Chinshan Chinese Restaurant

One of the joys of eating out is the pleasure of discovering a really good place to dine that's worth visiting again. And, we definitely experienced that on a recent visit to Chinshan Chinese Restaurant!

The owners ran a restaurant in Los Alamos for 18 years and decided after their daughter went off to college to move to the big city. After some scouting around, they wisely (I think) chose this location on the east side of Coors NW just a bit south of the shopping mecca of western Albuquerque, the Cottonwood Mall location.

Although the interior design shows it wasn't originally built as a Chinese restaurant, the practical but stark interior is relieved by some beautiful and elegant Chinese art works.

I especially like this fish that graced a dividing wall in the dining room.

Several of the dishes feature XO sauce, a spicy-sweet sauce made from dried seafood that originated in Hong Kong.
Considered the emperor of all sauces, it will definitely be on our selection for our next visit.

But, for this time, we decided to try the House Special with Bean Curd in Clay Pot, which includes pork, chicken and shrimp.

We chose to complement that with beef lo mein.

Tofu or bean curd is common in Chinese dishes, especially the vegetarian ones. The light flavor is easily enhanced by a variety of sauces. But, too often the flavor is only surface deep covering a bland interior. In the House Special Clay Pot, however, the bean curd is saturated and wonderfully enhanced by the mild seasonings used in the pot. For a change, I actually sought out the chunks of bean curd to enjoy more of the flavor. And, as you can see, there was plenty of the other ingredients to feed two with more for take home!

We enjoy moist noodles, especially lo mein, and the beef lo mein was excellent. We'll also need to return to try one of the udon noodle dishes. The only, very mild, disappointment was that the mild seasoning was very similar to that of the clay pot. But the lo mein was certainly good and at least some of the mushrooms were not the ordinary button kind!

The menu also features Peking Duck, which should merit a try on a future visit.

The owners purchase all of their oriental ingredients at Talin Market, a world inport market on Central SE where we also like to shop and it shows in the quality and flavor of both the dishes we enjoyed!

Although you don't get much of a view form inside the restaurant looking across the parking lot, a short stroll outside will give a nice view across the Rio Grande towards the Sandia Mountains in the north and the Manzano Mountains a bit to the south.