For some reason the outlying areas of Austin have trouble nailing Chinese food. Living in Kyle the options are few but the quality.... well my mom always said "when you don't have anything nice to say..." and you know the rest. I'm somewhat of a runner, in that I participate in events like the Austin 1/2 marathon, Statesmen 10k, etc and after the runs I like to eat a bunch of carbs, b/c I've earned it! So I'm picking off restaurants on my way back which leads to me to this review for Super Bowl.
Walking in, this is NOT presently, a sit-down restaurant. Actually, the interior reminds me of the movie/game Resident Evil in that no one was there, the air was quiet, the walls looked as if they've seen better days, the lights were feint and hummed with strained electricity. In paralleling the theme I've presented both are results of post-apocalyptic catastrophes so I can't speak with confidence what Super Bowl was like pre-covid. Well enough about the façade as it's immaterial if one orders out or just picks up, so lets focus on the food, shall we?
I ordered a rather large feast to sample as my legs recovered from running 11k+. I will say this, I've only found 1 restaurant that serves beef chow fun which is one of my favorites. I asked the staff here and they said they've tried to make it but couldn't get it right. While I completely respect the honestly I'm disappointed I can't find somewhere close that serves it. The shrimp egg rolls were really good! Crunchy, not soaked in grease, and flavorful. The Wonton soup is delicate and warming. The egg drop soup was pretty good but from a personal note I would have preferred a hint of ginger in the broth. Alas, it was still a good version. The hot and sour soup was very good as well. A touch of heat with vinegar really hits the spot. Mind you, I didn't order the soups alone but they came with the meals, so keep that in mind.
The pork fried rice was outstanding. The rice kernels were separate, plenty of small diced veggies and loads of pork rounded out the dish. Trust me, you get enough to eat and it's good. The next dish I wanted was simple Mei-Fun. You know when you go to the buffet the clear or white rice noodles with barely anything in it? I love those. However, they have Singapore Mei-Fun which isn't exactly the same. Moreover, it has a zinging heat to it. That said, the dish was perfectly cooked and had tons of meat.
The final dish was the shrimp lo-mein. I have an issue here and it's that pasta shapes create flavor. Yes the ingredients are the same; flour, water, salt, oil, and sometimes eggs for the basics, but way the noodle hits the pallet is different. Ever noticed macaroni tastes different than spaghetti? Anyways traditional Chinese lo-mein has round noodles not linguini shaped pasta. I get that having less options means easier for ordering but it's breaking tradition and something I hate. The flavors were on point as were was the quantity of food and amount of protein but it didn't do it for me.
Overall, Super Bowl is a decent enough restaurant which can please the vast amount of people. However, I love traditional Chinese as a comfort food. I think anyone can relate when you crave something like grandma's chicken soup, you want it made a specific way. Super Bowl has many of the traditional options, just not exactly the way I'm accustom to eating. Don't get me wrong, it's not bad food, but just not hitting 10s across the board for me. read more