Second Helpings: Chinese Restaurants
Chronicle writer Greg Beets surveys Austin's Chinese restaurants.
Fri., June 30, 2000
China Bowl Cafe
5601 Brodie, 899-8998
Daily, 11am-9pm
China Bowl woos the Southwest Austin set with Asian stir-fried rice bowls featuring your choice of veggies, beef, chicken, pork, shrimp, or salmon. Sauce selections include spicy garlic basil, ginger white wine, and Thai yellow curry. The bowls run between $6.50 and $7.50 and should satisfy most big eaters. While you do get to select your own veggies, China Bowl exercises portion control over meat, putting them at a slight disadvantage to Mongolian BBQ for serious carnivores.
China Dynasty
2110 New Slaughter Ln., Ste. 101, 280-3777
Sun, 11:30am-9:30pm; Mon-Thu, 11am-9:30pm; Fri, 11am-10pm; Sat, 11:30am-10pm
Hunan Szechuan cuisine is the name of the game at China Dynasty. Specialties include General Tso's chicken, orange chicken, and sesame shrimp. Big spenders can try the double delicacy delight ($13.95), which adds a spicy, deep-fried lobster tail to the General Tso's chicken. Lunch specials start at $3.50. China Dynasty offers several vegetarian specials as well.
China Emperor
111 W. William Cannon, 443-2922
Sun, 11:30am-10pm; Mon-Thu, 11am-10pm; Fri-Sat, 11:30am-10:30pm
China Emperor's claim to fame is a sizable lunch and dinner buffet that's plentiful and diverse, but the dish-to-dish inconsistencies are likely to leave you a little antsy. Definitely try the General Tso's chicken, featuring not-too-sweet chunks of chicken with a sinus-clearing spice rating. China Emperor's hot and sour soup also leaves a pleasant, peppery afterburn. The heavily advertised seafood portion of the buffet is less successful.
China Express
1913 E. Riverside, 448-3633
Sun, 11:30am-9:30pm; Mon-Thu, 11am-9:30pm; Fri, 11am-10pm; Sat, 11:30am-10pm
If you don't want to shell out more than six or seven bucks for a decent, filling Chinese dinner, China Express is a good bet. Many of their dinner combination plates go for as little as $4.50, more than many restaurants charge for lunch. If that's still too steep, China Express also has $2.99 lunch specials and a $3.99 lunch buffet. Ginger lovers should try the Mongolian beef.
China Garden
11657 Research, 231-0742
Mon-Sat, 11am-9:30pm
In the cutthroat world of Chinese lunch specials, China Garden distinguishes itself with spiced-up standards that leave you red-faced and satisfied. The $4.50 spicy shredded beef home style packs plenty of heat, and the accompanying hot and sour soup is robust and flavorful. Dinner combination plates are a reasonable $6.95. China Garden also serves noodle soups and several diet dishes.
China Gate
2521 Rutland, 834-0035
Mon-Sat, 11am-2pm; 5pm-10pm
Lots of high-tech workers partake of China Gate's generous $4.50 lunch special, which includes an entrée, rice, soup, and egg roll. There is also a small $5.25 buffet that can't possibly compete with Chinese restaurants where buffets are the raison d'être. The hot and spicy fried shrimp is neither hot nor spicy; more elementary dishes like beef with broccoli fare better.
China House
9505 Burnet, 834-0788
Mon-Fri, 11am-2:30pm, 4:30pm-10pm; Sat, 11:30am-10pm; Sun, 11:30am-9pm
This easy-to-miss hole in the wall (look for the waving gorilla advertising karate lessons) serves bargain-basement lunch specials starting at $3.95. The lunch menu features all the usual suspects (moo goo gai pan, kung pao, et al.), while dinner throws several mushu dishes and noodle soups into the mix. China House offers a middling $4.99 lunch buffet, but even die-hard buffeteers would be better off ordering from the menu.
China Palace
6605 Airport, 451-7104
Daily, 11:30am-10pm
While China Palace can dish out chop suey with the best of 'em, chef Rocky Chang also offers specialty dishes like kung pao scallops toss-fried with pineapple in mayonnaise sauce and three-alarm fire dragon squid with serrano pepper sauce. Dinner entrees start at $6.50, but 32 different lunch specials start at $4.50. China Palace also has a lunch buffet on weekdays from 11:30am to 2pm.
