Chow's Chinese Bistro

My wife and I had eaten at the Cottonwood Mall location on a Saturday afternoon about a year ago and thought the food was very good with good service. We went back tonight and I am writing this after just having finished our take out meal at home. Again, food is quite good, but our intention was not to have take out. After waiting to be seated for 45 minutes (several larger but later arriving parties were seated ahead of us for unexplained reasons) we waited another 20 minutes to have our drink order taken. The appetizer and drinks were served rather promptly after that, but unfortunately our waiter (Shane) did not return to our table for almost an hour after that. By that time, our 2 year old was no longer interested in waiting, so we had to get our food to go. Again, the food is good (a little too spicy unless you request it less), but definitely not worth the wait. Pros: One of few Asian restaurants in this wasteland of a city Cons: Terrible service more

A friend told me several months ago she drives into Albuquerque to Chow's when she really wants to relax and enjoy great food. I thought, ""Big deal, it's just Chinese food. It's all about the same, right?"" WRONG! When my daughter (Pooh) visited in April from out of state, we decided to check out Chow's - we could relax and enjoy our favorite ritual (eating Chinese food together). If I could come up with a new word for awesome, WOW, yummy, savory, mmm, OMG! I would. After a few bites we looked at each other and said ""We've gotta bring the family here."" Pooh added, ""Mom, I've traveled all over and I come to Albuquerque and find the best Chinese food in the world!"" So, since April we go to Chow's once a month. We take our friends and family to Chow's for a special culinary experience. We event excuses to go to Chow's. I should have written a review much sooner! All that to say, ""Try Chow's at least once and it will be one of your favorites too."" We all order a different dish and start passing each dish to the right to sample them. My favorite is ""birds and nuts"" - what's that word for it? Oh yeah, Mmmm. more

Good freshly prepared food with good service. I would highly recommend this restaurant. I am a current resident of Albuquerque, but lived in San Francisco for 25 years and I know good chinese food. This is the best chinese food in Albuquerque, hands down. more

Everytime we go we try something new and different and every time it has been flavorful and inventive! LOVE the decor and the waitstaff is always nice and attentive :) price is below average for normal high quality chinese quisine. We have gone many many times and haven't experienced anything mentioned above. maybe those people should stick to the great china buffets their used to! Pros: Inventive & very flavorful food more

A $57 mistake (2 of us, and we didn't get alcohol). We ate there at noon on 8-26-2006. We've eaten here once before, and the food was great - but not this time. We ordered the fried wontons and fire cracker dumplings for appetizers. The fried wontons were old and tasted like they were left over from the night before. They were so stale that they ended up shredding the top of my mouth. The dumplings were cold and rubbery. We came to the conclusion that these were probably left over from the night before. When he got the entrees (service was very slow since there was one waitress), they looked appealing (but then again, the appetizers look appealing too), however, they were cold and poorly prepared. I ordered the seafood delight and my companion ordered the duck dish. The duck appeared to have been pummeled to death. The bones were not removed. There seemed like hundreds of tiny bones in the duck. My companion complained that it was too much trouble to remove all of the bones to enjoy the duck. Plus, the duck was cold and stale (and greasy). I was disappointed with the seafood delight. Part of it was my fault; I thought the rice noodles would have been cooked. These rice noodles were crunchy and tasted like Styrofoam. There was very little seafood. The dish mostly consisted mostly of vegetables drowning in a cold cornstarch tasting bland sauce. The 3 scallops were okay. However, the snow crab was in various eviscerated shell pieces. My fingers got shredded up trying to get crabmeat from these squishy, sharp edge pieces of crab shell. I just gave up. Its too much trouble. Plus, being on a vegetable based diet 6 days of the week, the last thing I want of my diet free day are vegetables!!! Plus, there is little point to fight with your meal so you can get some mediocre enjoyment out of it. Pros: The ice tea was nice when we got it. The food was visibly artistic. Cons: Everything! more

I have to admit that I don't like mall restaurants and I went to the Chow's in Cottonwood Mall. The decor was a bit gaudy (take off all of the pricetags on the vases) and you can feel the floor vibrating from mall carts going by in the outside hallway. Nonetheless, the entrees are pretty good though you can skip many of the appetizers. If you want spicey, they will comply and the dishes are quite tasty. Pros: Flavorful entrees Cons: Cold decor, Appetizers more