Dining Out

Kung Pao, the Chinese restaurant on Warner Avenue and Bolsa Chica, has

not changed its menu or excellent service since it opened 17 years ago.

The large dining room on two levels with booths and tables is a place

of tradition. Peter Chen took over from his father Jung Chen nine years

ago, the latest in a long line of chefs in a restaurant family from

Sandong, China.

Variety is the name of the game in this healthy Mandarin and Szechwan

cuisine highlighted by wonderful dark spicy sauces. There are 37 lunch

specials (11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m., $4.85-$5.95). My favorite Kung Pao,

($5.50) which gives the restaurant its name, had diced chicken sauteed in

a medium spicy sauce with peanuts, a won ton, fried rice and egg roll but

any combination is good. Mu-shu chicken, also $5.50, is always fun with

chicken or beef pieces rolled up with egg and bits of green onion in thin

Chinese pancakes rather like a burrito.

The dinners for one to eight people ($11.95-$93) are served family

style with added specialties. They begin with another favorite, sizzling

rice soup, done differently at every Chinese restaurant. At Kung Pao the

server brings cracker-sized squares of rice, which he adds to a big bowl

of hot chicken broth with chicken, mushrooms, bamboo shoots, bright green

snow peas and carrots, and slices of zucchini. It sets up a sizzle that

will tempt any appetite.

Next on the dinner were pot stickers and foil-wrapped chicken pieces

with a thin, dark ginger sauce. Pot stickers, small, round dumplings of

won ton skin, are folded over a filling of minced chicken and vegetables

-- perfect dipped in the tangy ginger sauce.

Equally as good is the piece of chicken in dark soy sauce neatly

packaged in foil. It’s traditional in Chinese restaurants but especially

good at Kung Pao.

The dinner for two is garlic chicken and Mongolian beef for which we

substituted prawns. The kitchen is good about allowing a change is some

combinations. The garlic chicken has big cuts of al dente green and red

bell pepper but it was the prawns that stole the show. Peter says they

are dipped in canola oil for a two-minute “quickie fry,” which gives a

thin crisp edge to the softer batter.

Dessert with lunch and dinner is a simple scoop of vanilla ice cream.

Manager Jason says the menu has remained the same though those long,

fresh green beans with garlic so popular now have been added.

One of the best Chinese restaurants in Huntington Beach -- if you

can’t find your favorite dish on the menu, just ask.

* MARY FURR is the Independent restaurant critic. If you have comments

or suggestions, call (562) 493-5062 or e-mail o7 hbindy@latimes.com.f7

FYI

Kung Pao

WHERE: 4911 Warner Ave.

HOURS: 11:30 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. Sunday through Thursday; 11:30 a.m. to

10:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday

PHONE: (714) 840-5721, Ext. 5722

MISC.: Banquet facilities available