Don’t look for a sign to lead you straight to Chili Wok in Vienna. Just navigate yourself between the Giant supermarket and CVS pharmacy on Maple Avenue East. If it looks like you’ve found China Village, you’re in the right place. The sign from Chili Wok’s predecessor hasn’t yet been changed, but what’s on plates most certainly has.
The unsuspecting dining room, with just a few small tables, still does a booming takeout business of beef and broccoli and sweet and sour chicken, but the reason to visit is for the Szechuan dishes that now compose a large portion of the menu.
One of my favorite things about eating in China when I visited a few years ago was the cucumber salads — even at breakfast. Starting my meal with what Chili Wok calls its “Strange Flavor Cucumber Salad” wasn’t even a question. The Gobstopper-like transformation from sweet to sour to spicy is every bit as compelling as the name of the crispy cukes.
I was equally certain from my past travels that I needed to order the lazi chicken, or laziji. I first experienced that dish at a B&B in Xinjiang that prepared a number of Szechuan favorites. I salivate now, Pavlov’s dog-style, just thinking about the tingly heat of the crispy chicken. The petite nuggets of almost cloud-like fowl at Chili Wok didn’t taste much like that version, but I was nonetheless pleased with the balance of prickle and satisfying allium-enhanced flavor.
My server also recommended the dry-fried cauliflower. Knowing that both dishes were fried and spiked with chiles, I was worried that they might be too similar, but the vegetable plate spoke for itself. A glut of Szechuan peppercorn meant a compulsion for many tingly bites that the Chinese call “mala,” which refers to the spice that simultaneously numbs.
I finished on a Shanghainese food that’s been embraced by restaurants far beyond that province: xiaolongbao, or soup dumplings. The version at Chili Wok is exceptionally brothy — it took me several slurps instead of my usual one or two to drain the thin skin of its gingery soup. I will return to Chili Wok for these alone, though I wish that it provided more than a disposable Western-style spoon to better contain the fat dumplings.
Chalk up another hit for Vienna, which already punches way above its weight class in the quality of its cuisine.
335 Maple Ave. E., Vienna
See this: A pair of murals covers the walls of the small space. Beyond that, expect a busy takeout counter, especially at lunch time when road crews descend for inexpensive American Chinese lunch specials.
Eat this: Strange flavor cucumber salad, Shanghai pork soup dumplings, lazi chicken
Feature image by Alice Levitt
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