Beijing Wok

If you play your cards right, you can eat like a king at Beijing Wok.
The trick is to take the front of the menu very very seriously
and to NOT just order the standard Chinese dishes you get everywhere else.
You can read on Unilocal what happens if you order the standard dishes off the menu as published.
All signs are that the standard dishes are mediocre at best — and way worse than mediocre at worst.
So how do you pull a rabbit out of a hat and get a great meal out of Beijing Wok?
Concentrate on the house specialty.
The specialty of this house is sauces — and the sauces are listed right up front as the first thing on the menu.
One is a homemade recipe the owner came up with himself. (A first rate hot sauce).
Others are sophisticated versions of a decent number of Chinese sauces.
Some of which you see all the time like Chinese White Sauce or Kung Pao Sauce.
Others can be found elsewhere but are harder to find.
Many of these are superior versions of what they are. (Their Thai curry sauce is a world beater.)
The complication is that most of the standard dishes on the menu come with a standard sauce that is NOT one of the super-​cool ones listed on the front of the menu.
So what should you do?
Go custom!
Pick a sauce you want to eat.
Find a dish that would have something that the sauce would be good on.
Have them put your personal sauce on instead of the usual one.
Bingo! You have a great meal!
We had egg fu yung, but instead of the standard brown sauce made of beef stock and soy, I had them put on the house’s own hot sauce.
On an order of mixed vegetables, we had them put on the curry sauce.
Two fantastic dishes that were way way better than what you get in standard neighborhood Chinese take out joints.
****
So why doesn’t this place get a five star rating?
Sadly the care of their physical facilities is not on a par with the food coming out of the kitchen.
The glass on the benches were cruddy with old spills and stains.
Some of the Oriental lantern light fixtures were shredded.
(From god knows what. A winged cat flying around six feet off the ground? Whatever.)
The bathroom …
Well, let’s not talk about the bathroom except that everything was stain rather than fresh organic.
In a place like Hong Kong, great Chinese food in dicey physical surroundings can be okay.
But Brodie Lane is not Mong Kok.
In South Austin, stains and lack of physical maintenance are unpleasant rather than atmospheric.
And unfortunately, some of the tales other Unilocalers tell suggest that physical maintenance issues can be worse than the issues I noticed on my visit.
*
However, the sauces here are definitely worth it.
If I lived in the Brodie area, I would order from these people a lot concentrating on custom sauce dishes.
If the maintenance issues got to me too much, I could always have them deliver to my house.

So after calming down, and removing obscenities from my vocabulary, the pros and the cons:
Pro: Nice ladies over the phone. Although our connection wasn’t the best, they were very polite and patient.
Pro: Speedy Delivery. They estimated 35 to 45 minutes for delivery. I expected it to take over 50 min because my apartment is usually hard to find. I am certain the guy was at my door in just under 40 min flat. very impressive for the size of my order, distance, and normally difficult unit to find.
CONs: the Food. Where to begin… the Steamed Dumplings I ordered were so dry and chewy I really had to take pause and remember what I was eating. The accompanying sauce was lackluster in flavor and missed the mark. What I normally love about ordering chinese was only the beginnings of the let downs. The soups… My Hot and Sour Soup was so mundane, I am guessing the gave me egg drop instead. That could be the only logical answer for a soup that could have went from a bag, to microwave to serve. The Wonton soup although uninspired and had no real attention, at least was cooked correctly. My rule of thumb for how well soups are done speaking volumes of the kitchen definitely applied in this case. Now for the overpriced entrees We had the Cantonese Chow Mein, and the Kung Pao Beef. Both were very sorry dishes… Flavorless although that word is an understatement. Vegetables were not cooked all the way through, and the strips of pork were so tough, chewy, and overdone, I wondered why there was so little of the flavorless sauce. The Kung Pow Beef, yes flavorless, and with undercooked veggies as well… also had one serious pain. It had Zero spice, Zero heat. I double checked the menu just to make sure it was supposed to be a spicy dish, and yes it was. Altogether our dishes were not executed well, and had no flavor or seasoning in them. Did they loose all their salt in the kitchen, Or were these taken from a buffet line that had been sitting out for hours?
And for the last Con, the Price. I thought I had ordered crab puffs with my order, and with the total coming out to as high as it was, I was certain that I did. When our order came, and I split it up, I noticed the missing crab puffs. I called back; Again the very nice ladies explained that due to our poor connection they did not hear me when I asked for them. They had my order still written down and they repeated it to me this time (they did not repeat the entire order the first time). So yes, going over the menu, I noticed how much higher all the prices were compared to some of our favorite places. That was the nail in the coffin, I feel foolish for spending that much money on terrible food, and what we could have gotten from a number of other places.
I have absolutely no intention of going back there. Save yourself the time and money; Don’t.

I had a great experience, maybe they made some changes since the last reviewers were there. Give it another try, the sesame chicken was amazing and the staff was very nice!

Omg the worst Chinese food I’ve ever had. Don’t waste your time or money. Got take out, threw it all in the trash!

Bums me out because the place is close. Wish I read reviews here before ordering (I read google reviews). We ordered egg foo young, sesame chicken, fried rice, mongolian beef. The mongolian beef was 85% onion and 15% beef. The egg foo young was horrid. Egg patty with veggies and bland pork piled on top of it. No flavor. The fried rice was ok but the pork in it didn’t have flavor. The sesame chicken was ok too, probably the best of what we got. We threw away the 85% onion in the mongolian beef and took about 3 bites of the egg foo young and threw the whole thing away. Cannot recommend.

Holy God, this place is just gross. One star worthy simply for the speed with which they plate this slop and deliver it piping hot to your front door. Perhaps if you’re completely wasted, haven’t eaten in a week or if you have no taste buds, you’d somehow be able to stomach this disgusting swill. There were three distinct flavors present in the three dishes we ordered: 1) burned dirty wok oil, 2) stale 3) bland. I know, I know, «stale» and «bland» aren’t even flavors, but it’s what everything tastes like; absolutely nothing… or, burned dirty wok oil. Even bad Chinese food usually at least tastes like MSG. Unfortunately, this place can’t even achieve that. Bad bad bad. Unless you’re on the verge of death and this is the only place open to feed you, do yourself a favor and move on. Mama Fu’s is close by.

Just picked up from here. They are fast and friendly but let me preface this by saying i have eaten at alot of Chinese restaurants and this is by far THE worst tasting chinese food. Literally taste like nothing. I was starving too and i ate two bites from my shrimp fried rice and decided i’d rather stay hungry. I don’t understand the really positive reviews. I mean are they reviewing everything except taste? China Dynasty is MUCH better

Got a General Tso’s lunch special with egg roll and soup. Chicken and fried rice was decent quality and I was full at the end for $ 6. If you live/​work close by like I do it will satisfy your greasy Chinese food craving.
It’s not PF Chang’s.

This is the absolute worst chinese food I have ever had. The chicken was so dry I could barely chew it. Something was also left out of my delivery. This was my first and last order.

May 29, 2015, 5pm. We called in for pick-​up on a Friday evening and food was ready in approx. 10 minutes.
Our Egg Rolls were somewhat smaller and less stuffed than we’re used to.
Happy Family is a seafood mix with an oyster sauce. Large sized portions with nice mix of seafood, although we’ve had better and more seafood variety elsewhere. Vegetable were fresh and colorful. The sauce was nicely flavored and did not overwhelm the dish.
Lemon Chicken was a large sized portion, nicely breaded white meat chicken with a crisp coating, and a large cup of lemon sauce to be added at home. Some restaurants will make a sweeter sauce. Others will add chunks of fruit or pickled elements. This was more mellow with a nice lemon flavor.
The fried rice was unusually well done, almost fluffy, and flavorful with small vegetable chunks.
Everything was hot, nicely packaged and appropriately flavored. These are NOT strong sauces, and shouldn’t be.
This meal was $ 24 for two of us, and we’ve got sufficient left-​overs for another meal.
This was a good value with competently cooked, if Americanized, Chinese food. We’ll be back.

Wish I’d read the reviews before I ordered here. Fast, friendly delivery but the food… yuck.
Tossed it out after a few bites. Wouldn’t even feed this to my dog, sorry.

The hubby and I were both in the mood for Chinese takeout tonight so I placed an order for a couple of dishes. The meal was neatly packaged which was a big plus. Unfortunately I was soon reminded of why I don’t order from them often. My Lomein with chicken and veggies was swimming in oil. My husband also picked at his Rainbow Chicken. I am disappointed with them yet again and will avoid ordering from them in the future.

I placed a delivery order over the phone and made the mistake of giving them my Debit Card number. A week later my card was compromised and cloned and a fraudulent charge was attempted in Midland, TX.
STAY AWAY, the food is barely edible and the staff are clearly criminals.

I just can’t bring myself to order from here anymore. The acceptable level of quality plummeted, it feels like the prices went up a titch, and there are just too many other Chinese restaurants in the area to order from here and be yet again disappointed.

Not so great, it will do in a pinch. The crab puffs were very hard, the Orange chicken was the same. The shrimp lo mein was pretty good.

Got delivery, not too impressed except they deliver way out here. Beef and broccoli bland and chewy, sweet and sour chicken overcooked and not a good sauce. Beef fried is typical bad fried rice of Texas. Egg rolls are very skimpy, cabbage only. Does not taste good, but at least there are good sized portions. Just kidding (aka woody Allen joke)

Won’t make that mistake again… food was lacking flavor, there was no one at the restaurant which should have been a sign.

I have been eating here for 15 years. It has always been good, even through management/​ownership changes! The food is always fresh cooked to order and the service is very attentive.
The lunch specials are excellent at $ 5.25 and it comes with soup, egg roll and entrée with rice. The price, value, and meals are outstanding.
I am a very picky eater and I will send food back or take take-​out back if I don’t like it. I do not like Chinese slop and would never settle for it. Once, I was visiting my family in Wichita Falls and we ordered about $ 100 in Chinese takeout. When I got home and looked at it and tasted it, I said no way. To the dismay of 8 very hungry people… I wrapped it all back up and took it back to the restaurant. they gave me a refund and I went down the street and ordered from another chinese restaurant.
There was only one time that I sent back an order at this restaurant and they happily replaced it with a meal I thoroughly enjoyed!
I am going back for lunch today!!! :)

How this place is still open, I am not sure.
We have been here several times over the past 8 years, led by my daughter and wife. Mostly, I have just been too lazy to write a review for a place that is so… middle of road. So NOT special for food. So meh. Like so 2.5−3.5 stars. The proprietors were always pleasant enough, but man this place REALLY needs 1.) an interior update and 2.) some menu pizazz for goodness sakes.
Well, the last visit was the last straw… my wife has a silverfish in her water glass. When she pointed it out to the owner, he didn’t say anything = NOTHING… he just gave her a new glass of water.
I suppose he was speechless, but seriously, WTH? If you were the owner, wouldn’t you make an attempt to apologize, make an excuse, or at least say something to the patron?
Never. again.

I had eaten here before and was looking for lunch after church. I noticed we were the only people in the place during lunch. That should have been a sign. We sat down and our order was immediately taken. I opted for Mongolian Beef. My wife ordered Kung Pao chicken. The soup was immediately brought out. The hot and sour soup was ok. A few minutes later, they brought our plates out. The Mongolian Beef was very fatty. It had a good flavor. The portion size was a little small. The fried rice was drown in soy sauce. The Kung Pao had a strange flavor to it. The spicy part of it make me got into a coughing fit.
I should have known that you get what you pay for. The $ 5.55 lunch special was not very appetizing. I had gotten great food from this place before. I am not sure what happened. It has gone way down hill.