Wu Chow - Austin

This has been one of my favorite spots since we went to the soft opening a couple years ago. The staff is always amazing. You are typically greeted by one of the owners C.K. He is great. The staff is always amazing. We have had Tanner as our server several times and he is fantastic. The food is so good that we always order so much more than we can eat, because we never mind having leftovers. Must haves for first timers: soup dumplings tangerine peel beef gong bai chicken wok tossed okra dry fried green beans It’s high end Chinese with nice ambiance and a laid back feel. The house music is hip hop and it’s amazing. Pro tip: if you aren’t drinking alcohol they have grape soda on the fountain, which is surprisingly awesome with the food.

Never been to Austin before and my husband found this gem. Dim Sum yummy! You have to try the soup dumplings. Try one first without the dipping sauce. You get the whole deliciousness. The special fish on the menu was a Mediterranean Bass. The whole fish. He loved it. So easy to remove the bones. The staff made two cuts and then opened one side to lay the fish flat on the plate. Covered in cilantro. I ordered and shared the twice baked pork. Great taste with just a push of spice. We also shared an order of vegetable stir fried rice. I wanted the whole bowl my self. Definitely a place for work drinks/dinner, date nights and family friendly. The dishes are prepared family style and we had plenty to take home with us.

I have been waiting for this place to open for the longest time. Austin has a culinary hole that Wu Chow was summoned to fill! Located on West 5th in the IBC bank building, opposite of Fixe, there are plenty of meter parking around. They are only open for dinner right now and dim sum is only served on Sunday from 11am to 3pm (Bonus: most parking meters around are free on Sunday! . Reservation is a must and the decor is upscale and fun, whole wall of mahjong pieces? How cool! The first two times I heard 90s hip hop and pop songs which I totally did not expect some Bong Thugs N Harmony to come on in the midst of me eating MaPo Tofu! AWESOME! The 3rd time for dim sum they played holiday music instead. Before I go into the food, I must give kudos to the staff. The front desk is friendly, the servers have been attentive and our drinks are always filled. CK the owner stopped by to say hi and see how things were going during our dinner service visit. Turns out he is also from Taiwan so bonus points for him! Now the food: The star of Wu Chow: 小籠包 Shanghai Soup Dumplings is 5 pieces for $10. They limit 2 orders per table but I can see why. The broth in the dumplings is flavorful and combined with a bit of the vinegar soy, delicious! I can easily eat a meal of just soup dumplings and be happy. There is no other place in Austin that serves this, and chefs train for years to make soup dumplings. Yes you will get a few thats broken, but that is expected. 春卷 Chicken Taro Eggrolls is an order of 3 for $6. They are long thing crisy rolls that is accompanied with a sour plum sauce.I have ordered this everytime I have been here. 麻婆豆腐 Mapo Tofu $14 was one of my go to dishes at most Chinese restaurants. Its not as spicy as what most people can be use to but I prefer it this way. There is lots of tender tofu pieces and is such a appetizing dish to go with rice. my significant other did mention he wish there were more diced pork in the dish but me personally i rather have more tofu than pork, so each to their own. 辣包心菜 Chendu Spicy Cabbage $9 This was a dish that completely surprised me. It was so flavorful that I easily ate most of this plate myself. The cabbage was cooked perfect with a bit of crunch and the level of spice was perfect for me. For the dim sum: the tenderbelly pork shumai is a must, topped with roe the shumai is easily the best of all the dim sum places around town. Their char shao bao (bbq pork buns has two options: baked or steamed. We tried both and the table was split on which they like. The baked baos has a sweet glaze on top and the steam bao dough is perfectly fluffy. Another star of dimsum is the scallion pancake. I have had many scallion pancakes in my lifetime and I even make them myself, but this is hands down the best ever. Their pancakes are pan fried instead of the standard deep fried so the outside is crispy and the inside is flavorful and has many layers. Oh and how I can forget its chrysanthemum mimosa! $1 for a champagne flute and $2 for a wine glass, its delicious and the subtle chrysanthemum flavor is just what I need for a sunday morning. One of the reasons why I love bringing new people to Wu Chow is that they will take advice and criticism well. They are all about quality. I noticed that the bbq pork buns use to be an order of 2 and now it is an order of 3. Thank you Wu Chow for listening and continuing to provide Austin with your delicious soup dumplings!!

Dinner was delicious: soup dumplings, okra, Sichuan chicken, scallion beef, salt and pepper squid, and crispy noodles with chicken and beef. The only problem was that when I inspected our leftovers, I discovered that our server had not included our noodles. Disappointing because there was quite a large portion of that dish left, which I would have loved to eat for lunch tomorrow. Edited to add: Upon further inspection today, we did indeed receive all the food, but the noodles were in the same container as the beef, but underneath. So changed to five stars!!

I must say my first dining experience at Wu Chow was phenomenal. I had the scallops hugging beef with oolong spinach and it was delicious. Our waiter Tanner was extremely knowledgeable and explained the concept of family style to this noob. A magnificent dinner that left me fulfilled and not sluggish. I look forward to dining here again and won't hesitate on recommending Wu Chow to my friends and family. -Cheers