House of Three Gorges (三峡人家)
Raphael Brion over-ordered here once, asked everyone at his table to name a favorite dish, and most of them picked the eggplant in garlic sauce.1 The Li family came from the Three Gorges country on the Yangtze, and their head chef Larry Bai makes every plate to order.3
Why go
The Lis opened their first restaurant weeks before the pandemic shut the dining room, and Jim Li put the plan plainly: Instead of making very generic Americanized Chinese food, why not stay with our passion and really demonstrate what is authentic Chinese?
3 The menu runs long and it runs classic, chongqing mala chicken and mapo tofu, then keeps going into Sichuan fish with pickled mustard greens and Yangtze sauteed pork intestines.1 Five years on, the same card also carries a Chinese-American chicken section, General Tso's, orange and sesame at US$14.99 each, so a table split between the two can eat from one order.5 Matthew Odam's summary is that the kitchen serves dishes rich with pig blood and offal and specializes in Szechuan dishes and hot pots.
4 The hot pots come in cast iron for a table to share, and some arrive over a working stove so you cook in the broth yourself.3 The kitchen is Unit 144 of the shopping center at Research and Ohlen, which also holds Din Ho, Julie's Noodles, Pho Van and Ramen Tatsu-Ya.14
Order this / avoid
- The eggplant in garlic sauce, US$13.99, coated in garlic sauce and scallions.15
- Mapo tofu with ground pork, US$13.99. Brion:
This classic Chinese dish made with tender ground pork looks supersized, but we guarantee the table will want to finish every smooth, peppery bite.
A vegetarian version is the same price.15 - Odam's own list:
Yangtze garlic bacon, sweet red braised pork belly, cumin lamb, dry pot pork intestines, and mapo tofu.
4 - A dry pot, and the lamb is the reviewer's pick of the seven. A couple of them are vegetarian.1
- Pork wontons in spicy soup, six for US$6.99.
That red broth tastes as devilish as it looks, giving the wantons a fiery kick.
15 - Sichuan dry stir-fried chicken, US$14.99, boneless chicken fried dry with dried chiles and Sichuan peppercorn, on Nicolai McCrary's must-order list. If someone at the table wants General Tso's, it comes off the same wok at the same price, and I haven't found a critic who has ordered it.95
- The spicy jumping fish and the brisket in tangy radish soup, which are Eater's picks off the same menu.7
- Avoid: taking a hot pot away. Jim Li on that:
There are some dishes just not suited for takeout. We really want to give our customers the best experience they can have and that can only happen in the short distance between the kitchen and the dining table.
3
What locals & experts say
- Raphael Brion scored it 9.2 for The Infatuation in a review page-dated 17 April 2025. On the eggplant:
One time we went to House of Three Gorges, ordered far too much food, and asked our dining companions to choose their favorite dish. Most people picked the eggplant.
1 - Matthew Odam carried it on the Statesman's Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month list in May 2025, and named the strip center as one of the great ones for Asian dining in the city.4
- Eater put it on the 38 essential restaurants in Austin for summer 2026: the room
has vowed to 'keep Austin spicy' since it opened in 2020, offers some of the best regional Chinese in the city.
7 - Jim Li on what customers tell him:
We're overwhelmed with the comments from people. 'Oh, my gosh, I have never had this kind of food,' or, 'This reminds me of my grandma's cooking.'
3
Good to know
- Walk in, and if the wait is long, cross the parking lot to Mister Tramps Sports Pub and drink there until your table comes up.1
- Weekends fill the small dining room, so Eater's advice is to come early or take it away. The exception is the hot pots.7
- Prices, from the April 2026 menu: the Yangtze garlic bacon is US$13.99, up from US$9.99 when Community Impact printed it in 2021, cumin lamb US$17.99, dry pots US$19.99, and the cast iron brisket hot pot US$27.99. The menu says spiciness is adjustable and substitutions are not.53
- Closed Monday. The rest of the week runs a lunch service and a dinner service with the afternoon dark between them. Delivery and pickup go through Uber Eats and DoorDash, which the restaurant names as the platforms it uses.6
- The kitchen buys from local farms for some plates, the mouthwatering chicken with mala sauce among them.3
- Hygiene: record found and current. Austin Public Health has the kitchen at 8557 Research NB Blvd Unit 144, with four inspections on file: 81, then 82, then 81, and 72 on the oldest of them. Austin's failing threshold is below 70, so none of these is a finding, and the scores have climbed since the 72.2
- Nine other kitchens share the address. 8557 Research holds Din Ho Chinese BBQ, Julie's Handmade Noodles, Ramen Tatsu-Ya, Pho Van, Coco's Cafe and the Hong Kong Supermarket counters. Each carries its own facility id, and scores do not transfer between them.2
Jeff's take (his words)
- Note: "Maybe best Chinese in Austin"
Verdict
must-visit — Eat in and order a cast iron hot pot for the table, because Jim Li says outright that those dishes do not survive the trip home. The eggplant is the plate Brion's whole table picked over the meat, and it is a vegetable. If the wait is long, cross the parking lot and drink at Mister Tramps until they call you.