It is absolutely essential for the meats in a hotpot to have enough time to tenderize the tough cuts of meat.  However, we can understand when a restaurant is so swamped that it also wants to get the dishes out to the customer as quickly as possible.  It is a catch-22 that works well when it succeeds, but sometimes can result in a subpar dish.  With that said, the Stewed Beef Hotpot is a generously portioned entree with large cuts of beef, tendon, tofu and bok choi in a spiced brown broth.  The dish as a whole showed the lack of time spent in tenderizing the ingredients and allowing the flavors to blend and as such suffered both in flavor and texture.  As a result, the meat was tougher than it could be while the tofu and other ingredients retained their individual flavor.  We feel that this is perhaps an instance of opening jitters as the restaurant tries to balance the absolutely phenomenal number of diners and reserve full assessment for a future review.    

In a city with so few choices in authentic Chinese BBQ style restaurants, First Chinese BBQ is a welcome addition to the Austin restaurant food scene.  It is worth visiting to experience the different interpretations of regional chinese cuisine.  At the same time, we hope that First Chinese BBQ will improve as it finds its routine and work though its opening foibles.  Foodquest will return to First Chinese BBQ to complete its assessment as well as bring fresh views of the other new restaurants opening in the area.

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