This Sichuan menu is full of fire, like the spicy fish and pork with red hot peppers. There’s plenty to explore on the expansive menu, like the Ants Climbing a Tree dish, which consists of a plate of “noodles” made from mung beans and ground pork.

The Barrington Oaks Chinese restaurant focuses mostly on juicy dumplings, from soup dumplings to steamed pork and chive dumplings to fried vegetable ones, plus other items like fried rice and lo mein and Chinese-American plates like General Tso’s chicken. The menu also ventures into Japanese dishes like ramen and udon.

Among the wide-ranging Asian menu of the North Austin strip mall restaurant, the mapo tofu and spicy fish are the standout dishes along with a soft eggplant with ground pork. Then there’s the Chinese food array at the grocery store’s small restaurant as well.

TC Noodle House is a gem within Austin’s Chinatown Center, with fresh vegetable dishes like snow pea leaves and a variety of dumplings including shrimp and leek. Flat rice noodles with beef and vegetables are satiating and flavorful.

A Chinatown Center staple, First Chinese BBQ’s wide Cantonese-style menu includes everything from noodle soups, hot pot, to barbecue. Adventurous eaters can embark on a marinated tour-de-piggy and sample everything from stomach, ear, and tongue.

Din Ho never disappoints, with Beijing duck, Chinese barbecue, and marinated meats like quail in special salt. The sea cucumber with duck web is the perfect for the diner looking to explore truly non-Americanized Chinese dishes.

Now found in a physical restaurant space instead of its original campus food truck, Julie's still offers up expertly crafted handmade noodle soups and dumplings.

The Highland Chinese restaurant features plenty of great Sichuan specialities, from fish fillets drenched in chili oil to spicy Chongqing chicken to pig blood cakes to a particularly great vinegar napa cabbage. Bonus: there are bookable karaoke rooms too. Those around campus can hit up the Guadalupe location as well.

For hearty Chinese hand-pulled noodles and noodle soup dishes, Xian is the answer, especially those red-braised beef noodles

Xian’s sibling shop Bao’d Up is dedicated to handmade Chinese steamed buns, with fillings from meaty and juicy (pork, brisket) to vegetarian and sweet (veggie, red bean, egg cream).

The campus truck offers excellent, familiar, comforting Chinese dishes, from Chinese hamburgers (aka roujiamo, a more flattened-version of a burger with chewy bread and pork) to noodle soups to dumplings.

With three locations throughout Austin, Chinatown is a blend of American and classic Chinese, dim sum, and even sushi. Dumpling options abound, and chef specialties like the special beef are the stars.

East Austin gets Chinese-American fare with Old Thousand. There are mala fried chicken, mapo eggplant, brisket fried rice, and dumplings. If you're dining in, take advantage of the solid cocktails.

Chen Z and sibling restaurant Chen’s Noodle House up in Spicewood is all about Chinese noodles, naturally, from spicy beef noodle soup to fried rice noodles, paired with excellent scallion pancakes.

Find great Sichuan food in South Austin with Sichuan River, full of hot and dry pot, noodles, excellent mapo tofu, and more.

First Wok continues to reign as a classic Austin favorite with big reliable plates of American Chinese food dining in or carrying out.