This is definitely one of my favorite places in Austin for Asian food and soup dumplings…read more Definitely need to make a reservation because this place is small and always packed. When you arrive, everybody is so nice you give them your name and they get you seated right away. I ordered a drink called a signature tingling Daisy and it was so good. I definitely could've had so many but I was driving so you gotta pace yourself. We started off with the soup dumplings, which are just phenomenal. It's a must when you go. Also, for appetizers, we got the spicy cucumbers which were divine and a hot and sour soup, which was perfectly balanced and not watery. We also got a beef fried rice and let me tell you that rice is so soft and delicious. You literally dream about it the next day. I also got the pecking duck which is delicious there the skin is nice and crispy and the meat on it taste so good. We also got the Kung pow shrimp with cashews, which was delicious and the pieces of shrimp were gigantic. We also got the green beans which is were delicious. I love ordering green beans when they're cooked just like the ones I posted in the photo. Then for dessert, we got the chocolate mousse which is that little dog cake. I know it's so cute and they made it a little hard to eat because you feel bad in a weird sense. It was delicious now I will say when cutting it and realizing the inside had a raspberry filling, made it a little more crazy cause it looked like blood, but it was still so good. This place is definitely an awesome staple and a must visit when you're in town or just always go and have food there whether it's date night or friends catching up or anything in general even on your own.

I made a reservation for two on Resy and discovered when we got there that it was for the bar for…read moresome reason. This could have been my mistake but I don't remember any choice in the matter. The greeter wasn't very friendly and borderline surly when I asked for more details about how to not book the bar in the future. Didn't get any explanation but fortunately, we won't have to worry about that... The food was just awful. We ordered 3-4 types of dimsum (onion pancake, soup dumplings, chu shou, fried shu mae) and three entries (orange beef, eggplant and their take on ma pao tofu) for the best tasting experience. The curry sauce for the onion pancake was probably the most flavorful dish of the night sadly. The onion pancake was way way over fried-- hard as a rock. If that's their take on onion pancake... well, it's just wrong. The soup dumplings were passable but a bit doughie and the filling was full of a lot of noticeable coagulated fat -- not clear and broth-y, with light surface droplets of oil as all delicious broths. My wife enjoyed the chu shou -- I found the filling much too overcooked and tough -- difficult to eat with chop sticks. Like a tough, overcooked meatball. The fried shu Mae were just plain inedible. My wife and I each ate one and left the rest. The included sauce was basic and too heavy. And again, over fried. There was a huge delay between our apps and our mains, like 40 minutes or so. Various bar staff apologized. It wasn't a big deal, we were in a good conversation and they were super busy but our mains were not at all worth waiting for. Small portions. WAY over sauced. WAY too salty. WAY too sweet. No distinct flavors at all. The ma pao didn't seem to have any Szechuan pepper at all. How do you miss that ? The plating of the eggplant dish was really creative but I don't eat with my eyes and it came with no instruction -- my first bite was just flavorless steamed eggplant cube -- second was mixed with one note sauce. One of the better mains IMO but it was still gloopy and pretty gross. Wife did not enjoy it. The orange beef was essentially just six or seven cubes of tough, fatty beef covered in over-the-top bitter orange peel. We each had a cube and left the rest. Honestly, give me Panda Express any day over this abject failure of a restaurant. Austin needs more Chinese but if it's anything like this place, forget it. I'd rather spend a 4h round trip to Houston and go to even a mediocre Chinese restaurant than endure another meal at this place. What a waste of $165. Edit: I wish I was making this up but I literally had to pull over to throw up on the side of the road on the way home. The food did not sit well with me. I have no underlying health conditions, am not on any medicine that would have this as a side effect and only shared one beer with my wife. It was just a very, very, disappointing and gross meal.

This might be the best dim sum in Austin now…read more I actually had never eaten at Shanghai having grown up in Austin. I didn't have their food until around COVID when we got dim sum to go a few times. I remember at that time thinking it was pretty unremarkable, and also quite expensive for dim sum. Fast forward to this year. I'm not sure if they have new ownership or new cooks, but the difference is night and day. I've been a couple of times now for dine-in in dim sum and each time was awesome. You can order off the menu or by QR code. They definitely focus on the classics but they're all executed really well. Standouts for me were the pan fried turnip cake, full of turnip and super sweet, the shrimp and leek pan fried dumplings, shrimp stuffed eggplant, and chili wonton. What makes them unique to me is that the food is all cooked to order and comes out hot and fresh. The fried items are crispy and hot and everything else you can tell just came straight from the kitchen. This avoids the one issue with carts which is that the food has been cooked who knows when and has just been sitting in a steam cart for an unknown amount of time. Also since you order off the menu, you can get exactly what you want instead of having to wait for a cart to come by. The service is always friendly and I've never had to wait to be seated, even on a weekend. If you haven't come here in awhile or written it off in the past, I'd encourage you to come and try it again. Right now it's a hidden gem but if more people realize how much better it is now, it might not be for long. Also bonus points for being a dim sum place that's not super far north like New Fortune 2 or Golden Palace.

Was so excited to try dim sum that wasn't 20+ minutes to get to up north but my experience wasn't…read morethat great unfortunately. The bad: disorganized service. Ordering is through QR code and they did not know what order went to which table. They put food on our table and took it back to a different table TWICE. The good: the dim sum tasted legit. I'd recommend the shrimp rice roll. If service was better and their ordering system was more organized, this could be such a bomb place!

Great service Ambiance is nice…read moreFood is amazing. Try the sticky rice in lotus leaf and the baby bok choy + mushroom. And the egg custard buns.

I've only tried the dim sum dishes here, but they all sort of tasted the same. Some of them were a…read morelittle bit on the sweet side? The egg drop soup had a hint of sweetness to it. Waitress was a little snippy, I wouldn't come back.

What's. It to love? Amazing food. Outstanding playlist (think 90s hip hop but not played at an…read moreinsane decibel level!), amazing service, and tasty cocktails. Wu Chow hits the spot on manny levels. The patio is inviting and the interior is decorated nicely as well. The food reminds me of home cooking meets a new hotspot in atx! The staff does a great job of checking in on tables and making great recommendations for coursing plates for a group (including portions bc in Texas you never know!). I really liked their dumpling and the rest of the meal was tasty as well.

I sure didn't enjoy my last visit here. We arrived there at 5:30 with a reservation for a group of…read more11. We let them know we all had tickets to the opera at 7:30 so it was our goal to be wrapping up by 6:45. By 6:35, my plate was still bare. By the time my food arrived, I had to just shovel it in and go to the opera with indigestion. My friend sitting beside me fared even worse. His food didn't arrive until we were all paying our bills and getting ready to depart so he just had to get his to go. There were nice aspects of the meal too. My food was hot and tasty, my Welcome To The Jungle drink was epic, and our server was pretty attentive. However, the timing of food coming out just made the experience a catastrophe for my friend and me and I hope to not return.

After landing in San Antonio yesterday to kick off my summer vacation, the very first thing I did…read moretoday was ask my friend to bring me back to this restaurant. The reason is simple: we ate here two years ago, and it left such a great impression on us that we had been looking forward to coming back ever since. Fortunately, not much has changed in terms of either the quality or the overall presentation of the food. Everything is still delicious, especially the Pho Combo. To be honest, it's far better than most of the pho we've had in Germany. That doesn't mean the pho in Germany is bad--it simply means this place matches my personal taste much better. As for the downsides, they're almost exactly the same as before. Parking is still a major challenge, and I understand that's probably not something the restaurant can easily fix. We also tried calling ahead to reserve a table, but they don't take reservations, whether you're coming with a group of 5-7 people or just 2-3 people. We arrived at 6:45 PM and still had to wait about 40 minutes before being seated, which was honestly quite inconvenient. Coincidentally, there was live music tonight, which was a nice surprise. Unfortunately, the sound system wasn't very good, so it was difficult to hear what the singers were performing. Then again, this isn't really the type of venue where people come specifically to enjoy live music, so most diners didn't seem to pay much attention to it. One thing I did notice was that either the kitchen has made a few changes over the past two years, or perhaps my own taste has changed a little. The food felt slightly saltier than I remembered, and the pho broth was richer and creamier. While that added some depth of flavor, it was a bit too rich for my liking, to the point where finishing the entire bowl of broth felt a little overwhelming. The braised short ribs were incredibly tender--so tender that a knife was almost unnecessary, and they could easily be pulled apart with just a fork. While many people would probably see that as a positive, I actually missed the slightly firmer, meatier texture I remembered from my last visit. That said, these are relatively minor issues. The quality may have dipped just a little compared to our previous visit, but this is still an excellent restaurant. If they can fine-tune those small details, it would easily return to being one of my favorite places. There's a good chance we'll stop by one more time before heading back to Germany.

Is it that time of year for another 1618 update? Absolutely…read more After my umpteenth visit, I think it's safe to say I've worked my way through almost the entire menu (minus a few noodle, chicken & vegetarian dishes). My 2025 review still stands, but after so many visits, I've noticed a few items haven't been good as they used to, particularly the chicken wings (and yes, all three of them). The Garlic Wings haven't been hitting quite the same. They've started to taste a little dry, and the saucier wings taste better the next day since they don't have time to steep through once served. The Filet Mignon Pepper Steak is still my favorite dish on the menu, but I still can't justify ordering it family-style anymore. It's delicious, but the portion just doesn't match the price. One of the newest additions--the Truffle Fried Rice is spectacular. It's light, not overpowering with truffle, and the fish eggs really adds the perfect little pop of texture/flavor. I don't think I breathed the entire time I scarfed it down!! 1618 is still one of my favorite restaurants in Austin of all time, but I think it's time for the menu to elevate a bit and dive deeper into less mainstream Asian cuisine. If anyone can do it, 1618 can.

They all tasted amazing and that's coming from an Asian, who is very picky about her steam buns and…read morefish. I know it's not the traditional whole fish, but it was incredible. Don't let it fool you. These food are authentic and made fresh from scratch. I highly recommend this restaurant. The server was always very attentive. We can during the World Cup and at lunch time so we were the only ones there.

Uber Eats delivery last night for my wife and me. Ended up with enough food for 4 or more meals…read more The wonton soup had six or seven tasty wontons, lots of pork, and great flavor. Combo fried rice was very large portion and delicious. Loved the shrimp on lobster sauce. Shaken beef tasty too. Salt and pepper fish was okay, a bit too much breading/outer covering - which overpowered the fish. Pork and shrimp shumai very good too. Good value in my opinion.

We had such a wonderful experience celebrating my son's birthday at Ling Wu Asian Restaurant at…read moreLantana Place in Austin. I've heard so many great things about this restaurant, and we finally made it there over Memorial Day weekend. It absolutely lived up to the hype. This place is truly impressive. You can tell every detail was thoughtfully designed and intentional, from the stunning interior design and décor to the incredibly creative menu. What I loved most was how the dishes stayed rooted in authentic Chinese flavors while adding creative, and sometimes surprising, twists. Everything we ordered was excellent. The Lobster Cheese Puff was a huge hit: crispy on the outside and packed with flavor inside. The Salmon Sashimi Mango Salad was incredibly fresh, bright, and crunchy. The sautéed pea shoots were so tender and fresh. And the Lamb Chop with Spicy Miso Sauce was absolutely unforgettable. One of the biggest surprises for me was the Veggie Fried Rice. As a native Chinese, I've had countless fried rice dishes over the years, but I've honestly never had one prepared quite like this before. It was so flavorful and unique. For dessert, the Chocolate Soup Dumpling was both creative and delicious, and the bunny-shaped sorbet was almost too cute to eat. Our waiter, Jake, was also incredibly attentive and helpful throughout the evening. He made our first experience there even more special. I highly recommend this place to anyone looking for high-quality Chinese cuisine paired with a beautiful ambiance and elevated dining experience. Perfect for celebrations or a special night out in Austin!

It was a fantastic restaurant with amazing food. I highly recommend making reservations. You will…read moreneed them!

I don't ever leave reviews but I had to for this place!!! It was soo food. The ambiance is super…read morehomie!! The food had so much flavor! If you are thinking of checking this place out you should. I ordered the most basic dishes and they were easily the best I have ever had. I recommend the house of three gorges to all!

House of 3 Gorges never disappoints! I always forget how tasty their food is until I take that…read morefirst bite of the meal. The jumping fish and green beans have always been my favorite, but this time, I tried the Dry Pot Lamb as well. It was so good! I usually don't enjoy the gamey taste of lamb, but somehow the meat tasted more like beef, but more tender! Service is always fast. Very minimal interaction besides ordering up front. But hey, you come here for a tastey and reasonably priced meal, not the service!