Tien Hong Chinese Restaurant & Bar

It’s a shame this place is closing. The food was pretty decent, but what was even better was The Shining-​like ambiance, the shady mafia back-​room, and a little drink called Dr. Skull.

How can they be closing?! I have also not yet ordered from the menu, but I plan to get in a couple visits before they close on the 24^th. Nick says the menu items are also great. Dim sum is such a good deal. My favorites were the leek and pork/​shrimp and the pork buns. We’ll update this review after ordering off the menu. Definitely get in a visit before they close!

Great hole in the wall chinese food. I’ve never experienced the problems that others here have mentioned. I’m not the biggest Dim Sum fan, so I avoid coming on the weekend, but my friends who like Dim Sum say it’s pretty good.
Average service but the food more than makes up for it. Try the Kung Pao Shrimp if you go, and the steamed pork dumplings. In general, the seafood dishes are especially yummy and highly recommended.

Good Dim Sum. Get there early on Saturday or Sunday.

I have never ordered off the menu here. I only come when motivated to arrive early on Sat or Sun for Dim Sum. I think Dim Sum may be Chinese for Visual Menu. Tien Hong has been my favorite Dim sum for years. They have great variety of dumplings. Plus lotsa more different things like the taro, jellyfish, snow pea leaves, chicken feet and tripe that tend to freak out the gringos. I have several friends that like to go and if I time it right I can space it out to go with each of them. Its funny to see what some people like and others do not. Me — I like everything. Especially the rice porridge for starters and the steamed dumplings. Yummmmmm!!!

The service here is awful. The staff knows very little about the menu and are not attentive AT ALL. The food is ok but nothing too special. Were they really voted best Chinese in Austin?
Be careful of your belongings. I left my wallet here and when I returned 30 minutes later to pick it up ALL of my cash had disappeared and no one knew anything about it. How convenient. Management could care less about compensating me for my loss.
This place is not the place to be enjoying good food. Cheers!

My co-​workers took me to Tien Hong for my birthday lunch recently, the first time I’ve had it in months due to a fitness campaign resting largely on Clif bars and turkey products. Since coming to Austin in the 90’s, I have loved this restaurant. The dilapidated booths, the faded décor: it’s part of *my* Austin — which I’m afraid will always be the Austin of the late 90’s, since I go out so little.
I enjoy the dim sum plenty, and it was here that I had steamed chicken feet before, well, everyone I know. But my heart belongs to two menu items: the Black Pepper Beef and the Salt and Pepper Shrimp. And appetizer-​wise, now that I think of it, get the Crispy Walnuts. I believe that the other reviewers would at least partly rehabilitate their views on Tien Hong, given these dishes.
Pre-​diet, about once a month, I’d have all of the above delivered on a Friday night and have a damned tasty weekend (for some reason, I’d also get the pork spare ribs, which, though lackluster, nevertheless became part of the tradition). The Black Pepper Beef is simplicity itself: savory onions, just slightly softened, and beef crusted in black pepper, in the world’s most delicious sauce. I would slide into a tub of this stuff, but it’d burn.
When ordering the shrimp, I suggest you specify that the shells be left on, for best flavor. The shrimp are served in chopped onions (scallions?), jalapeño, possibly cabbage, all in a large fried bowl if dining in. Once again, «salt and pepper» is as misleading in describing the outstanding roux that forms as «black pepper» is in describing the sauce of the beef dish above.
I’ve also had some excellent lobster meals here, and have always, always received outstanding service. I’m partial to the «ghost waiter» style, and last week, the table was properly haunted: glasses were filled and unnecessary dishes disappeared: promptly, all by themselves, without a word. My boss paid my check, it being my birthday, but I felt compelled to leave an additional tip on the table: the last great ghost waiter I had was in Paris. Tien Hong is also where I’ve given the largest tip of my life, when I brought my ex-​in-​laws.
Branch out into the menu if you can, but if you try them, I think you’ll find yourself tethered to the items I’ve suggested. Overall, this restaurant won me over years ago with outstanding food and service, and hasn’t slipped in my eyes at all.

I just came back from Christmas dim sum here and it was great. I think they do steamed dumplings very well with a good selection of different types of steamed shrimp/​seafood dumpling varieties. Also good are the siu mai, sticky rice with chinese sausage and short ribs and good dessert dim sum such as snow balls, custard tarts and mango pudding. They always have Chinese broccoli available and although I like it, we are always too busy with the dumplings to order it. Oh — we also had some bbq duck that was very very good.
Things they don’t do that well include pork buns — very dry with hardly any meat or sauce in them. It seems that no dim sum place in Austin can make a decent pork bun, steamed or baked. Bummer. They also don’t have much «variety» meats such as tripe, pigs feet, coagulated blood cubes or chicken feet, not that these are any of my favorite things but they are traditional and its always entertaining to watch my mother-​in-​law chew on some pigs’ feet.
I stay away from the fried stuff — it doesn’t look great and fried food isn’t really my thing.
Oh – Santa was there! I thought it was really nice that they had Santa sitting in the front of the restaurant with a bunch of candy canes taking pictures with all the kids. Very nice Christmas brunch! (Especially since we just made it before it got packed.)

Also a Canto restaurant… and a bad one, at that. As has already been so graphically explained by other members, this place has some issues with their sanitation standards. I won’t add to the stories already told, but I’ve also had similar experiences.
If you’re craving dim sum, try Marco Polo, T&S, or Shanghai Restaurant. If you try those out and STILL insist on getting dim sum at Tien Hong, that’s fine. I can’t help you.

I had been warned about this place. But did I listen? No. We threw caution to the wind tonight and ordered take out for the second from this place.
I think they may enjoy adding repulsive items to their soups (see Matthew H.‘s review concerning the roach leg that he found in his soup) because I found a hair in my wonton soup tonight.
Then, if that wasn’t gross enough, I found ANOTHER HAIR in my shrimp with vegetables.
YUCK!
It’s safe to say that you won’t be finding me at Tien Hong anytime soon.

My name is Jaye, and I’m a dumpling addict. Seriously, I think that the Chinese created Dim Sum for me. No, really, they did.
I’ve been to Tien Hong a couple of times for Dim Sum and once for lunch. At first, I enjoyed the Dim Sum a lot. Lots of fun things to try and pigs in a blanket taboot. The BBQ pork was really tasty, I liked the Shu Mai, and many other of the steamed (and of course, fried) dumplings.
Then? I went to Din Ho. And I discovered what BBQ pork should taste like, and realized that Tien Hung kind of blew in that department.
And then? I went to Shanghai for Dim Sum, and I realized that Tien Hung’s whole Dim Sum kind of blew. And what I thought was super cheap, was actually about the same price as Shanghai (and also, Colby and I are total amateurs at Dim Sum. We need to start strategizing more.)
And then, after having gone for lunch? I went to Asia Market Café, and well, you all know how I feel about that place (it could be my church… my church of DELICIOUSNESS).
So really, there’s just no reason to go back to Tien Hong. Because we didn’t see Kinky (I’m thinking he’s learned there’s better to be had) and we paid close to the same as Shanghai, and the food was mediocre at best, I won’t be back.
I’m also not going to give up on chicken feet. I tried them at Tien Hong and didn’t like them, but I’m willing to give them another try at a better place…

I’m starting to wonder if I really like chinese food, or if I’m just stuck in a place where «chinese food» is some americanized bastardization of the real thing? I’ve had the good stuff — I know its out there somewhere. However, it seems like Tien Hong is not where I’m gonna find «it» in Austin.
The menu is loaded with your americanized-​chinese favorites and curiously includes some vietnamese specialties. Curious #2 that they have french fries on the menu. (?!!) I had a hard time finding something that looked interesting/​tasty. Not quite the crazy variety that is the Din Ho menu. I decided to go for the baseline test of Singapore Noodles. A restaurant that does this dish well wins points with me.
While my expectations where medium to low, the Singapore Noodles were quite good. Not too oily, good distribution/​quantity of ingredients, nice curry kick — good stuff.
My dining companion’s rice-​pot dish (lots of rice in a pot with stir-​fry business on top) was just OK — I’ll see if it fares any better as leftovers.
Service was about normal although I was nearly dowsed with a soft-​drink from behind because a server tripped or something.
Analysis — Good first visit. Tasty Singapore Noodles, but not blown away.

This place has very good service and the food is good. that combination earns them an extra star over Din Ho’s… mainly the good service.
The atmosphere is seemingly «asian»… almost as if they were trying to make it VERY asian by putting ALL the asian things they could find in every area of sight. kinda amusing actually but it’s not bad.
The dimsum is good and comparable to marco polo’s dim sum. I think this place might be a bit better (sorry marco polo).
I read everyone else’s review so i thought i’d go back for food that wasn’t dim sum.
The American-​Asian dishes are typically your batter-​fried meat either dry or smothered in some type of sweet sauce (i.e. Sweet and sour chicken/​pork). I did not go for those because I really wanted to taste the authenticity of this place.
We ordered a couple of dishes and it came with infinite complementary amounts of white rice or brown rice (for you health nuts). I will have to say that the food is very good and rather authentic. I am very pleased.
The only thing is that the menu is all in English, unlike most of the other sit-​down Asian restaurants. Not a bad thing but I didn’t know what some of those dishes were. Didn’t quite make me feel as at «home» but it was good.
Summary: good food, good service, good good good.

I have only been there for dimsum, so this is a dimsum review. First of all, go right when they open. I believe that would be 11am on the weekends. The place gets crowded fast.
The dimsum is delicious, with all the usual standards, like siumai, hargow, gyoza, daikon-​mochi (sorry, I only know Japanese names for some of these dishes) etc. They also have shrimp-​toast, which the kids love. We like to get the sticky rice that’s in those leaves as well. Because it is usually crowded, the food is very fresh as they have to keep cranking out more and more. Service is good, with plenty of waitstaff milling about, ready to refill your tea.
It’s great for kids too, because they have a couple tv’s on the walls to keep them entertained, or you can walk them around the restaurant to look at the artwork.

This Dim Sum is bad. Really Really bad. It’s never warm, and much of it seemed old and stale. Avoid this place — try the other place in Austin instead.

Tien Hong is in my neck of the woods, and boy am I happy about that fact. The first sentiment that comes to mind about this place is that it’s super affordable. I’ve probably eaten in 3 – 4 times and every time I do I’m shocked by how cheap the bill is. You and a guest can stuff your faces, share a bottle of wine, and have leftovers for under $ 45 (including tip). And the food is quite good. I’m never awed by any items, but it’s always quality, and it always hits the spot. For me «the spot» includes that space in my innards that screams «I want food from a restaurant!!» And there’s this other spot that says, «You just paid the mortgage, you can’t go to a restaurant!!» And then the other spot retorts, «Listen, you have to fill me so that you can have the energy to work and afford the mortgage!» And the second spot always says, «Once again you are correct. This is why you are the referrent for ‘the spot,’ while I am „the second spot“ that no one has ever heard of.»

This place was voted the best Chinese food in Austin for a reason. On Xmas it was packed, 20 minute wait (although nowhere really to wait) the entire Jewish population of Austin was eating here, most saying things like «This is my tenth Xmas to eat here!» The service was great, our waiter was charming, the General Tso’s Spicy chicken was pretty danged amazing. They wandered around with trays of appetizers that you could add on to the bill (which made the long wait to get our real food much more dealable.) My sister got a gross dish with «dumplings and pan fried noodles» which turned out to be soy based imitation duck. Don’t ask, we were confused too. When she told the waiter she didn’t like it, he immediately removed it from the menu and gave her something else, no questions asked.
Seriously Awesome Food.