Bo Ling's Chinese Restaurant   

It is no wonder that this restaurant is consistently rated the best Chinese in local polls. Bo Ling's offers cuisine that's authentic and inventive. Chef/owner Richard Ng travels frequently to Hong Kong to get inspiration for new dishes for Bo Ling's menu. Ng puts great emphasis on the quality of the ingredients. The restaurant has a special blend of rice that the staff determined tastes best (It's a mix of jasmine and American long-grain rices). As for what to eat along with your rice, the decision can be difficult. A good case could be made for Bei Jing roasted duck, orange peel shrimp or lamb with scallion. For starters, don't miss the Cantonese lettuce wrap -- chicken and mushrooms, hot out of the wok, are wrapped in cool lettuce and served with plum sauce. If you love appetizers, hit Bo Ling's dim sum for lunch Saturday or Sunday. Make a meal of all sorts of little bites, which servers cart around the room. A rule of thumb: Bring lots of friends, plan to stay a while and say yes to everything that looks good. You'll end up with new Chinese favorites, whether it's the shrimp dumplings or the delicate homemade tofu in ginger syrup. Conventional wisdom says that once restaurants start expanding to various locations, the quality of the food goes downhill. Bo Ling's is an exception. The restaurant is up to four locations, and that just means that more people will have access to the best Chinese food in town... and at the right price. -- Anna Foote