When you simply are tired of cooking for the whole clan, or if you want to escape the holiday hub-bub, get thee to a Chinese restaurant. Here are just a few of our favorites around Dallas.
Jeng Chi Restaurant
With a menu inspired by traditional Chinese and Taiwanese dishes, the Richardson restaurant has a variety of dishes to choose from: squid ink noodle soup (cabbage, shiitake mushrooms, mussels, scallops, white fish, and house-made noodles), jellyfish with cucumber. Meanwhile, dumpling makers create delicate vegetarian dumplings filled with tofu, wood ear mushrooms, and rice vermicelli. The home-style menu offers shareable hot pots, seafood plates, and over-rice dishes. Pork soup dumplings (xiao long bao) are a must.
Fortune House Chinese Cuisine
As this year’s winner for Best of Big D “Best Dumplings,” Fortune House is well-known for it’s dumplings (duh). Soup dumplings are the star of the Shanghai-inspired menu. They hold a pork-and-crab filling but also the buttery, silky-textured golden elixir that emerges when you nibble an end. Take the small-plate approach to sample a wide variety of cold salads, or order a hot entrée like tea-smoked duck. Dessert soups are a subtle end.
Royal China
This family-owned Dallas icon has been serving quality Chinese cuisine for over 40 years. The best thing about Royal China is the addition of a dumpling bar where you can watch staff fold little pillows of goodness in the open kitchen in the middle of the restaurant. Classics such as dandan noodles with sweet chile and lime sauce, pork sautéed with garlic and mixed vegetables, and Szechuan string beans are some of the best Chinese dishes in town.
Special hours: Christmas Eve, 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. and 4:30 to 9:30 p.m.; Christmas Day, 4:30 to 9:30 p.m.
Kirin Court
Yes, we love Kirin Court for its dim sum. The Chinatown stalwart more than does justice to radish cakes, custard tarts, and juicy shrimp dumplings. But we also head here for beautifully executed clay hot pots—duck and taro root with coconut milk, for one—and Cantonese delicacies like sliced abalone.
Special hours: 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Wu Wei Din
At this casual restaurant, you’ll find stellar pork-and-shrimp spicy won tons, flopped in chile oil spiced with star anise. Fill a table with appetizers like cold drunken chicken in a broth flavored with Shaoxing wine; garlicky golden kimchee; or flaky scallion cakes. But don’t miss the Taiwanese specialty: beef noodle soup, with fall-apart brisket and bok choy in a ruddy broth.
Special hours: Closes at 6 p.m. on Christmas Eve, closed on Christmas Day.
