Wu Chow Austin

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!!