Vietnamese Style Spring Rolls with Shrimp - 4/5 stars These certainly weren't jumbo shrimp by any stretch and there were no special herbs like lemongrass or basil for added flavor, but I was still VERY happy with these. They were HUGE (tons of vermicelli and lettuce) which I so appreciate because I ALWAYS crave something light, fresh, and vegetarian (or nearly so) after a hearty helping of salty, fried, American-Chinese food.
...with Peanut Sauce - 2/5 Just too sweet for me, which I think is not uncommon in Americanized Chinese. I can easily make my own peanut sauce at home with Laura Scudder's smooth peanut butter, coconut milk, soy sauce, and a couple other ingredients... which I think is closer to authentic peanut sauce than this super sweet stuff. I skipped it.
Basil Shrimp - 5/5 stars Interesting and DELICIOUS! My husband commented about jalapeno + basil being a "bizarre yet delicious culture-clash." He thought jalapenos were strictly Mexican and basil was strictly Italian. I corrected him.
Sweet & Sour Pork - 5/5 stars Big chunks of pork, lightly battered, as promised. No disappointments here.
Teriyaki Chicken - 4/5 stars First thing I noticed was it was not sprinkled with sesame seeds like one might expect. But that garnish I'm sure is optional, so no points off for that. And who cares, right? However, I'm fairly certain the chicken was "boiled" in this sauce instead of sautéed, explaining the very pale color of the chicken breast. Yet, it was all white meat, the flavor itself was spot on, and the texture was not entirely of dry, boiled chicken.
General Tso's Chicken - 5/5 stars Whoever complained about the hell peppers "as garnish" in the General Tso... First of all, for that yelper to say "they should have picked the peppers out of my General Tso's Chicken before plating" is simply ridiculous. Search "General Tso's Chicken" in Google Images and tell me if you don't see any dried chili peppers on the plates. I dare you. They are PART of the dish! And the peppers ARE edible if you're man enough. I enjoyed two of them (not lying!), albeit nibble by nibble. When I was 12, I made the mistake of inadvertently eating one of these peppers whole at Fire Bowl Café here in Austin. And I learned my lesson--instant mouth-faucet.
Fried rice - 5/5 stars. Not dry or overly seasoned. In fact, I added salt. Better to under-salt than over-salt, am I right? Moist and flavorful. Nom nom nom nom nom nom.
White rice - 5/5 stars. Very good. Not dry or overcooked. Unsalted (to be expected, I think). I'm not a huge fan of white rice, but my boyfriend requested it.
We were skeptical of this place because we were so disappointed in the last Chinese restaurant we ordered from in this area (78749) and we couldn't remember if this was the same place or not--we order Chinese very infrequently. From the "other restaurant," the servings came in HUGE, styrofoam boxes FILLED to the brim (almost comically) with food, but everything we ordered was really just piles of thick, hard batter encasing tiny, dry, kibble-sized pieces of shrimp, chicken, or beef. And so, ordering from China Hill, I prepared myself for the absolute worst, but was PLEASANTLY surprised.
One more note about the price vs portion. Again, the last Chinese restaurant we ordered from offered HUGE $7 portions and the food was terrible. China Hill offers smaller $8 portions of MUCH better food. I can't complain about the portion size or the price. We had leftovers for a day & 1/2. read more