“ Solid chinese food spot in Lakeway! We've ordered take out from here a few times whenever we crave chinese food, and our favorite has been the chinese eggplant in garlic sauce. We also like the 3 cup chicken, house made tofu and low mein. ”

“ Quick pick up and it's always on par. Pao's has the best hot and sour soup- mike drop- period. Lots of ingredients and perfect. A lot of places have you wondering where the 'stuff' is! I get the Kung pao chicken no peanuts- yum! ”

“ Great service and food! Very friendly people! We have tried both dine in and carry out, they excel at both. ”

“ We found this restaurant on Yelp. The place was busy! Lots of Togo orders the entire time we waited for our food. The garlic chicken "earlybird" special was fantastic. This I'll be one of our regular places to eat. Very good. ”

“ Great food great people great service. This is a hidden gem if you like true Taiwanese and Chinese food. ”

“ Fantastic environment and food. The early bird special was a very good portion for the price and we loved that it included the soup and egg roll before the main dish and fried rice (lots of places make you pay extra for the fried rice instead of steamed). I myself had the kung pao beef, on the suggestion of our server, and it was great! If you don't like spicy though, you should stay away. The other person I went with got number 20 in the early bird special- something with shallots, shrimp, in a white wine sauce, and she also loved it. Something unique about Pao's was the spicy mustard offered with the egg roll. We will be back! ”

“ Love this hidden gem in the Bee Cave area. You can ask for their Chinese menu, they have very authentic Taiwanese food. The service was great too. Prices are reasonable too. Will sure be back next time for more of their Taiwanese food like their combination soup noodles (大滷麵). ”

“ A truly superior American Chinese Restaurant AND A truly superior Chinese Chinese Restaurant. Not many Asian restaurants can go both ways and do it well. * * * Pao's has long been a legendary Chinese restaurant but their origins were when Chinese food in Austin wasn't very good. They were located in Downtown Austin as an office lunch place. They were the only good Chinese restaurant downtown. * * * Then they moved to Lakeway. They disappeared off Austinite's culinary maps. They were the one and only one decent Chinese restaurant in Lakeway. Lakeway has a large population and that population is rich. So having a near lock on the Lakeway trade was more than enough to pay the company's bills. * * * Having business to do in Lakeway brought me back in contact with Pao's. All of the 1990's magic is still there. Of course, since the 1990s there is a lot more competition for the "outstanding American Chinese restaurant niche". P. F Chang's is the gold standard in American Chinese. It is a first rate chain. But there are now several places in town that can give P. F. Chang's a run for their money. One of them most assuredly is Pao's Mandarin House. Eat Beef and Broccoli at Pao's. Then eat Beef and Broccoli anywhere else. Report back when you are done. I don't know anyone in the Central Texas who does that dish as well as Pao's. * * * Chinese Chinese has changed over the years. What used to be exotic dishes are now "standard operating procedure" at lots of Chinese restaurants in the Austin Metro. Everyone does a pork intestine dish. Everyone does salt and pepper shrimp. Everyone does spicy beef with chinese cabbage. There are bigger Chinese menus elsewhere. The top tier of Chinese Chinese restaurants is now fairly large. (For a related phenomenon of many restaurants sharing the top tier, See Texas Barbecue.) But Pao's is in Tier I along with the rest of the star performers. I have eaten through a nontrivial chunk of their Chinese Chinese menu. I like everything I have had ... But I am particularly fond of their salt and pepper shrimp. Their salt and pepper shrimp actually taste of both salt and pepper. That is not so common these days. But I could order anything off the American or Chinese side and be happy. * * * So the good news is, That if you are a Lakeway or Bee Cave resident ... And you never leave the South Shore suburbs ... You can still eat really really fine Chinese food. You will miss all the rest of what makes Austin Austin. But if the Chinese food is good enough ... Who cares? ”

“ I'm staying with family in the area and they love the food at Pao's. They recently moved to the area and locals highly recommend both dine in and take out. I was impressed with the quality of the food and the speed in which they were able to deliver five meals, plus a couple of orders of dumplings. It was almost like they knew what we were going to order ahead of time...the food arrived so quickly. I had a shrimp and vegetable dish with steamed white rice and it was perfect. Others had cashew chicken, roast pork, sesame chicken and another chicken dish (that I didn't catch the name of) ...with a variety of fried and white rice combinations. Egg rolls were not greasy and delicious. Steamed dumplings were a hit as well. Very good Chinese takeout...right outside of Austin. ”