Ben Berg’s New Chinese Food Restaurant Brings More Style to Washington Avenue — Your First Taste Look at Benny Chows

Restaurateur Benjamin Berg of Berg Hospitality Group, who has developed 10 engaging restaurants in Texas, has opened a new Chinese-American restaurant called Benny Chows on Washington Avenue. It is next door to Berg’s first restaurant B&B Butchers. The native New Yorker — known as Benny in his youth — grew up savoring Chinese-American food at such places as Chin Chin, Pig Heaven and occasionally Shun Lee Palace, the latter considered one of the best Chinese-style restaurants on the Eastern seaboard.

Not surprisingly, Berg developed a taste for cold sesame noodles Moo shu pork and other dishes that inspired him to replicate those flavors in his latest restaurant in Houston.

While Berg knows the world of prime-cut steakhouses inside and out, for this endeavor he and Berg Hospitality’s VP of culinary Brian Sutton enlisted the help of culinary consultant Doron Wong (Rivers and Hills Hospitality Group) to create a Cantonese-style menu and secured Chinese-born top toque Shirong Mei as Benny Chows’ executive chef. Eagle-eyed Bayou City restaurant observers might recall that in 2017, Mei relocated to Houston to take the helm at Yauatcha, the now-shuttered dim sum teahouse in The Galleria that opened to rave reviews.

Sam Governale, Berg’s VP of design and experience, collaborated with architect Issac Preminger and designer Gail McCleese of Sensitori to create a sophisticated-looking space inside and out for Benny Chows. A pair of imposing Foo Dogs guards the entrance. Inside, the walls are covered in de Gournay’s interpretation of a historic Chinese landscape, executed in royal red and gold.

Florist John Friedman’s massive sphere covered with hundreds of golden flower blossoms centers the room. Floor-to-ceiling black-lacquered shelves display Chinese artifacts and architectural antiques while lanterns in gilded cages cast a warm glow. Right now there are two intimate private dining rooms, with more to be revealed by the holiday season. Eight can dine in The Cherry Blossom Room, where pink flowering branches hang overhead in a space ensconced with wood-bark walls.

Or reserve The Peking Duck Room for up to 10, where those precious birds — an Imperial delicacy enjoyed for centuries — hang to dry in the kitchen window. When the weather cools, people will be able to dine on the patio in a setting inspired by a New York Chinatown street scene with ornate lanterns and Chinese storefront signs bookended by a pair of fortress-like iron and wood doors believed to be crafted in the late 1800s.

The Benny Chows Menu

The food at Benny Chows is created in the tradition of Cantonese cuisine. As revered cookbook author Eileen Yin-Fei Lo writes in The Chinese Kitchen (William Morrow, 1999): “To a large extent, Cantonese is what people think when they think of Chinese food. It is the cooking, albeit altered by circumstance, of those men from Southern China who migrated to the West to search for gold to build the transcontinental railroad. . . Overcooking is a sin in the Cantonese kitchen, which relies heavily on stir-frying and steaming, though it roasts and stews as well . . .

“Over the centuries it has accepted foods and spices from other parts of China and from foreign countries, and made them part of its repertoire.”

The same expansive dinner is served at lunch and dinner at Benny Chows. Starters include time-intensive XLB (Xiao Long Bao) soup dumplings, filled with minced pork and tiny cubes of gelatinized broth that melt as the dumplings are steamed and served with zingy XLB vinegar and ginger sauce ($20). Delicately pierce each steaming dumpling before you devour it a single bite. The tender dark-meat Mala spiced chicken lollipops singe your tongue a little before your palate is cooled with minted yogurt sauce ($16).

Don’t miss the XO turnip cake, a celebration dish traditionally enjoyed during the Chinese New Year. Soft finger-length cakes of daikon and turnip roots are lightly fried and served with an XO seafood sauce composed of dried scallops, shrimp, chilis, garlic and shallots ($16). The rich smoked brisket egg roll is made with neighbor Truth BBQ’s own smoked brisket and served with a minced Asian slaw, mustard and Chinese BBQ sauce ($17). Truth BBQ’s famed brisket also makes an appearance in the smoked brisket fried rice ($28).

Berg and his well-informed waitstaff encourage everyone to try the cold sesame noodles, a mildly spicy compilation of udon noodles tossed in a peanut, soy, scallion and chili oil blend with cucumbers and fresh cilantro ($16). Another traditional dish is the vegetarian-friendly Sichuan-style Impossible Mapo Tofu, made with disks of silken tofu. In lieu of ground pork sautéed in a chili-bean sauce, Chef Mei uses the Impossible Meat substitute instead ($18).

The menu is quite lengthy and includes takes on some of America’s most beloved and popular mains, from General Tso’s chicken, here served as a tempura-fried half chicken ($38) to cara cara orange-scented crispy orange beef made with marinated flank steak ($38). The sweet and sour pork ribs are cooked with Berkshire pork ribs, red pepper and dragon fruit napped with a sweet and sour sauce ($34). The laborious Peking duck takes three days to prepare and is made with Pennsylvania-raised Jurgielewicz duck ($115). The stand-alone dish, with its hallmark lacquered bronzed skin and tender seasoned meat, is served with thin crepe-like Chinese pancakes, julienned fresh scallions, cucumbers, pickled vegetables and both a traditional hoisin sauce and a cranberry-tinged sauce.

It’s a substantial portion that easily feeds four, but if you prefer à la carte options, duck-fried rice ($32) and Peking duck noodles ($38) make less imposing choices.

Spirits include rarified Japanese whiskeys and a cocktail menu with eight signature libations created by Berg Hospitality mixologist Jose Lucas. My favorite was The Empire’s Wok, a vodka-spiked drink flavored with cantaloupe lemon verbena tea syrup and fresh lime juice ($18). Or treat your table to the splashy Mr. K’s Scorpion Bowl, a tiki drink poured from a crystal decanter and garnished with scorpion lollipops ($120).

Conclude the meal with a matcha green-tea ice cream sundae ($18) or mango pudding ($12). Of course, like so many Chinese-American restaurants, every meal ends with a fortune cookie too. Reservations are suggested.

Benny Chows is located 1818 Washington Avenue. It is open Mondays through Thursdays from 11 am to 10 pm, Fridays and Saturdays from 11 am to 11 pm and Sundays from 11 am to 9 pm.