Popular Chinese restaurant debuts Henderson location

For China Mama, it’s lucky No. 8.

The China Mama that opened Friday on St. Rose Parkway in Henderson is the eighth member of the family-owned group that encompasses flagship China Mama restaurants, a fine dining spring wrap spot, a pair of China Mama express locations and a bun, noodle and dumpling shop. Eight is considered propitious in Chinese culture because the word for eight sounds similar to the word for wealth or prosperity.

People in line

The first China Mama opened in 2009 on South Jones Boulevard in Chinatown, and over the years, the brand has become a mainstay in the Las Vegas Valley. In keeping with that popularity, “people have been asking us to open in Henderson for years,” owner Ivy Ma said.

A line had already formed in advance of the 11 a.m. opening, and by noon Friday, all the tables were filled and a cluster of customers waited in the vestibule, eyeing diners tucking into heaps of signature crispy beef. Henderson, to put it charitably, doest not brim with true Chinese food, and Ma said she undertook due diligence in the market for a year before settling on the location at 2550 St. Rose Parkway, Suite 110.

“Today, I feel better because I can see people lining up,” Ma said of her decision to open in Henderson. “It’s a good sign.”

On the menu

The menu, Ma said, brings together some of the marquee dishes from the China Mamas on South Jones and Spring Mountain Road in Chinatown with the dim sum that has been introduced to the soaring and stylish China Mama in Palace Station.

There is crispy beef, of course — slivered, gently chewy and candied, with bright filaments of orange peel. Deep-fried jumbo shrimp don crisp, lacy, lightly sweet overcoats. Beef chow fun features wide noodles slicked in savory sauce and studded with tender sliced meat.

A wide bowl of mapo tofu, one of the best dishes at China Mama, offers chunks of silky tofu bobbing in a classic sauce humming with the lemony numbing heat of Sichuan peppercorns. Perfectly breaded and fried fish filets also showcase Sichuan heat. Dim sum? Look for siu mai, har gow and barbecued pork buns.

Design details

The new China Mama combines high ceilings, open ductwork, walls inset with cimarron tiles and flecked stone panels, and the signature glassed-in kitchen that affords views of the crews at work. Partitions, another China Mama signature, here in Henderson mean screens in an open, golden, metal crosshatch pattern — “we want to provide some privacy for customers, but they can still see each other,” Ma said.

Visit chinamama1.com.

Contact Johnathan L. Wright at jwright@reviewjournal.com. Follow @JLWTaste on Instagram.