ordered, waiting… waiting…just as we were about to leave cash and leave, the food came out. Boyfriend got shrimp pad Thai, I got Singapore noodles with vegetables. I asked for no egg, but my dish was swimming in scrambled eggs. For the sake of time, I just picked them out. Then we got the bill. A weekday lunch Shrimp pad Thai was somehow valued at $ 14.88! When we asked why, because on the menu it states pad Thai noodles as $ 8.59, where are they coming up with this price? The manager says, «I’m sorry your server should have told you, if you have meat there is an up charge…» Of $ 6.00! It was not worth $ 15, sorry lady. Food was good, I’ll give them that. But overpriced for the ambiance and experience.
Do yourself a favor and pass on this place.

this review is upon my second visit here. I love their approach to an Asian/​Latin fusion, using poblanos in their spicy Thai dishes. The restaurant is clean, the staff incredibly friendly and engaging.

This establishment seems a bit out of place but it truly is amazing. The moment you walk in it seems you have been transported to a trendy city restaurant with great service. The food was well above average for my expectations upon arriving.
Whether you are part of a large party or a single person you will get the feeling you are the only customer and that shows in the service. A previous comment referenced the restrooms so I had to check it out and they were spot on!
What a hidden gem in Marion! Will be back for sure.

Not what I would have expected in a small town! Very nice and clean place with a lot of choices on the menu. Lettuce wraps were very good (near par with the big chain) and the Teriyaki chicken had a great flavor!

We got excited when we saw this restaurant next to our hotel (Hampton Inn) in Marion, IL. I tried to order on the online order system but it didn’t work correctly as after signing up I got an error message.
I called in the order and it was ready in 20 min. The first thing we did when we got back to the hotel was to sort everything out and noticed we didn’t have any eating utensils. Hampton Inn to the rescue! We had been driving for 11 hrs so by the time we got to our room, unpacked, ordered and received our food we were really hungry so sort of over ordered. But, we had left overs for the next day. My husband ordered Red Curry chicken and said it was very good-​above average. He also had the Crab Ragoon that was average. I had the fried dumplings that were average. What was above average was the dipping sauce, not too sweet with a tang to it. I had the combination Lo mien and also though that was above average on the flavor and amount of meat. I ordered a dessert which traveled home with us. The dessert was a white-​chocolate raspberry torte. I guess I was tired because I focused in on the word «chocolate» so was expecting dark chocolate, lol. But, the dessert was heavenly. I could not eat it in one sitting but enjoyed it throughout my road trip home the next day, I even let my husband have a «bite.»
Bottom line-​I would go back and if I am in the area again, would love to sit at the restaurant and have the experience of it all, along with good food. I give it a three start because of the missing eating utensils and the fact that I need to go back and sit in the restaurant to give it an all over rating.

This place puzzles me.
Driving through rural Southern Illinois, Kentucky, and Tennessee, all we would see along the highway was the typical fast food and Cracker Barrel type places. So when I found this upscale asian bistro on Unilocal,I wasn’t sure what to think. It seems so out of place. From the building, to the wait staff, to the food, everything seems like it belongs in a trendy suburb of a big city.
But putting aside the fact that this restaurant somehow unfortunately got picked up by a flying saucer and plopped down in the middle of nowhere, our experience was pretty good.
Everything was tasty and the service was very good. The restrooms were immaculate too, which is always a plus when you’re doing a long interstate road trip. I enjoyed the kung pao chicken and the crab rangoon. I would definitely stop here again if we’re ever passing through the same area.

Think of this place as if it was a slightly smaller, non-​franchised version of P.F. Chang’s.
When you walk in, the décor is pretty nice, red mahogany and etched windows all around. This place is clean and well-​managed. It is a little dark inside though and needs more natural lighting. Even though there was a Chinese chef in the back, you can really tell how authentic the food is when a restaurant spends a lot of time and money into the décor. I usually take it as a sign that it is an Americanized Chinese restaurant.
On to the food. Prices are very reasonable during lunch and the portions are good. Less than ten bucks. We came here for lunch and the dishes come with either hot and sour or egg drop soup. We tried the hot and sour and it was watered down and salty.
Next up was the Asian spring salad. Now I knew this dish was not Asian because it was a salad with strawberries in it. Throughout all my years of eating Asian food, I’ve never seen a salad with fruit on it from an authentic restaurant. It was good with its light strawberry dressing, but the dressing got watered down towards the bottom of the dish. It tasted really bland towards the end. Also, if you plan to order this, make sure it’s your meal or you are sharing with a lot of people because it’s too much salad.
Their best dish in my opinion is the General Sao’s chicken. It should be since it is their signature dish. The chicken was nicely cooked with golden sweet and sour sauce on top of it. I also ordered the chicken in black bean sauce. In the beginning, it was really good, but it was salt in the dish started building up and I had to stop eating.
Overall I would say that this place has decent Chinese food. Not authentic, but decent. Some of their dishes are overly salted or watered down, but you can trust that the restaurant is clean. The servers were fine, nothing amazing about the service, but at least they weren’t slacking off.
I would come back to this place as it is the best Chinese food I’ve tried in these parts so far.