Here are the Chinese restraunt ratings from the Zagat guide. It is far and away the best resourse for dining ratings. Though I have not eaten at all of the restraunts listed, for those I have, the rankings are perfect. If you've only eaten at the 'General Joe's' of the world, its absolutely amazing how the quality restraunts can make the same dishes with the same stuff in it taste so completely different. A great example is 'sesame chicken' which at Hunan or the Fu's Garden in the Village is a sweet, smooth dish, where the borders between sauce and the chicken become less clear, while at a General Joe's it's a crunchy mess, and at Auntie Chang's Dumpling House down the street from me, the batter in which they fry the chicken is overwhelming and soggy. I went to 'Wonderful' a couple of times when I was a vegatarian, and I was disapointed in how their menu was so geared to the 'I wish I wasn't eating vegatables' croud. If your eating vegatarian, eat vegatables, not 'I can't believe its not cow'. I also notice alot of 'regonal differences' in the Chinese cusine names in English. When I used to live in St. Louis, 'pan fried dumplings' were 'pot stickers' and 'crab cheese puffs' were 'crab rangoon'. I had to re-learn the lingo when I moved back to Houston. My favorites are: Mings for dinner (not lunch, lunch is too greasy). Try 'Volcano Chicken' for a 'hot time' Kam's makes the best dumplings. They are big and soft, seemingly handmade to everyone elses pre-fab. Van Loc in downtown under street level used to have a great lunch buffet. Not really 'great chineese food' but for lunch downtown, it was as good as it got. I also like the fact that they give all of the buddhas a fresh coke everyday.
Not a real authority on Asian restaurants but has anyone here been to Hunan Dragon on the corner of Alabama and Shepherd. Before my jaunt up to DC, I used to go there and they had one of the best dishes - the Mongolian Hot Garlic Chicken. But when I went there about a month ago, it wasn't even close to the same. Did they change owners or something?
I would have to recommend Tan Tan. Its on Bellaire going towards Beltway 8 west. Its pretty good there while its has been there for awhile. For me being a filipino, I think all asian food is the same. You have your rice on one side of the plate while you have you desired meat/poultry product on the other. As for the other restarunts yall mention, I really dig Mai's. Pretty good deals over there but they have the worst waiting staff working there. For buffet restaraunts, I would have to recommend Wok Bo, Lucky Village and Todai.
