Hunan North

Hunan North

9306 N Lamar Blvd
Austin, TX 78753

(512) 837-2700

I cannot think of a clever way to start this review, so I am just going to jump in. I ordered my usual Sesame Chicken. It was a little above average in price, being over $8 including tax. It it's even more above average when I discovered there was no eggroll included. I was rather surprised. The meal did include Hot and Sour Soup.

It smelled good as I carried out out to my car. The pieces of chicken were quite large, some thing else that was above average. I cannot say the same for the portion, which was adequate. There was broccoli mixed in with the chicken and an adequate amount of sauce. The soup cup was filed right to the top.  The rice was fried and their was a double scoop, once again above average.

Unfortunately, the taste was not above average. The chicken was fatty and often chewy. The sauce was a little on the sweet side, and worse had very little flavor depth behind the sweet. It was a bit bland. The rice was much worse, since it was very bland. Fortunately there was enough sauce to flavor most of the rice.

Now any regular readers of this blog will know that I am more of a fan of Hot and Sour broth than I am of the soup. The first I tried it I was rather put off by the unidentifiable floaty bits in the soup. Much later I discovered that the worst looking stuff was the egg that is put in at the last moment.

Hunan North's Hot and Sour Soup was in keeping with the rest of the meal, large in portion and average or maybe just below average on taste.

New Mandarin Chinese Restaurant

New Mandarin

212 E. Oltorf St.

Austin, TX 78704-5531

 

Today's review is on carry out food, which is not new, but this time someone else went out to bring it back, so I got it probably 15 or more minutes after it was prepared.
 

Now, if you remember my review of Rice Bowl Cafe, you may remember that I was looking for another restaurant in the same area of town.  Well, that was Mandarin Chinese and I think they may be connected with the north Austin Mandarin that went out of business about two years ago.  I say this because the New Mandarin website is using exactly the same template as the site for the out-of-business Mandarin website.  Fortunately, the south Austin Mandarin, or New Mandarin is still going strong.
 

I ordered my usual.  Sesame Chicken, Hot and Sour Soup, Fried Rice and it came with an eggroll.
 

The Hot and Sour Soup is quite peppery, and quite good.  Now, I am a fan of Hot and Sour Soup, but mostly I am fan of Hot and Sour Broth.  I do not mind the egg, but the mushrooms, tofu and other ingredients are not something I care for.  I tend to skim off the broth and leave the rest.  Well, when I got to the bottom of the bowl, I found that there wasn't much left, so I give them an extra point for giving me lots of broth.
 

The Eggroll was in the box with the rice and chicken, so it is a bit soggy, though it does retain some of it's crunch.  Tasty enough, considering that I did not have to move from my desk to enjoy it.
 

The sauce is quite dark, and a bit less sweet than average, but still good. The chicken is cut into smallish pieces and mostly cooked properly.  As I am eating it, I hit occasional pieces that are a little overdone and chewy, but mostly the chicken is done correctly.  The pieces are well coated, but there is not an abundance of sauce.
 

In an unusual but welcome surprise, there are no vegetables or onions in the fried rice.  It's a bit bland, but a little soy sauce takes care of that.  I wish there were more of the sesame chicken sauce to mix with the fried rice.
 

I managed to miss New Mandarin in my own searches for Chinese restaurants, but I will be happy to give them another try.

Rice Bowl Café

So, actually I headed off to try to find Mandarin House Chinese Restaurant. Funny thing, I called the number and it was answered, but with a different name that I did not catch right away. I got my order placed, and headed off to the address on the website, and it isn't Mandarin House anymore. So, I called again and I wish I had paid attention to the name they said as they answered. I got directions and headed off to what I assumed was the new location, which was a couple miles up the road. But, when I arrived there, no Mandarin House. I called again, and this time I heard it, Rice Bowl Café, which I had seen where they said they were. Turns out that Mandarin House has been closed for two years. They need to shut down their website.

 

So, this review is about Rice Bowl Café, not Mandarin House.

 

Rice Bowl Café

11200 N. Lamar Blvd.

Austin, TX 78753

(512) 835-8888 (number on the banner on the end of the building)

(512) 837-6361 (the number on the Mandarin House website)

 

After the mix up over the restaurant and the location, I was amused, which would normally put me in a forgiving mood. I picked up my order and headed back to work, as I always do. Sesame Chicken, lunch portion, Fried Rice, Egg Roll and Hot and Sour Soup. And I would have been in a forgiving mood, until I paid the bill, which was over $9.00. That is a lot for a Sesame Chicken Lunch. Unfortunately, it got worse.

 

So, the first demerit comes for putting the egg roll in with the steamy rice and chicken. I did not wait all that long, but it was awful. The egg roll was completely limp, with no crunch to it. It was the worst egg roll I have ever eaten. Now some might argue that the restaurant cannot be responsible for the egg roll going limp in a to go order, but I disagree. All they need to do is drop the eggroll into a bag, say one just like the bag of friend won ton strips that came with the lunch and were not in the styrofoam container with the rice and chicken.

 

Now, there was one good thing about the eggroll. It wasn't loaded down with onions. As you can imagine, things loaded down with onions do not rate highly at Hold the Onions. There were onions in the sauce. There were onions in the Fried Rice. There were onions in the Hot and Sour Soup. I have never seen onions in at least two of those items. Now understand, I don't mean a few finely chopped onions, I mean massive slices of onion in massive quantities.

 
 

It got worse. The sauce was full of both onions and some sort of relatively small, but whole peppers. This made the sauce hotter than most I have tasted, but not by a lot. The real problem was that the sauce wasn't very sweet. Actually, thinking about this now, while writing this review, it was sweet....for barbeque sauce! Actually, it wasn't even very sweet for barbeque sauce, but you get the idea. It was savory, and not completely bad, once you separated it from the onions and peppers, but it wasn't very good. Also, the sauce was gloppy and unappetizing to look at, with a gelatinous consistency that spoke of too much cornstarch being used to thicken the sauce.

 

When you combine less than stellar sauce with overcooked chicken you get a fairly unpleasant combination. The chicken was chewy in a bad way, and over cooked or dried out until parts of it were stringy. Things are not looking good.

 

The Fried Rice was overloaded with onions, though onions in Fried Rice are fairly common. Once you separated the Rice from its onion prison, it wasn't too bad, but in a meal that is really suffering, it did not shine out either.

 

So, at last we come to the Hot and Sour Soup, which was also loaded with onions. Now, I generally only want the broth anyway, so I did not really suffer too badly from the onions in the soup, and finally, it seems like they got something right...well, almost. The soup was a little bland, though tasty, without the kick of spice that helps clean out the sinuses while eating a bowl of Hot and Sour Soup.
 

 

So, in conclusion, we have a limp as a rag eggroll, overcooked chicken in gloppy unappetizing sauce with a side of bland friend rice followed up by a mediocre soup, every last bit of buried in onions, as if that could save it, and the whole thing overpriced.
 

Needless to say, I will not be going back to Rice Bowl Café.

Shu Shu's Asian Cuisine

Shu-Shu's

8303 Burnet Rd. Suite 1
Austin, TX 78757
512.291.3002

I was actually heading to a different Chinese restaurant on Burnet Road, but I think that one has closed and about a block up the street I saw Shu-Shu's, which did not snow up on any of my searches. That is not really a good sign for a restaurant that appeared to be quite new. But, it looked very clean if a little plain on the inside, so I grabbed a menu.

 

Now, the first thing to know that Shu-Shu's is a new style oriental restaurant, which from what I can tell means one run by Americans, and probably big business Americans rather than good cook Americans. Now, how can I tell? Because you do order dishes, you order in stages.

 

Stage One-

• Beef
• Chicken
• Veg/Tofu (that is how it is listed on their menu)
• Shrimp

Stage Two-

• Noodles and Rice (four choices)
• Shu Shu's Specialties (13 choices, but wait, there is more)

The point here is that for most things, you choose your protein (again, their word) and then choose the sauce you want with it. So, I was able to find my usual Sesame Chicken, but I had to order it as Chicken Sesame.

 

The more is that there a few items under Shu-Shu's Specialties that specify the protein, like Chicken Teriyaki and Ahi Tuna. I guess they wouldn't want anyone ordering Sesame Ahi Tuna or Teriyaki Beef, that would just be crazy.

 

Now, before going on, I should note that I was looking at the Lunch Menu on the back of the menu, and one thing stood out. It did not actually say what comes with the lunch, except to say that it come with eggroll OR soup. Please note that OR, because it is important. Getting both eggroll and soup requires an extra $1.00. Now, that would not be too bad, except that the Chicken lunch is $6.75, which is at least 50 cents more than most, and almost a dollar more than some, and this is the first place where I had to pay extra to get both egg roll and soup. Not really a good plan to charge extra for what others include.

 

But wait, there's more. I was offered the choice of rice, white, brown or fried and I chose fried, which added another dollar to the total. I have never been charged more for fried rice. Either it is offered at no extra cost, or it isn't offered as part of the meal.

 

So, let me make sure you understand.

 

Chicken Lunch $6.75 (which is on the high side)

Egg Roll $1.00

Fried Rice $1.00

_________________________

Total $8.75

 

Make that $9.47 with tax for something that usually costs two dollars less.

 

Okay, so they are proud of their food. I can deal with that. I was expecting $7.75 plus tax, so when it came out at another dollar higher I questioned it and the only answer I was given was that fried rice was extra. When I pointed out that the menu does not say that, the girl at the counter rather rudely reached into the tip jar and handed me a dollar. I was rather shocked. Now, it turned out that the extra charge for fried rice is on the inside of the menu with the dinner prices, and if she had shown me that, I would merely have suggested that it should be added to the lunch menu on the back to avoid confusion.

 

So, Shu-Shu's is not doing well on my count. Strike One - high prices. Strike Two - rude counter staff (there are no waiters). But, possibly the third, the food itself, will make up for everything else. It isn't overpriced, if it is better than the others, right?

 

So, I have my usual order, Sesame Chicken, Fried Rice, Egg Roll, and Hot and Sour Soup. Now, as often happens when I am getting Chinese for lunch, I started eating while driving back to work, so the Sesame Chicken and Egg Roll got tasted first, and the Soup brings up the rear.

 

The Chicken was tender and well cooked, and the sauce was sweet, but also the tiniest bit bland. There was no real zing to it. It was hot and clearly fresh, so not bad. Unfortunately, the Fried Rice was largely the same. When the first bite I took had several large onion bits in it, I was prepared to say it had too much onion, and as you can imagine on the blog Hold the Onions that does not go over well. However, it seems like I got about half the big onion bits in that first bite, so I have to give them a pass on that. But, remember I started with unfortunately? The fried rice was bland.

 

Both the rice and the chicken were better with liberal splashings of Soy Sauce, but "Soy Sauce made it better" is not exactly a ringing endorsement.

 

The Egg Roll was made with the lighter type wrapper and it was very crispy. It was very nice and crunchy, but the blandness persisted. Soy Sauce would have made it better.

 

Last, I come to the Hot and Sour Soup, which, unlike some of those I have tried recently, was actually Hot, and I do not mean the temperature (which was fine). By the bottom of the bowl, my sinuses had cleared and my lips were burning. I was impressed.

Now, when I pay more for food, I expect one of two things, big portions, or better food. Now, from what I have written above, you will see that I did not get better food. It was okay, but certainly nothing to justify $2 more. So, what about the portions? They were small. There was only about half the chicken I would expect with just about the same amount of rice. There was a healthy serving of Broccoli, but I do not buy Sesame Chicken for broccoli. The Egg Roll was small, though I have noticed lately that egg rolls are getting smaller everywhere. The Hot and Sour Soup was exactly the same amount I get at other places, and is probably one of the top three that I have tried.

 

So, I can give a resounding thumbs up to the Hot and Sour Soup, but that puts Shu-Shu's on the same level as Panda Express. For everything else that I want from Chinese Food, I can get much better for less money from at least three other places in town.

Give Shu-Shu's a miss and try somewhere else.

Shanghai Chinese Restaurant

Shanghai Chinese Restaurant 

6718 Middle Fiskville Rd 

Austin, TX  78752 

(512) 458-8088 

Watch out, they are closed on Monday.  It was my bad luck to look for them a month or two back on a Monday and I ended up finding China Palace.  That day, I couldn't find the sign, but it turns out that they are closed on Monday.  Well, I finally gave them a second chance. 

I ordered my usual, Sesame Chicken, to go.  The lunch came with an egg roll, fried rice and soup.  Of course, I choose Hot and Sour.  Unfortunately, when I opened the bag, and then the box, I found the egg roll was in with the hot steamy foods, so that is one point against.  If you put the egg roll in with the steamy foods, then you end up with a soggy egg roll.  Fortunately, I have learned to look for this and so my egg roll did not get soggy. 

The chicken is battered and does not really seem to have spent any time in the sauce.  There's not a lot sauce, and the sauce is not overly sweet.  In fact the first piece of chicken has a decidedly sour taste.  It looks like the chicken was not prepared specifically for Sesame chicken and was just covered with some sauce at the last minute.  The sweetness of the sauce was not a problem, as Sesame Chicken can slide way too far into sweetness.  This didn't, and the chicken was quite tasty, if a bit tough, at least some pieces.  The only major problem was the amount of sauce. 

There was a good serving of broccoli, and it was still mostly crispy, but I don't buy Sesame Chicken for the broccoli, and I'd have rather had a little more chicken and a lot more sauce rather than any broccoli. 

The eggroll was very crunchy.  It was made with the thinner pastry that comes out very flaky and crunchy and has the disadvantage of flaking all over the place.  But, that is not really a negative, just a way of differentiating them from the thicker won-ton style pastry that is sometimes used for egg rolls. 

The fried rice was a little tasteless, needed more sauce.  In fact, it was surprisingly tasteless.  It certainly didn't have enough salt.  In fact, it didn't have enough anything and was barely edible after mixing with the sauce.  I didn't finish it. 

Which brings me to the Hot and Sour soup.  The soup was long on hot and short on flavor.  It wasn't terrible, and I like a nice hot Hot and Sour soup, but it wasn't all that tasty, and it was hot.  Half an hour after eating it, my lips were still burning and I didn't finish all the soup, because it wasn't all that tasty. 

So, in conclusion, there was only one thing in this lunch that really rates a good review and that was the egg roll.  The chicken was subpar, but not terrible.  There was too much broccoli and not enough sauce.  The fried rice was tasteless, and the Hot and Sour soup was overly hot and not tasty enough.  I enjoyed this lunch, and it wasn't over priced, but it just wasn't good enough, you can do much better at this price. 

China Palace - Take 2

6605 Airport Blvd.

Austin, TX  78752

(512) 451-0918

Recently I reviewed a take out lunch from China Palace.  It was pretty good and I was hungry for Chinese, and I wanted to do the buffet thing, and so I decided to try China Palace again...I wish I hadn't.

It wasn't terrible, but it was much worse than the take out lunch.  I tried Pork Dumplings, Sesame Chicken, General Tso's Chicken, Egg Rolls, Hot and Sour Soup, and both white and fried rice.

Let me start with the good parts.  The Pork Dumplings were good.  I call them Pot Stickers and they were well cooked and tasty.  The Sesame Chicken was tasty, and so was the Egg Roll.  Nothing really wrong with them, but only the Pot Stickers seemed to pop.

But, there were some definitely a few bad things.  The Sesame Chicken pieces were still huge, but they were also a bit chewy.  There was hardly any sauce in the pan on the steam table.  Mixing the sauce with rice is part of the draw of Sesame Chicken, and it was missing.  The Egg Rolls were tiny, but that is okay on a buffet, because you just grab one or more extras.  The Hot and Sour Soup....wasn't....it wasn't hot in either definition of the word.  It was tepid, and it was dull, almost tasteless.  This was a big disappointment.  The fried rice was okay, but the white rice was hard...well, at least there was a crust on top.

In addition to some of the things just not being very good, there was a general problem with details.  The Soy Sauce was in a bowl with a spoon on the side of the buffet.  I prefer to use Soy Sauce almost as a dip, for dumplings and Egg Rolls, but I couldn't...well, I finally grabbed a soup bowl and spooned a bit into that, but it only worked so well.

The lunch buffet runs from 11:00 to 2:00, and I arrived about 12:45.  Why do I mention this?  Because I think this was the cause of the problem.  It really looked as if most of that food had been put out at 11:00 and left under the lights on the steam table for more than 90 minutes.  The sauce that was plentiful in my take out lunch was non-existent.  The soup that was hot and tasty was no longer, if it ever was.

The whole experience left me with the feeling that getting rid of all the food was more important than ensuring a good eating experience for late comers to the buffet.  I have seen this elsewhere, but never quite this egregious.  I was quite disappointed and I am reconsidering my earlier review.

China Palace

6605 Airport Blvd.

Austin, TX 78752

(512) 451-0918

I went out for lunch on a Monday and found one chinese restaurant either closed forever, or just for the day.  Fortunately, China Palace was only about two miles away.  China Palace is a small place, and it certainly isn't fancy, but that isn't always needed.  Look at BBQ places, generally, the shabbier they look, the better the BBQ.

I ordered my usual, Sesame Chicken, and it wasn't long in coming.  As I always do, I got it to go, but I sampled everything while it was still hot.  Eating Sesame Chicken while driving is a bit difficult, but I didn't want to be late getting back, and I wanted to taste everything while hot.

First, the serving was very large.  Lots of big pieces of chicken, and lots of sauce.  A large amount of sauce can make eating in a moving car and adventure while you move the tray around trying to keep the sauce off the seats.  My wife won't be happy when she reads this.  I like the extra sauce though because then I can mix it with the rice.

A point to China Palace for not putting the egg roll in with the hot steamy food.  Nothing worse than opening up your to go meal and finding that the lovely crispy fried egg roll has been steamed into a soggy mess.  A point against China Palace for putting broccoli in with the Sesame Chicken.  It's not Sesame Chicken with Broccoli, and I have only once been served Sesame Chicken with Broccoli when sitting down in a Chinese Restaurant and yet they feel obliged to add it to the take out lunch.

But, back to the Egg Roll, which was quite good.  It was done with the light crispy wrapper, rather than the heavier crispy wrapper and the vegetables were still crisp.  I can recommend them.  The fried rice had virtually no vegetables, but it was tasty.  The Sesame Chicken was sweet and not very spicy.  I only mention this because I have had Sesame Chicken that is quite spicy, so I feel the need to mention it.

One bite of Hot and Sour soup and I said not hot enough, and it isn't hot, but it started to come on after several bites.  The soup was very thick, with that sheen that speaks of a little too much cornstarch to thicken it.  I make my own Sesame Chicken, and it is easy to do.  It did not really hurt the soup, which was tasty and turned out at the end to be just about hot enough for my taste.

The last bit of my meal was mixing the left over sauce with the rice, which was delicious.  It wasn't fancy, and it wasn't perfect, but it was definitely good enough to give it a second try.

Panda Express

2501 W Parmer Ln
Austin, TX
(512) 821-2307

My wife and I were on our way to a meeting and needed something quick for dinner and I let her talk me into Panda Express.  It was against my better judgment.  I'd been there once before and hadn't liked it.  

First, I don't really like the way they do things.  You end up having to order two entrees, along with rice and soup and an egg roll cost extra.  By the time you get what would be considered a whole meal in a true Chinese Restaurant, it costs you as much or more as that Chinese Restaurant, and it isn't nearly as good.

I got Orange Chicken, as the closest thing to the Sesame Chicken that I love, and something with Beef and broccoli.  The chicken was chewy, the beef was tasteless, and they need to change the name of that entrée to Broccoli with a hint of Beef.  There was very little beef, which as I said was tasteless, and it was hidden in masses of overcooked broccoli.

Of course, things can't help but be overcooked, because they come out and sit under heat lamps for hours on end.  But, I didn't think that chinese cooking could manage to cook all the flavor out of food this way.  Of course, Panda Express bears as much resemblance to chinese cooking as Taco Bell does to mexican cooking (and I like Taco Bell).  And, to accentuate the tastelessness of the fried rice, they didn't give enough sauce with either the chicken or the beef to add much flavor to the rice.

The fried rice was as tasteless as the beef.  I got an egg roll and it was actually crispy on the outside, which was a bit of a surprise, but it was mushy inside, and it tasted a bit odd.  I have eaten a lot of egg rolls and none of them ever tasted like this.

Now, it wasn't a complete loss and I might go back to Panda Express, but it won't be for the Orange Chicken, the Broccoli Beef, the Fried Rice or the Egg Roll.

The Hot and Sour Soup was excellent.  I am a big fan of Hot and Sour Soup, even if all I really want is the broth, and theirs was really good, probably the third best I have ever had and certainly worth a return trip, but I think I will just get the Hot and Sour Soup to go, and then slip across the street to Taco Cabana for Mexican food a step above Taco Bell.

Bamboo Garden

Bamboo Garden

625 W. Ben White

(512) 444-6022

I've been looking around for a new place to get a good Sesame Chicken lunch, and today my search brought me to Bamboo Garden in south Austin.  I cannot really claim to like Chinese food, but I love Sesame Chicken, and Hot and Sour Soup.  I've tried the Magic Wok and Sun Hing on the north side of the UT campus, and they are okay, but not really good enough to get my repeat patronage...at least not very often.  My favorite is China Wall, in Round Rock, but that is a pretty far drive from downtown, when I am looking for lunch.

I tend to order to go, because I rarely care for sitting by myself...in any restaurant.  I ordered the Sesame Chicken lunch, with Hot and Sour Soup.  It also came with an egg roll, and two fried wontons.  I called ahead and the order was waiting for me and without a drink it was $7.04, so quite reasonable.

Everything was very hot.  The egg roll and wontons were in a small paper bag within the plastic grocery bag, and not in the hot food container.  That is one point to Bamboo Garden.  It is a terrible idea to pack anything crispy in with a pile of hot chicken with sauce and rice.  If you carry it back home, your crispy egg roll is now a steamed egg roll.  Yuck!

In the standard styrofoam plate was a good pile of Sesame Chick, a large scoop of rice, and three or four broccoli florets.  Another point to Bamboo Garden, for leaving the broccoli on the side.  I can always push an unwanted bit of broccoli to the side while eating, but I get annoyed when some of the delicious sauce is clinging to the broccoli and I don't get to mix it into my rice.

The Sesame Chicken was well cooked, not perfect, but better than a few I've had.  The sauce was a little spicier than most places.  Nothing wrong with that, it gave it a more distinctive taste, and it wasn't overly sweet, which can be a problem sometimes.

The rice was fried, and one point against Bamboo Garden for not giving me an option when I called.  The rice was nicely prepared, but was somewhat unusual in not seeming to have anything but rice and seasoning.  There were no vegetables.  I didn't mind.

The eggroll was nice and crispy and tasty as well.  The wontons were unusual.  They were just two flat fried wonton wrappers.  I'd never seen that before.  They were sort of dry and tasteless...well, not completely.  They just didn't have any sort of seasoning on them.  They were okay, sort of like a piece of bread to push things around with.

The Hot and Sour Soup was excellent.  I'd almost go back again just for that.  I think I would have to rate it just below the Hot and Sour soup at China Wall, but not by much.

So, the conclusion?  The Sesame Chicken was good, the rice was good, the egg roll was good and the Hot and Sour Soup was excellent.  I won't mind going back.