The Team Behind One of LA’s Top Sichuan Restaurants Opened a New Austin Restaurant

Los Angeles-based restaurant group Taste Corp. — behind lauded Southern California Sichuan restaurant Chengdu Taste— opened its first Texas restaurant in Austin this month. New Chinese restaurant Mian & Bao opened at 4700 West Guadalupe Street, Suite A5 in the Triangle on October 17.

The casual restaurant serves up Sichuan and Shanghai cuisines — its name stems from the Romanized Chinese word “mian” for Sichuan wheat noodles and “bao” for Shanghai steamed buns.” From the Sichuan side, dishes include spicy beef noodles; zaijang noodles (wheat noodles with a fried soybean-based sauce), chile noodles, and spicy potato wedges. As for the Shangai side, there are xiao long bao (soup dumplings) and pan-fried buns.

Behind the restaurant is chef Tony Xu and business partner Sean Xie. The two opened Chengdu Taste in Alhambra, California in 2013. It garnered a lot of critical acclaim — it earned a Bib Gourmand during Michelin’s return to Los Angeles in 2019, which it has kept ever since, and has expanded with several locations. The two then expanded with noodle-dedicated restaurant Mian in 2016. There had been a Houston location of Chengdu, which opened in 2017 and seemed to have closed sometime in 2023.

Mian & Bao

For Mian & Bao, Xu’s in-laws are from Shangai, so he had gone to the Chinese city to study its regional cuisines. The press release notes that the physical restaurant’s indoor space was designed with AI tools.

Mian & Bao’s hours are from 11:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday.

Mian & Bao