China Bear (I-45 North)

A meeting with Shiyou, Zhia and Kamy saw us at Shiyou's favorite class of food--Chinese. We met at the newly minted China Bear. At 11:45 the restautant had more empty waiters than customers. Shiyou got us a more private table inside one their group rooms This place had two very long rows of fried, stir-fried, steamed, and baked foods. I tried the fried rice, lo mein, general tso's chicken, wanton soup, unagi, salmon, crab claws, king crab, and pastry puff chicken. Only the last one had an interesting taste. The rest of the food tasted much like every other Chinese buffet--oily and fried. I think these Chinese buffets have only three or four sauces and drown all of their food in one of those sauces. The result is a consistency of taste between the chicken, pork, and beef.

Shiyou's choice of this restaurant surprises me. He cooks excellent Chinese food and Szechuan in Nacogdoches (his favorite) is one of the better Chinese restaurants I eat at.