四姐 Special Noodle

I would put Fourth Sister Special Noodle into the top tier of Austin Chinese Restaurants.1. The hanzi (Chinese characters) at the beginning of the restaurant name mean Fourth Sister.I don't see the harm in calling your restaurant Fourth Sister Special Noodles.It could be that the hanzi is a signal to discerning Chinese patrons that Fourth Sister Special Noodle is the real deal.Fourth Sister Special Noodle really is the real deal.2) This is the first Austin installation of a successful chain of Bay Area Chinese restaurants. They have no fewer than three restaurants in Fremont - one of which I am guessing is the Mother Ship.None of the restaurants are in San Francisco per se ... but there are several scattered around the East Bay and below San Jose.3) They have a lot of dishes with alternative parts of the pig. Restaurants of any ethnicity that have a lot of organ meats tend to be outstanding up and down the whole menu. Four Sisters is no exception.I personally adore alternative parts of the pig. I often make it a point to order those when I get a chance.But the menu here is absolutely positively vast.There were too many temptations elsewhere on the menu.4) The wife and I ordered a real banquet between us - with the full intention of taking leftovers home. (This is standard operating practice for our family when going to a top of the line Chinese restaurant). We had all sorts of dishes - with a heavy concentration of noodle dishes for various random reasons.Yelp reviews that sayMy 1st dish was goodMy 2nd dish was goodMy 3rd dish was good..My 338th dish was good.Can be pretty boring.So I will just save you the TLDR and say there was not a bad dish in the lot.Thumbs up all the way around.5) I am more enthusiastic about this place than my wife, although she would give Fourth Sister five stars as well.I am an all out carnivore while she is pescatarian with a preference for lighter tastes and dishes.Food at Fourth Sister is hearty and tastes meaty - whether or not actual meat is involved.The goal is to make dishes that will stick to your ribs even if not a single molecule of starch is involved.Samuel C the Trencherman thought this was great.Wife of Samuel C would have preferred more health oriented dishes that felt like doing tai chi in the park at sunrise.There are plenty of those in Chinese cooking.6) Minor note: one of the many many sections of the menu is called Chow Mein. There is no reason for Chinese food snobs to turn up their nose at this section. This is not the chow mein you were served for school lunch or the cousin of the invented-in-the-US dish, chop suey. Chop Suey and Chow Mein were staples of 1960s Americanized Chinese restaurants, along with egg foo yung and shrimp with black bean sauce More specifically, it does not have canned deep fried chow mein crunchies. Chow Mein here means what other restaurants call Lo Mein, your basic savory brown sauced fried noodles with stuff in it. Fried rice also appears in that section. Superb Chinese restaurants tend to do superb fried rice.They do a wicked Chow Mein here. I ordered the version with shrimp and was very happy.7) All in all, this is a first rate establishment - easily competitive with the top tier of Austin Chinese restaurants. The most obvious contrast is with Asia Cafe. Asia Cafe has a huge menu and tons of superb authentic Chinese dishes. The rap on Asia Cafe, which bothers me zero, is that the menu veers towards a lot of sweet dishes because Americans like sweet dishes. 80 percent plus of their menu is not sweet, so that pandering to the crowd is street legal in my book. Plus their sweet dishes rock the house.Fourth Sister Special Noodle has only a very small number of sweet dishes. Their concession to American tastes is to offer a "screen" on their electronic menu before every spicy dish that allows you to turn the heat on or off. Most Chinese will opt for the heat, unless they are serving the dish to grandma who has digestive problems.We were wimpy and opted for heat-off on the two dishes where heat was an option. Don't tell the Chinese restaurant police.8) One last difference is that Fourth Sister Special Noodle can be expensive if you want it to be expensive.Across the board everything, is one notch more expensive.To add fuel to the price tag fire, they also offer a number of $40+ fresh fish dishes. My guess is that Asia Cafe keeps a stock of frozen fish or inexpensive fresh fish that they use for their fish dishes.Fourth Sister offers several fish with a few of them being top of the line, fresh and highly perishable. The price probably reflects anticipated losses from wastage. Are the 40+ dollar fish dishes better than the econo fish dishes?Only one way to find out ...* * *Asia Cafe vs Fourth Sister?Two huge menu restaurants that will keep you happy forever.Just go.

It was LNY and wanted to order some noodles, dumplings, and sesame balls. Ordered everything through a delivery app since I didn't feel like driving all the way out to NW Austin and dealing with the construction on 183 to get there.I got the snowflake pan fried dumplings. It was my favorite of the 3 dishes I ordered. The pork celery filling was tasty and the skin was just the right thickness for a pan fried dumpling. It came with 8 dumplings and plenty for a single serving but if you have more people I'd order more just in case.I also got the Chow Mein. Hard to find the thicker style Chow Mein noodles in Austin - I grew up with this style inn California. Slightly different than LoMein as these noodles are stir fried a little longer so they have the breath of the wok. I did find the noodle to be a little oily.The sesame balls were perfect. A nice glutinous chew and just enough sweet paste inside.I would say the prices are not too bad for these dishes as the two entrees are in the $12-15 range. They definitely have more baller dishes that are $20-30.

I love this place and we keep coming back since it has something for the whole family. I like that they're constantly adding things to their menu. If you're a tomato egg fan, their tomato egg noodles are great. I love that they have beef soup dumplings and their fried soup dumplings are amazing. I don't usually eat pork, but I would cheat for them. Their beef noodle soup is great too - the beef quality is awesome. I'm not a big fan of the digital only ordering because my parents won't be able to order for themselves or anyone who is not tech savvy. Other than that, definitely a recommend.

First of this is my second time coming here and the service and atmosphere is lovely. Very attentive and they are always bustling with the energy. They have a soup dumpling station and they are so delicious, the sweet and sour is the most amazing that I have had. It has a great chewy and crunch and texture, the flavor is like a memory of greatness but still cannot recognize what that is. The beef wrap is cold which caught me off guard but was pleasantly surprised how yummy it was. Must come back and try other things.

When I first heard about this place I was a bit on the fence as their prices are on the higher side. However, we decided to give it a try on opening week...with our first attempt being on Friday evening where we were greeted with a bit of a wait so decided to leave. We tried again Saturday for lunch but seeing the line out the door we continued to drive on. Finally, we decided to just get takeout putting in our order online to pickup. When I arrived to pickup there was a TON of people waiting and I found out that they ran out of food and we were the only online order they were able to complete, third time really is the charm!I've tried a variety of dishes here and each time my party and I have left feeling satisfied. Some dishes that stand out consistently are the Soup Pan Fried Buns (Sheng Jian Bao), leek pocket, and the beef wrap. I also enjoyed the Chef Special sweet and sour pork, Gan Ban String Beans, and the eggplant. The only thing that I've stopped ordering are the flat noodles as I was hoping this would be my new fix for Beef Chow Fun (乾炒牛河) but sadly my search continues.Overall, I am so glad we are getting more and more Chinese places near us. I also love how close this is to me, and since opening they have definitely worked to streamline everything. Ordering in person is done via QR code or you can do online for pickup. If dining in, they also utilize robot machines which is fun, I also like how they offer kid dinnerware. If looking for some yummy Chinese food, def give this place a try but again be prepared for a higher price point and having to pay for rice...

Came back and as promised, tried the pan fried pork buns! And they might have been my favorite thing we ordered. The bun itself is soft but so crispy on the bottom. Not hard, but crispy. And the meat inside was so tender and the broth was very tasty. I've heard some people say the broth is a little too sweet for them. But I love it. And if you add some black vinegar, yum! The clear broth noodle soup was decent. The broth was really nice and light. And the meat was also pretty tender. But I didn't care much for the actual noodles. The green beans are really good. However, when eating a bunch of other salty, flavorful stuff, I think I would have preferred if they were less fried and less flavored.

Super solid spot for dumplings and noodles!!!The noodle dish is HUGE and definitely good for sharing if you want to have other dishes. Super tender and flavorful beef. One minus (expected with most Chinese dishes) is the noodles were pretty greasy. The soup that came along definitely helped with that. Nothing too fancy, but I love the details.Dumplings: You can call this place Special Dumplings! I think this is the best place I have tried in ATX. Juicy, flavorful, even when it's fried. Price: For the portion size and the quality, it's worth the priceService: You can the QR code to order and they send out food pretty quicklyLocation: Super spacious. Highly recommend if you have large parties. Will definitely come back

This is probably my 5th or 6th time coming to special noodle, I really enjoyed their food and services! We ordered the beef dumplings and skewers, the beef dumplings were really hot (temperature wise) and I absolutely loved their soup inside of it. The skewers were seasoned really well, especially the pork belly - it was very juicy. The only downside is that most main courses are a bit pricy but I think it's worth it overall. Will return in the future and highly recommended

An unexpected surprise, freshly made noodles and amazing ingredients, tasty at its best. The menu is quite extensive, I have gone to that place by myself for dinner 4 times so far, it's recommend to go in a group so you can share and enjoy. Portions (noodles) are quite big.

This the supper good restaurant, good service and good food I will be back..................! I want try some more