Recently, I ate at China Star in Fairfax, VA.

I had never eaten in before. I had had take out, but by the time I had eaten it 30-60 minutes later when it was home, it wasn’t warm. I had always had the Szechwan Chili Diced Tofu before, and loved it (both room temperature, cold, and reheated), and was really excited to try new things and have it fresh out of the kitchen.

The decor is nothing fancy, it’s your typical strip mall Chinese restaurant design and ambiance. It’s clean and well maintained, just nothing special.

The menu started out with the weekly specials–all in Chinese, with no English translation. Judging from this and the fact that there was only one other white person in the restaurant throughout our meal, it seems that they mainly cater to the large ex-pat community in the Fairfax/Annandale area. Next in the menu was what we really came for: the Sichuan classics. The Szechwan menu has 72 items, with a great variety of styles and cooking methods. I didn’t bother to really look at the American mainstream Chinese menu, but saw what you would expect to see at any Chinese restaurant. My two friends and I each ordered an egg roll, then we ordered our entrees: Szechwan Chili Chicken (辣子鸡, là zǐ jī) for myself, Szechwan Chili Diced Tofu (辣子豆腐丁, là zǐ dòu fu dīng) for K, and Braised Fish (水煮鱼, shuǐ zhǔ yú) for A. The Braised Fish we ate more like a soup, not bothering to pour it over rice, and it was very good: it hit all the flavor points we expected it to, the fish was tender, and it left A satisfied. The Szechwan Chili Diced Tofu was everything I had known it to be. I freaking love deep fried tofu, even though I don’t like raw tofu.

My Szechwan Chili Chicken is what I concentrated on the most. The coating was corn based, with finely ground szechuan peppercorn dusting the pieces of chicken (I’m not sure if they put the peppercorn in the coating or if it was just from the stir frying, but it made me want to try putting the peppercorn in the coating/marinade). I thoroughly enjoyed it. The thing that stuck out to me most about my trip to China Star was that my waitress asked if I wanted this dish on the bone or not. I think this really typified the feeling I got from China Star: they are legit (maybe even too legit to quit). It said to me that yes, they have Americanized dishes, but they’re also not only catering to the American audience. (For the record, I ordered it without bones, because I didn’t feel like putting in the extra effort of picking the meat off.)

What surprised me most about China Star had to do with the reviews I had read before posting this. There were three things that the bad reviews mostly had in common: they described the food as “bland,” they described the food as “greasy,” and they described items off of the mainstream menu. Having only had the egg roll off the mainstream menu, I can’t really judge the mainstream menu. Was my egg roll greasy? Of course, it was deep fried; if it wasn’t greasy, I would have been concerned and disappointed. Was my egg roll bland? Yes, as bland as an egg roll normally is. The egg roll was exactly what I expected it to be, it didn’t have any bells and whistles or any attempts at innovation. The mainstream menu, it seems from the reviews, my egg roll, and the layout of the menu, is not what they focus on. With the weekly specials written in Chinese only, it’s obvious that they are not focusing on English-speaking Americans whose only experience with Chinese food is what they’ve gotten from their local carryout.

This is my favorite Chinese restaurant in the DC area.

Tags: china star, reviews, Sichuan