Restaurant Review: Wonderful House

Wonderful House occupies an enviable space.

The destination restaurant in Scottsbluff is a multiple winner of the local paper’s annual “best of” survey. It attracts near full house crowds at lunch and dinner—with respectable service in between. It is also one of a scant few Chinese sit down restaurants in the southern panhandle…unless you really want to count a handful of soggy buffets.

Like most ethnic kitchens in this part of the world, staff members stick with dishes familiar to the less adventurous guest. Although Wonderful House’s menu includes a couple of squid dishes, some tofu and imitation bird’s nest, the list of chef’s specials repeat more common words, like chicken, beef, Kung Pao, lo mein and Hunan.

Oh, well—it’s difficult to imagine a large market for dried jellyfish or thousand year eggs, after all.

The tofu they include in their namesake hot pot dish bears broth-tinged, weathered skin, but gushes like a creamy-earthy pillow on your tongue. Their deep fried squid appetizer is a tad on the rubbery side. When paired with an intriguing paste of chopped spices and vegetables and touched to slightly sweet soy, however, the breaded, curly ribbons become irresistible.

Yet the question remains: is Wonderful House truly all that wonderful? After several visits, I still find it difficult to explain the wealth of accolades.

Oh, don’t get me wrong—it is worthy of repeat visits. Their orange chicken, for example, revels in a bright, tangy-sweet glaze leavened by large slivers of more grounded and striking citrus zest. The clinging sauce is one-dimensional in aspect, little more than fresh, juicy and sharp. It lacks in both nuance and balance. On my most recent visit the dish suffered a bit from parched meat, as well.

Still, I find it difficult to turn their orange chicken away. So many other restaurants produce weary sauces.

The Wonderful House hot pot features a common brown broth and the aforesaid cushy tofu. Other ingredients—chicken, beef, shrimp—fade under the earthy wash, losing any individual appeal. But the combination is also quite hearty and filling in the best Nebraska sense.

So reviewing my notes on the restaurant, it appears Wonderful House rises far enough to satisfy a region starved (for the most part—there is Tea Garden in Gering) of decent Chinese options. They generally cook to order and never fall below a certain standard.

Then why all the praise…I mean, besides the lack of competition?

Order from their dinner menu and what you receive is stunning in size: a mound of orange chicken, a hot pot that runs deep, if not silent.

Wonderful House is good enough. But when you factor in value for money, the restaurant stands alone. The menu may promise a sampling from Hunan, Sichuan, Canton and Mandarin traditions, but the portions are all Midwestern.

And that answers my question.