The menu at Shan Dong is a little different than most Chinese restaurants. Most items come with full or half orders, and both are available all day . There is no lunch menu, but if you go during lunch hours (11:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.) you receive a complimentary soup and egg roll. This alone almost makes it worth going to Shan Dong.

The Egg Roll here is the best in El Paso (I do not need to qualify this as being my opinion, since just about everyone who has gone to the restaurant with me agrees). It comes with chicken inside, but even if you pick the chicken out to make a vegetarian roll you are still left with a delicious roll of substantial quantity. The hot mustard served with it is outstanding, and the fact that it varies in thickness indicates that it is made fresh daily.

The Hot and Sour Soup has received compliments from just about everyone who has accompanied me to the restaurant, and I like it as well (but I still prefer the versions served at some of the more authentic Hunan and Sichuan style restaurants in other cities).

Home Style Tofu can be cooked to special order with no meat

I generally order the Home Style Tofu, and most of the time it is excellent. The sauce is a red color and is thick instead of runny as at most restaurants. Although the quality is variable, it varies between excellent and good. Shan Dong usually makes this dish spicy, but will also serve chile oil on the side. The lunch special comes with shrimp, but it can also be ordered vegetarian if preferred.

The general consensus of opinion is that the chicken items are best: General Tsou's Chicken, Double Cooked Chicken, Crispy Chicken, Lemon Chicken, etc. I generally consider most of these to be Americanized gooey and syrupy dishes, but they taste better here than at most restaurants. The spicy ones (such as General Tsou's chicken) are specialties of northern China, the type of food I think Shan Dong does best.

Noodle soup with beef is one of the more authentic northern Chinese style dishes

Noodle Soup is a dish I consider to be more representative of traditional northern style Chinese food than many of the things on the menu, and it is also one of my favorites at Shan Dong. This soup had a milky colored broth that was different from others I have seen, and was very good. Noodles were the thin type that did not fill me up on starch, so that the meat and vegetables were more predominant than in some other versions. Chinese green vegetables were included, and overall I was very impressed with the soup. The soup comes with either beef or shrimp, but since each one is individually cooked it can probably be made to order if customers would like something different.

The jasmine tea is brewed in the kitchen and is outstanding--it would hold its own with most of the house teas served in Chinese restaurants on the west coast; the only difference is that at Shan Dong it costs extra.

Service is slow during the noon rush, so a warning is in order--do not go to Shan Dong if you have to be somewhere at a certain time, even if you think you have plenty of time to spare!! The ladies who wait the tables are very nice, but they never seem to be able to handle the rush of people who come for lunch.