Restaurant Review: Yellow Ranger
The new Chinese-American restaurant inside the Golden Horn should let its flavors roar
Reviewed by Taylor Tobin, Fri., July 26, 2024
Chinese takeout in the United States represents a very special type of comfort food. Salty, fatty, greasy, sweet, sour – the layers of flavor and texture in dishes like chow mein, General Tso’s chicken, and crab rangoon manage to feel both warmly familiar and intriguingly unique, and those of us who grew up with these dishes will never abandon our deep-rooted devotion. Is American Chinese food “authentic”? Depends on who you ask; these dishes might not bear much resemblance to what you’d get in Beijing or Shanghai, but their melding of American ingredients and traditional Chinese techniques tells a completely authentic story of the Asian diaspora in the United States.
Setting aside the authenticity question, fans of Americanized Chinese cuisine already know that these dishes are elite-level hangover helpers, so it stands to reason that this food would make sense as top-quality pub grub. And at Yellow Ranger, the new food counter at the Golden Horn in North Loop, snacks inspired by classic Chinese takeout staples and whipped up by Ramen Tatsu-ya vets are exactly what you’ll find to go with the bar’s impressive draft list and playful cocktails.
The Golden Horn is the new inhabitant of the space beneath longstanding dive bar Barfly’s, and they’re not looking to stray much from the relaxed and pretentiousness-free energy of their upstairs neighbor. If you’ve seen That ’70s Show (or if you lived in the Midwest during the Seventies), then you have an idea of the Golden Horn aesthetic: comfortable midcentury basement vibes with neon signs, a prominently displayed pool table, and vinyl banquettes lining every wall.
This space doesn’t try to put on airs, and neither does Yellow Ranger’s menu. The featured dishes straddle an interesting line: About half are “American” pub dishes with Chinese influences, while the other half are twists on Americanized Chinese menu staples. And both halves of the menu are designed to pair beautifully with local beers from places like Zilker Brewing and St. Elmo Brewing and with the Golden Horn’s whimsical cocktail list. The bar’s willingness to veer away from “serious” cocktails and instead focus on perfecting fun libations like the Iron Whip – a drink invented at East Austin dive Violet Crown Social Club that consists of vanilla vodka, orange vodka, and orange juice, that tastes like a boozy Dreamsicle – and a frozen espresso martini speaks to the bar team’s confidence in their concept. The Iron Whip avoids the too-sugary pratfall with a measured balance of ingredients, and the Tajin rim adds a hint of spice and acid that counteracts the sweetness. As for the frozen espresso martini, the java packs a notable punch and the creamy and silky texture could convert anyone who’s suffered through an overly icy frozen coffee cocktail in the past.
Yellow Ranger’s nods to suburban takeout Chinese favorites are well-selected; the menu features crab rangoon, lo mein, fried rice, and even a take on orange chicken that replaces the poultry with cauliflower. They make pleasant drinking snacks to pair with Golden Horn’s boozy offerings, but while tasting these dishes, I couldn’t help but wonder what they could become if the kitchen gave itself permission to go hard on their most flavor-packing ingredients. A prime example is Yellow Ranger’s Taiwanese fried chicken. On the plus side, the breading features a toothsome crunch, and the presence of chicharrones adds some flavor depth. But when I went searching for soy and sesame and five spice and ginger, my taste buds came up empty. The basics were there: some salt and some savory and a trace of acidity. But the taste nuances, which would take this dish from “pretty satisfying” to “unforgettable,” were conspicuously absent. An extra boost of spice and seasoning in the chicken breading could get it to the right place, as could the addition of a robust dipping sauce. But with neither present, the dish felt like an unfinished draft, a fledgling idea with tremendous potential still waiting to be realized.
Luckily, Yellow Ranger proves more successful when serving up “American” pub dishes with a Chinese twist. Their queso deserves to be ranked among the best versions in town; the salty processed cheese base gets a grounding layer of umami from black garlic and sesame oil, and a swirl of chili crisp adds a welcome boost of heat. Yellow Ranger pairs the queso with wonton chips that are perfectly greasy and also substantial enough to carry the dip, and the crunchy blanched broccoli leans into the nostalgia quotient of Golden Horn’s decor scheme with deeply satisfying results.
Yellow Ranger takes care to honor its predecessor, an Asian-influenced burger joint called Burger Tex that occupied this space for 50 years. Yellow Ranger’s Burger Tex is a smash burger served on a milk bun with charred scallions, a hot mustard aïoli, American cheese, and pickles. The patty-flattening results in a near-shattering level of crispiness that should be studied by less-successful smash burger purveyors, and the milk bun’s mellow sweetness makes an appealing contrast to the meat and cheese’s salt content. But I didn’t detect any heat from the hot mustard. As someone who always hoards the hot mustard packets from Chinese takeout joints and squeezes them on anything and everything, I missed that horseradish-like sinus burn.
The not-so-hot hot mustard reflects my larger question about Yellow Ranger: These talented chefs launched a concept with plenty of aptitude and the chance to unleash some raucous and unfettered flavors, but the actual dishes feel tamped down by a curious level of restraint. I left Yellow Ranger intrigued by the idea-tendrils coursing throughout the menu and also fairly frustrated by the fact that, based on several of the dishes already available and the pedigree of the restaurant’s culinary team, this eatery already has everything it needs to be an unqualified triumph. Yellow Ranger just has to dig its heels in and commit to the promise of big flavor that they’re implicitly offering to everyone who visits.
Yellow Ranger deserves to work with full measures only, and the coming weeks will determine how the opening dust settles and whether they’re able to deliver everything that they’re capable of delivering. I’ll certainly be back, and I hope that North Loopers and curious Austin gourmands will give this team the opportunity to show us what they’re made of. Something tells me that, after the trial-and-error period elapses and the hiccups are silenced by a deep and confident breath, we won’t be disappointed.
Yellow Ranger
5420 Airport (inside The Golden Horn)
