Deft Touch at the Wok

2414 Exposition, Ste. D-108, 322-0344

Daily, 11:30am-3pm; 4:30-9pm
(4:30-9:30pm only Fri & Sat)

Formosa Restaurant photograph by John Anderson

Tucked away in a strip center in the very heart of tony Tarrytown lies Formosa Chinese restaurant, the sort of lively neighborhood spot that loyal regulars don't tell just anyone about -- they don't want it any more popular than it already is. And, after all, this is a locale blessed with few restaurants in the immediate area. Fortunately for those of us without an 03 zipcode, Formosa is easily accessible from MoPac. Sandwiched between a branch bank and Mozart's Restaurant in Tarry Town Center, at the northwest corner of Windsor and Exposition, Formosa has been open for eight years. It's a pleasantly warm and comfy little spot with cool jazz playing on the sound system. The tables are close together, but not so much as to be intrusive. Peak dining times can guarantee a brief wait, and sitting near the door can be a little unnerving as would-be diners lurk vulture-like, guessing which table will be the next to leave. Each time we ate there, phone-in and "to go" business was brisk. One lagniappe of its location and size is that it's a great spot to eavesdrop and watch people -- lots of chatty matrons and designer duds, talk of development deals and stock market turmoil, but you won't feel out of place in shorts and a T-shirt.

Service is fast and efficient, carried out by a staff of veterans who know the menu well. Glasses are refilled promptly, and special requests are handled with no fuss. Unless a waitperson has a good joke, a hot fishing tip, or something terribly witty or clever to say, I'd rather not even know they're around as long as my needs are met, and the staff at Formosa handles this task with aplomb.

The lunch menu offers 37 main choices with a great range of vegetarian offerings. Most of the non-vegan items are available with chicken, beef, pork, shrimp, or mixed meats. All lunches come with fried rice that succeeds in retaining its fluffiness -- not glued together with grease like you usually find -- or steamed rice. The diner also gets a choice of soup, and trust me, Formosa's version of hot and sour is among the finest around: delightfully tangy with a pleasant heat in a rich stock with chunks of minced pork. No thin, vapid, tasteless stock or minuscule, lonely slivers of pork here; this is the real deal. Items we sampled for lunch included Kung Pao Assorted Vegetables, which had dry-spiced tofu and 12 different veggies (including asparagus) in a spicy brown sauce with red chiles; Pan Fried Noodles With Mixed Meats and Garlic Sauce (I subbed the garlic sauce and must say it's the best I've had in Austin); Shrimp With Ginger-Basil Sauce, a light ginger brown sauce with an explosion of basil flavor; and Chicken With Black Bean Sauce, which aptly captured the essence of the fermented black beans without being too salty the way so many versions in town are. All the dishes were excellent, with a good ratio of crunchy vegetables to meats (or tofu). The portions were large but not overwhelming.

The dinner menu has a wide variety of appetizers, specialty soups, lunch items, a large list of House Specials, and the night we were there, 14 different chalkboard selections that leaned heavily toward the fresh fish side of the aisle with an accent on Pacific Rim Fusion. Appetizers are generally in the $3-5 range, soups are $4.50 per order for two people, and entrees a la carte are $7.55 ($8.95 as a complete dinner). It's an interesting option for folks getting different appetizers or soups, or for those who wish to eat light. The House Specials range from $9.50-12.95 and the chalkboard selections from $11.95-14.95 ... perhaps slightly higher than your average neighborhood Chinese joint, but the portions are huge and the quality of ingredients first-rate; you definitely leave feeling like you got your money's worth.

We began our evening meal with Minced Chicken Soup With Corn, a classic Chinese soup done here with a twist by adding cream. The bowl for two contained enough to fill 4 1/2 cups and had lots of minced chicken with fresh-cut corn, plus scallions, cream, and stock. The richness of the stock was balanced nicely by the sweetness of the corn and the texture was silky-smooth -- complex taste from simple ingredients. Appetizers included Pan Fried Dumplings (six for $4.50) and Bacon-Wrapped Fried Shrimps (six for $5). The dumplings had a flavorful ground pork stuffing and a slightly chewy homemade wrapper nicely browned on the bottom as it should be. Formosa brings out a dipping sauce of rice wine vinegar with lots of slivered ginger for the dumplings, and you can add ground chile and soy to taste. The shrimp were tightly wrapped with bacon and dusted with rice flour, then flash fried. My only complaint was that they deserve a more unique sauce than the mustard and sweet-and-sour that accompanied them.

Entrees started with Formosa's Orange Beef ($9.50), which is a clean, refined version using orange segments as well as caramelized peel with red chiles, thyme, dill, and oregano. A far cry from the cloying, cornstarch-laden concoction usually found. We followed that with Fish Fillet Formosa ($12.95), which had four fillets of crisp, moist orange roughy atop a bed of vegetables and mixed meats with shrimp and scallops in a light brown garlic sauce served on a sizzling platter -- my personal fave. Next came Jumbo Prawns Formosa ($12.95), eight large U-12 prawns nestled in a fried noodle basket in a perfectly balanced tangy ginger tomato sauce -- my friend's rave. The clincher was Fish Formosa ($12.95), two large tilapia fillets artfully served over a light but rich basil cream sauce rife with mudbugs and accented with asparagus spears -- what sounded like a strange combo but was a great meld of taste and texture.

Chef-owner Robert Chang runs a well-oiled machine at Formosa. He has years of experience cooking for his mom at China Palace and restaurants in California. He has a masterful touch with soups and sauces that diners in Austin usually have to pay big bucks to experience -- and they're available at Formosa for much less. High-quality ingredients, innovative selections, a deft touch at the wok, good value ... these qualities will bring us back for more.