Dining pick of the week: Beijing Noodle Cafe

Familiarity is a good thing when it comes to dining. We want our meals to be comfortable, and we don’t want too many surprises. The only surprise at Beijing Noodle Cafe is how good traditional and familiar Chinese food can be. Entrees include salt and pepper shrimp, General Tso’s chicken, orange beef, curry chicken, walnut shrimp, vegetable chicken and Szechwan beef. Several vegetables dishes are stir-fried mushrooms in black pepper sauce, spicy and hot bean curd, Beijing-style moo shu and wok-fried eggs with tomato. There are soups (pork wonton, egg flower, a variety of noodle soups), fried rice dishes, assorted chow meins (shrimp, chicken, beef, vegetable) and Singapore-style rice noodles. A $5.95 lunch special including soup and rice is served daily from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Entree choices include Kung Pao chicken, sweet and sour chicken, Mongolian beef, pepper steak, shrimp with lobster sauce and chicken or beef with broccoli. Popular appetizers are beef and onion dumplings, vegetarian spring rolls, Chinese onion pancake and pork wonton in red chili oil. Entrees and house noodle soups begin at $6.95. Beijing Noodle Cafe is open from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and 11 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday. — Jack Bulavsky