Heidi’s Picks

Heidi’s Picks is a weekly selection of restaurant suggestions from Review-Journal critic Heidi Knapp Rinella. Price symbols are based on the cost of an average entree: $ = entrees less than $10; $$ = entrees between $10 and $20; $$$ = entrees between $20 and $30; and $$$$ = entrees more than $30.

CHINA MAMA

3420 S. Jones Blvd.; 873-1977

Four words of advice if you go to China MaMa: steamed juicy pork buns. These plump, dumplinglike babies are real — and they’re spectacular. Also worthy of note: the creamy chicken corn soup, green-onion pancake and beef roll. The place isn’t big on atmosphere — it is, after all, a former bank, and you can pretty much make out all of the features except for the vault — but the food and prices are tough to beat. (11/6/09)

Overall: A $

McCORMICK & SCHMICK’S

335 Hughes Center Drive; 836-9000

Our most recent visit to McCormick & Schmick’s was for happy hour, which is in the bar from 3:30 to 6:30 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. to closing on weekdays and which features such bargains as a half-pound cheeseburger with fries for $2.95, or crispy cod sliders and fries for $4.95. But we also like McCormick & Schmick’s for lunch and dinner, when fresh fish and seafood dishes such as trout almondine, lobster and various types of crab in season show what the kitchen can do. (8/21/09)

Overall: A- $$$ ($ during happy hour)

VIC & ANTHONY’S STEAKHOUSE

Golden Nugget, 129 Fremont St.; 385-7111

Aside from some Lyonnaise potatoes that weren’t — just because somebody didn’t let well enough alone — we liked just about everything about Vic & Anthony’s. That would include the lobster bisque, mozzarella-and-tomato salad, creamed spinach, shrimp scampi, 16-ounce Prime rib-eye and, for dessert, a pecan ball that was as perfect a finish as we could have hoped. (4/11/08)

Overall: A- $$$$