Jason F.
Yelp
The concept of trendy and intimate "bistro" doesn't necessarily correlate whenever we think of heading to Oakland's Chinatown and visit C & M Bistro, but we can saw that it is a quaint mom and pop owned restaurant that specializes in takeout orders, but had dine in options in their small dining room that's perfect for the times we are living in thanks to their amenability for a quick lunch or a reasonably priced takeout order. Now is the cleanest place in their area? Even where they are located in an underground walkway that leads to the courtyard to the Pacific Renaissance Plaza Shopping Center. Sometimes it can be so dark that their storefront could be easy to miss. We came on a Wednesday afternoon after 1 p.m. not expecting a large crowd but were slightly surprised to still see such robust business with multiple people waiting outside for their takeout orders, which just goes to show how busy they still are and how much they mean to their loyal customers even in these challenging times for all restaurants. Their big ticket selling items, among a wide variety of items they offer, are the items that are featured under their Lunch To Go menu from roasted duck to roasted pork to soy sauce chicken all served over rice and all priced at $8.50 is a real reasonable price meal.
But since we came as a party of three and we were here to take out a fairly hearty lunch, we tended to opt for noodles and a protein dish. As a regular option we tend to always order their H5 which is their Beef Chow Fun, which is priced at $9.75, and their H1 which is their House Special Chow Mein, which is priced at $12.50 and is normally filled with all of their options that are served in their other chow mein options from a mixture of seafood and vegetables. To supplement our meal we opted for their E9, which is their Empress Chicken and a whole order costs $19.50. Our lunch of three fairly large dishes for takeout cost $41.75 before tax and tip. After ordering they do ask you to stand outside as they cook it in their small kitchen in back, and they prep their pre-cooked protein, like their Empress Chicken in front, where they delicately chop that bird so much so that you can enjoy multiple meals with it. After waiting outside for about twenty minutes, our meal was ready for pickup.
We loved our Beef Chow Fun as it was a takeout meal that was so plentiful that all three of us could have split this dish and easily been satisfied. Filled with plenty of beef cubes, wok fried onions, and bean sprouts on top of the soy sauce infused flat noodles, it was Chow Fun at its typical finest. The House Special Chow Mein was unfortunately consisted of too many wok seared skinny noodles and not enough seafood from shrimp to squid and vegetables and it had a drier overall taste without much gravy, which is fine, but not very expected. Our whole Empress Chicken really impressed as they pack it with three extra packets of green onion dipping sauces and since we decided to save that part of our order for dinner later in the evening it was packed so compactly that everything tasted fresh as can be when we finally opened out to-go container. For all of 40 dollars we got so much food for multiple meals. C & M Bistro will forever be our go-to place for solid and exceptionally priced traditional Chinese cuisine. They have all of the items you would need to put on a great dinner with duck, pork and chicken being highlights, and since they have menus in English and Chinese and number each item on their menu plus they take both cash and credit cards that it's ordering made easy. Finding parking whether its street or garage parking in the Pacific Renaissance Plaza can be a challenge, even in the middle of the work week with considerable less people out and about considering our current world situation, but sometimes you can get lucky like we did on this day, which makes going to C & M Bistro on a nice day when you can all the worth while!
