RESTAURANT REVIEW : City Wok Stirs Up Cantonese Classics in Fast-Food Style

You’ve got to admit, City Wok is a clever proposition. The stylishly minimalist decor simply oozes detached simplicity, while the heart of the menu is comfortable old Cantonese standbys.

It has struck some kind of nerve with San Fernando Valley high school students, who flock to the corner of Lankershim Boulevard and Camarillo Street in North Hollywood in overflowing numbers. I’ve had to wait for a table nearly every time I’ve eaten here.

The look of the place is almost defiantly basic. Boxy, practically bare walls. White plastic tables and patio chairs that look like rejects from Price Club. Octagonal black plates with a magazine-quality sheen--you can see your face in them.

And someone really did his homework with this menu. In the frantically paced, all-open kitchen, where chefs banter constantly in high-decibel Cantonese, a spate of crossover dishes are being tossed about in a row of woks.

These are largely proven winners such as kung pao chicken, beef in oyster sauce, hot braised tofu and pan-fried rice noodles--dishes that are uncompromisingly Chinese yet familiar and appealing at the same time. City Wok is the kind of place where you can show your date how cosmopolitan you are and not look like a weirdo doing it. (No fish lips on this menu!)

The combination of hard-edged plainness and comfortable food recalls the fast-food chain restaurants, and so does the pricing structure. This is an inexpensive restaurant to begin with, and most dishes are available in half-sized portions as well. That’s a marketing stroke I’d say borders on the inspired, because it becomes possible to taste a variety of things here without breaking into your piggy bank.

As befits the restaurant’s new-breed image, that villainous powder MSG has been completely banned from the premises. But that’s not the whole story: Another villainous white powder, sugar, often rears its ugly head . . . a form of substance abuse you’d expect from, well, a fast-food chain. Watch out for dishes that are overly sweet.

Most of the appetizers are dull profit-makers such as deep-fried shrimp and barbecued spareribs, but there are a couple of good ones. The crisp chicken won tons are all you hope they will be--pinched-up little U-shapes, crisp, golden brown and generously stuffed with a tasty minced chicken. Szechuan dumplings are nothing more than a steamed version of these, but a spicy brown chile sauce infused with chopped leek really adds punch.

The two salads served here are bargains, huge affairs priced under $5. The Chinese chicken salad is full of roasted chicken, shredded iceberg lettuce, carrots, bean sprouts and deep-fried rice noodles, all tossed together with a sesame and ginger dressing. City Wok salad is even more appealing: cold, soft lo mein noodles, abundant chicken (even more than in the chicken salad), white sesame seeds and a slightly spicy peanut dressing. My only complaint with the salads is that they are a trifle too sweet.

In keeping with the name City Wok, things improve dramatically when you get to the actual stir-fry dishes. The shrimp in black bean sauce is just great, thick with onion, green pepper and those salty, fermented soy beans that can make even plain rice a delicacy. Kung pao chicken will give the best places in Chinatown a run for their money; it’s perfectly hot and spicy, with lots of brittle, crunchy peanuts mixed in. There are more than 35 other stir-fries to choose from.

I’m especially high on the vegetable dishes. Szechuan eggplant can be hard to tame in the wrong hands (when the eggplant is soggy, the dish can be pretty dismal), but it works like a charm here. It’s fiery-hot with red chile, and the eggplant is firm and tender. Hot braised tofu is another one I’m fond of. The tofu has been cut into large triangles, the better to absorb a rich brown sauce full of carrots, bamboo and winter vegetables.

Any Cantonese restaurant worth its salt has several good noodle and rice dishes, and so does this one. Chow fun , those mouth-watering rice noodles usually confined to Chinese neighborhoods, make an appearance here, albeit in a distinctly un-Chinese manner--the noodles are mixed up with chicken, beef and shrimp. And don’t miss something called City Wok curry rice, a fancy casserole-type dish with shrimp and pineapple.

The restaurant will deliver (within a limited area), just like a pizza joint. The fast-food syndrome stops there, though. Plans for a drive-through are not, I’m told, in the cards.

Suggested dishes: Szechuan dumplings, $4.25; City Wok salad, $4.75; kung pao chicken, $6.95 (half order $3.95); Szechuan eggplant, $6.95.

City Wok, 4444 Lankershim Blvd., North Hollywood, (818) 506-4050. Open 11:30 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays, 4:30 to 9:30 p.m. Sundays. No alcoholic beverages. Parking lot. All major credit cards accepted. Dinner for two, food only, $12 to $25.