Wang's Cook House: Traditional and American Chinese in North Richardson

Wang’s Cook House in Richardson offers a good combination of both traditional Chinese fare and  Americanized dishes. General Tso’s chicken, crab Rangoon and orange beef share menu space with pork intestine dried hot spicy pot, Chengdu mung bean jelly and spicy fish with boiled oil sauce. In short, there’s something for everybody, with steamed rice and an eggroll thrown in for good measure.
We started off with a pot of chrysanthemum tea, attractively priced at $2.50. The light floral notes and warm cups helped us thaw out from the drive out while we sampled yet another take on the ubiquitous scallion pancake. Wang’s pancakes are on the thin side and could use a bit more scallions, but they had the right amount of chew and were not at all oily as is sometimes the case.
Other appetizers offered include bao, Sichuan sweet cold jelly and dumplings, along with Sichuan spicy wonton in red oil. In addition to ordering the pancake, we also quite often try whatever spicy wonton is offered. These wontons were indeed spicy but not overly so, and they were not drowning in the red oil as sometimes happens with this dish.
We took advantage of the lunch special menu this day (about $11), which included a choice of soup (hot and sour or egg drop), rice (steamed or fried), an eggroll and an entrée selected from a relatively large list.

The soups, served with some wonton “crackers,” were not large servings but were just enough and really hit the spot on a cold and blustery day. Other soup choices include tomato fried egg, oxtail, braised beef and seaweed egg drop.
For the mains we were dull and unimaginative and went with shredded pork in garlic sauce and orange chicken, both of which were above-average efforts of these two popular stalwarts. Neither was oversauced or underseasoned. The chicken had red and green peppers that provided a bit of visual pop over the usual monochromatic brown, and the shredded pork was cooked to perfect doneness.
Other mains include some lamb selections such as stir-fried lamb with green onion and sliced lamb with cumin sauce, both of which will definitely be sampled on future visits, along with perhaps one of the spicy pots (spare rib, fish, lamb, combo), Chengdu sweet roasted duck, whole fish Szechuan-style and stir-fried eggs with tomatoes, the latter of which summons some nostalgic childhood memories.

Although we have an abundance of Chinese restaurants in North Texas, Wang’s Cook House is definitely worth a visit.

4011 E. Renner Road, No. 128, Richardson; Monday – Sunday, 11 a.m. – 3 p.m. and 4 p.m. – 9 p.m.