Pao, Wow!

Fruit Sushi at Pao's Mandarin House

2300 Lohman's Spur #134, 263-8869

(Lohman's Crossing Shopping Center)

Daily: 11am-3pm; 4:30-10pm (Photo By John Anderson)

There was an Austin culinary uproar in 1997 when Pao's closed down their old spot at Eighth and Brazos and made their Lakeway home the solo location. Pao's had been very popular downtown since their opening in 1985, and all kinds of rumors swirled regarding the reason, but it was simply a matter of landlords wanting to convert the building to offices at the end of Pao's lease.

Many of us remember the cherubic daughter Linda working the register for the Pao parents at the old location, and when you visit the Lakeway restaurant you'll feel right at home when you see her there still (as the current owner). Back in the day, Pao's had a stellar reputation as one of the best Chinese venues in town, and today we are pleased to rate them solidly within the top four or five around.

The restaurant has an elegant feel, with dark Asian wood-paneled dividers and subdued lighting, and the acoustics allow for casual conversation with fellow diners. Kudos go out to Linda and her gang for what we witnessed at our last visit: All parties with small children were seated in the front room, while we blissfully child-free diners got to sit in the back – in peace and quiet. It's a policy that few restaurants today are savvy to.

Here's the quick culinary overview before we go into the specifics. Be sure you carefully peruse the "special Chinese menu" before you settle on the more white-bread offerings, as that is where the treasures reside. There are some unique offerings seldom seen around town, and the menu shows a nice range of many different regions of China. The kitchen has a magnificent touch with sauces, making them light, rich, and flavorful – no cloying coatings of over-cornstarched goop here. Service has its minor quirks (a waiter that repeats each order for the whole room to hear, another with a fractured sense of humor), but overall, it's efficient, unobtrusive, and smooth.

There are delicious treats to be found all through the appetizer section of the menu. Spicy Tangy Bean Curd ($3.95) is slivers of firmly compressed hard tofu mixed with scallion and a spicy dressing with a hint of fermented bean paste, yielding a pleasing nutty taste. Spicy Beef Tendon ($4.50) consists of thin discs of wonderfully gelatinous textured tendon in a piquant dressing of garlic slivers, soy, and sesame. Pan Fried Dumplings ($4.95) are superb: thin hand-done wrappers encasing a chunky pork filling (and the dipping sauce is perfectly balanced ... the best in town).

Scallion Pancake ($2.50) is done just right: flaky layers, lightly browned, and not the least bit greasy (although they could use a more assertive scallion taste). Pan Fried Pao-Tze ($4.50) are large dome-shaped pork dumplings with a unique sauce of tamarind, lots of ginger, soy, and black vinegar – excellent, and radically different from the previous dumplings. Steamed Dumplings ($4.95) are the steamed equivalent of the pan-fried variety, with the exception that they are steamed on a bed of Napa cabbage, which subtly imparts a pleasing new taste element to the dish. Chinese Wonton Soup ($4.25, for two) is ambrosial: decadent little pork and shrimp wontons submerged in an impeccably rich stock with baby bok choy and garlic. A dash of Pao's searingly hot fresh chile oil nudges it to the heights.

From 11am to 2:30pm every Saturday and Sunday, Pao's offers their version of dim sum, but here it's called Northern Chinese Style Brunch. You'll find a menu of 54 items, including many of the appetizer items and a broad mix of lesser known delights, such as Stuffed Dumplings in Sesame Soup, Cold Seaweed Salad, Sesame Seed Cake With Roast Beef, Sweet Fermented Rice Soup, Salted Fish With Ham Fried Rice, etc. These are dishes aimed squarely at the Asian market (but dishes that every aficionado should be adventurous enough to try).

Entrées offer a palette of numerous and often unusual choices. If I were a 12-year-old girl with a cell phone, Chinese Bacon Hunan Style ($8.50) would have me screaming "oh my gawd!" to the rooftops. This dish had us swooning, it was so good. More like thin slices of moist smoked pork loin than what one would typically think with the word "bacon," it comes with leeks, scallions, and garlic in a sauce that is slightly sweet, tangy, and salty all at once. Highly recommended and incredibly addictive!

Pao's version of Ma Po Dofu (Hunan-style tofu with minced pork, $6.95) is so close to the best in town that it defies difference. On second thought, it has more flavor than the best in town! This version is made with small cubes of soft tofu with smoky chiles and minced pork, bathed in a thick sauce that is both rich and tangy, with a blast of black pepper and a hint of numbing yet spicy Sichuan peppercorn. This dish has megadepth and could be better only if it came in a bowl so that it stayed hotter for a longer period of time.

Pan Fried Noodle With Seafood ($9.50) is a good example of Pao's quality. The thin egg noodles are cooked to a golden brown and very crispy, topped with a rich, clear sauce containing onion, carrot, and baby bok choy, and just-cooked tender squid, shrimp, and scallops. The seafood is all golden brown on the outside from high-heat searing, yet sweet, tender, and exceedingly moist on the inside. The sauce's depth is the hallmark of a restaurant that puts value in its stocks.

Smoked Tea Smoked Duck ($9.75) arrives deliciously smoky, meaty, and juicy, with nary a hint of fattiness. The skin is dark, paper-thin, and lacquerlike. It shows a duck that has been properly steamed, marinated, dried, smoked, and roasted.

Shredded Pork With Dry Bean Curd ($7.95) has a proper ratio of lean, sweet pork julienne mixed with shredded, nutty, dry spiced tofu. The sauce is a light brown version, flavored with scallion threads – perfect with a light sprinkling of their fiery chile paste. Orange Flavor Beef ($ 8.95) arrives as large, thin chunks of tender beef coated with a sweet, tangy, and spicy sauce and lots of pieces of dry, smoky orange peel and chiles. The combination of flavors, with a kiss of Sichuan peppercorn in the coating, melds with aplomb.

Sichuan Red Pepper Chicken ($8.50) is a surprise. It's a large platter of bone-in chicken pieces, coated with a light dusting of rice flour, some garlic, and copious amounts of chile powder and has about 50 deep red and angry-looking fried chile peppers. It makes for a powerful taste that's deceptively subtle at first bite. As the dish cools, the crust flavors become more prominent (smoky and hot) and the meat seems juicer, and by the last bite you find yourself wanting more and more. We can't imagine a better picnic or party dish than three of four orders of this chicken served a little bit later, after it's cooled to room temperature.

Pao's does a brisk lunch business and has a fairly large menu of choices (53 in all) that are all in the $5.50 to $6.50 price range. Lunch comes with soup, appetizer, and fried rice – a sweet deal for the price. Just recently, they added a sushi bar (Tuesday through Sunday only) that has a nice selection of items, with very reasonable prices. We haven't tried any of the sushi items as yet, but if the sushi is as good as the Chinese food, we're pretty stupid for passing it up so far. We did see some really nice-looking tuna going by on its way to a table. Not to mention how well a nice squid and seaweed salad, some vegetable or shrimp tempura, or a hunk of eel or yellowtail would have gone with our meals.

Linda said that Pao's does about 65% of its business in takeout, and they do have delivery to the local Lakeway area. We suppose if you lived in an expensive house with a lake view, you might want to eat at home as well, but when you go out to eat at a restaurant this good and it's half-full, then people just don't know it's out there.

So, to sum it all up: Pao's has a wonderful and eclectic menu selection, especially considering the recent addition of the sushi selections. The Chinese food is masterfully prepared, with rich sauces that don't dominate the taste of the food. The portions are large, the quality of the product high, and the prices are very reasonable. The dining space is comfortable and attractive; the service is efficient without being smothering. In short, Pao's is solidly among the uppermost echelon of Austin's Chinese restaurants. One can only wonder why you haven't been yet.