For “city dwellers” Chinese restaurants are ubiquitous. There’s one in every corner Most urbanites were weaned on Chinese food. It’s as much a part of their diet as “American” food. Those of us who grew up in the “sticks” during the stone age had to travel great distances to find Chinese food…and when we did find a Chinese restaurant, we really had no idea what we were getting ourselves into. Everything we knew about that mysterious, exotic cuisine came from television programs in the days long preceding the Food Network. Every once in a while, mention was made on one of those television shows about egg foo young. I’m thinking maybe Maxwell Smart may have mentioned egg foo young during in an episode in which he battled his nemesis “The Craw“, er…The Claw.
As chronicled on Gil’s Thrilling…my very first experience with Chinese food transpired in Lexington, Massachusetts within easy walking distance of the famous Lexington Minuteman Statue. My friend (and boss at the time) Paul Venne enjoyed my bumpkinly naivete. I literally had no idea about Chinese food other than the little bit learned from television. He recommended starting out at the Chinese Food 101 level. That meant egg rolls and sweet and sour pork. Who was I to argue? I was tabula rasa, a blank slate onto which Chinese food could imprint its flavors, textures and aromas.
You always remember your first time…and if it’s good, it may set the standard by which you’ll forever measure every other time. Luckily I had a very patient and understanding teacher who taught me all its nuances and variations–how to appreciate its fragrant bouquet, taste the subtleties of its unique flavors and use my fingers as if lightly caressing its delicate features. To this day, I still compare all other Chinese meals against my first that frigid winter day in Massachusetts. I treasure the memories of my first fresh egg rolls, sweet and sour pork and rice.
Fast forward a few decades. There are dozens (more likely hundreds) of Chinese restaurant in my wake as well as restaurants of every ethnicity I could find. I’m no longer the callow ruralite of bygone years. There isn’t a cuisine I won’t try. Aside from tea and overly sweet entrees (can you say pad Thai), there isn’t a food item I haven’t enjoyed. So, why hasn’t Fan Tang been reviewed on Gil’s Thrilling? It’s been around for a long time and is (according to Albuquerque Journal critic Richard Dargan “among the upper echelon of ABQ’s Chinese restaurants.”
Before there was Fan Tang, there was Chow’s Bistro, a restaurant founded by Richard and Lucy Zeng. Chow’s launched its Santa Fe operation in 1993 and is still going strong. Six years later, Chow’s Bistro opened on Juan Tabo. In 2011, after closing the Albuquerque edition of Chow’s Bistro, Richard and Lucy along with their son Jason opened Fan Tang in Albuquerque’s Nob Hill area. The swanky fast casual Asian restaurant is a staple among UNM students and denizens of Nob Hill. Long before that, the Zeng family patriarch had a restaurant in China as early as 1942. That’s three generations of preparing and serving Chinese food.
In June, 2024, Jason Zeng launched Albuquerque’s second Fan Tang, this one on Montgomery in the city’s Northeast Heights. Having grown up in the restaurant world where he bussed tables, washed dishes and prepared appetizers, Jason learned the intricacies and nuances of operating a successful restaurant. His experience, coupled with a degree in entrepreneurship from the University of New Mexico (UNM) are essential, but even more important is how Jason treats employees and customers. During the Cabrona virus, he kept his entire staff on the payroll by reverting to a take-out and delivery operation. A genial owner with a great sense of humor, Jason spent a lot of time at our table visiting with The Dude, our debonair dachshund. Having owned a dachshund, Jason is obviously an intelligent and classy guy.
Though I had visited Fan Tang several times while at UNM, visiting with colleagues and business associates meant not paying my usual attention to my meal. Visiting the Northeast Heights version of Tan Tang with my Kim and The Dude allowed me to focus on our delightful lunch. Fan Tang resides in a space previously occupied by Lotaburger. The space isn’t especially commodious and it can get a bit loud when throngs descend for lunch. Our visit took place at 1:30 and Fan Tang was still packed. We were instructed to take menus to our table and return to the front cashier to place our order once we were ready.
Fan Tang’s menu includes dishes from other Asian culinary cultures though Chinese cuisine is the featured fare. Many of the recipes are traditional, having first been used in Jason’s grandfather’s restaurant in China. All dishes are made from scratch. That includes all dipping sauces. There are none of those annoying difficult to open sweet and sour packets at the restaurant. Fan Tang’s coffee chicken (tender chicken breast rubbed with ground French coffee, stir-fried in a sweet and spicy sauce) was a recipient of Albuquerque The Magazine’s “Hot Plate” award. This signature item is one of Fan Tang’s most popular dishes.
24 January 2024: If my Kim espies lettuce wraps on a Chinese restaurant menu, it’s a given that we’re going to order them. Lettuce wraps have been prepared in China for hundreds of years, but were popularized across the fruited plain by P. F. Chang’s. Today you can find lettuce wraps at almost every Chinese restaurant. Lettuce wraps are made with minced chicken, fresh vegetables, herbs, and are served flavorful sauce. They’re a terrific starter, particularly if the lettuce is crisp and fresh. One of the hallmarks of Fan Tang is fresh, high-quality ingredients.
24 January 2024: As is my custom, I typically scour the menu for items I either haven’t had (there aren’t many) or have experienced only infrequently. Among the former is tea smoked beef (organic beef rubbed with apple wood smoked tea, garlic, cayenne, chipotle, Chinese five spice and sea salt. Tossed with caramelized onions and bell peppers). What a delightful dish this is! Though I’ve never liked tea (yeah, it’s a weird idiosyncracy), it’s another thing with tea-smoked dishes such as Budai’s tea leave smoked duck and now Fan Tang’s tea smoked beef. There’s a lot going on with this dish though it’s the coalescence of flavors that makes it unique. Chinese five spice, chipotle and cayenne, in particular, work magic together. This dish is available with white rice, brown rice or an excellent fried rice.
24 January 2024: When my Kim ordered Mongolian noodles (egg noodles, bean sprouts, onions and fresh scrambled eggs wok-tossed in sweet and spicy Mongolian sauce) I nearly cringed, recalling a long ago experience with Mongolian beef that was sweeter than most desserts. Thankfully, Fan Tang’s sweet and spicy sauce was well-balanced and actually did have spicy notes. Because my Kim doesn’t do spicy, I got to enjoy about half of her entree. Fresh, crispy vegetables and a tangle of thick egg noodles played well with the sauce. This was another winner.
10 July 2025: Fan Tang’s menu doesn’t include an “Appetizer” section. Instead, its starters are labeled “Snacks.” By any name, Fan Tang’s starters are not to be missed. Most of those snacks will be familiar to habitues of Chinese restaurants, particularly those of us who love dim sum. Among the dim sum favorites are steamed pork buns (traditional steamed pork buns tilled with sweet Chinese BBQ pork). Pork buns originated in ancient China, but you can find them across the globe. Also known as “bao buns,” these hemispherically-shaped delights are soft, pillowy, and slightly sweet. The steamed dough has a tender, airy quality that pairs well with the rich and flavourful fillings. Fan Tang’s pork buns are stuffed with a sweet Chinese BBQ pork which probably won’t remind you of your favorite smoked meat, but you’ll enjoy them nonetheless. They’d be even better with a Chinese chili sauce (like the incomparable version served at Ming Dynasty).
10 July 2025: Fake Media! I’ve actually been called that. Every time I whine in one of my reviews that a dish featuring New Mexico’s sacrosanct chile is “mild” or “moderate,” my friend Schuyler calls me “Fake Media.” He reasons that chile I may find “mild” would probably scald the taste buds not laden with asbestos. He’s probably right. He’ll be on my case after reading this. Fan Tang’s spicy chicken (Battered chicken breast tossed with garlic, whole chili pods, sliced ginger, scallions and cayenne chili), described on the menu as “addictively hot” barely registered on my taste buds. What looks on the dish like ultra-piquant Thai bird peppers is cayenne, a few thousand levels less piquant on the Scoville Scale. Mind you, this is a delicious dish, but heat-wise, it’s “mild.” Most native New Mexicans will agree.
10 July 2025: Several entrees and signature dishes are served with rice (your choice of white rice, brown rice or fried rice). Fried rice (savory fried rice tossed with farm fresh eggs, diced onions, peas and carrots with your choice of protein) is also available as an entree. My preference is for curry fried rice, but my Kim likes her fried rice with a little less personality. Fan Tang’s version is an exemplar of how fried rice should be prepared–save for one essential element. Though you can order a protein to go with your rice, the protein is so parsimonious you’ll go through several spoonsful without one bit of protein. The rice isn’t clumpy nor is it overly salty. You can tell by its color (above) that it isn’t overwhelmed by soy sauce.
With a restaurant family having more than 80 years experience, Jason Zeng and the Fan Tang crew are delighting diners with a menu of Asian favorites and dishes which might soon be.
Fan Tang
9004 Montgomery Blvd., N.E.
Albuquerque, New Mexico
(505) 508-2386
Website | Facebook Page
LATEST VISIT: 10 July 2025
1st VISIT: 24 January 2025
# OF VISITS: 2
RATING: Very Good – Good to very good food; generally solid; delivers consistent quality, strong technique, and a comfortable, enjoyable dining experience
COST: $$
BEST BET: Lettuce Cups, Tea Smoked Beef, Mongolian Noodles, Pork Buns, Fried Rice, Hot Chicken
REVIEW #1447
Ah, Gil, one of the things I love about Fan Tang is several of the dishes that are marked 🌶️ are actually just very flavorful. Like their coffee chicken. I’m surprised you haven’t tried that yet; it’s really good. Jason keeps telling me, you have to try everything on the menu at least once, please! He is a very amiable host. Great staff, too. Anyway back to the subject of piquance, consider this. The flip side of things not being spicy enough for you are things being incredibly boring for those of us that can’t tolerate heat! Just because I can’t handle a lot of spice doesn’t mean I want no spice. 😊 You are totally right about those pork buns. Delicious, but needed a little something. Ming Dynasty’s chili sauce would be perfect!
I’ve had the coffee chicken twice and agree that it’s very good, but it just isn’t in me not to diversify my dining choices. Should we visit Fan Tang often enough I’ll probably try everything on the menu, but there are so many restaurants and so little time.
For many New Mexicans, pain is a flavor. We like piquancy in everything.
Yes, I’m not one to order the same thing at a restaurant time and time again. However, when they do something exceptionally well it’s very difficult to tear yourself away from it!
NOB HILL Fan Tang: Turns out my fretting about finding parking while going south on Carlisle to Route 66, worked! Right there turning on the 66 was an empty metered space! Not only that, as I walked on through the covered, dog-friendly patio, I noticed their specified-parking lot sign! I suggest a read of the menu before going during a rush hour as it makes ordering at the front desk easier. There, you can also see the adult beverages you can order…beers, sake, and wines, albeit there is no Plum. The dining room is roomy and clean, perhaps dated, but offers a variety of seating where you can be relatively choosey for wood chairs or the capacious, nicely cushioned leather booths which readily accommodate 6, if not more. As it was daylight, I can only guess by the style of lighting fixtures that there seems to be a thoughtfulness for subdued vs bare, fluorescent lighting.
I started with a plentiful serving of Hot n Sour Soup which, while not necessarily having a piquancy needed by some, had a nice tang that carried over for the first few munches of the entree which in this case was Sweet and Sour Chicken instead of the choices of buck-extra beef, tofu, shrimp options. Alas, FT continues the ‘new’ tradition of not serving traditional Pork. Elsewise, theirs contains garlic, whole Sichuan chili peppers, snow peas, water chestnuts and all served in a light brown sweet and sour sauce which Gil might not refer to as cloying, along with a serving of Fried Rice (or White or Brown.) As implied elsewhere, the full sizedness of the plated offerings as served heren are a frugal rarity price-wise of a past era. Certainly deserves a return visit and especially if you are one into UNITED merch as it is directly across the street.
Every picture tells a story! This is one of chicken lettuce wraps, pork buns, coffee chicken and noodles.
Yep! John has that dumpling eating grin on his face.
How did the lettuce wraps compared to those who had in Atlanta?
Well to begin with, they were edible! Not only edible but muy delicioso. Piping hot and fresh. John went from, what are lettuce wraps to begging for the last one. The sauce that came with them was way too piquant for this wimp, but he ended up pouring the last of it over the coffee chicken once I had my fill. The coffee chicken has a chile pic next to it on the menu which is supposed to depict hot and spicy but it was really quite mellow. The noodles you can get instead of rice as a side were the bomb; I could have eaten a whole plate full of them. Next time! We were also pleasantly surprised and delighted that the barbecue pork in the pork buns did not contain HFCS as a lot of barbecue does so John was able to enjoy them as well. I have not seen him enjoy a meal as much as he enjoyed this one for a long time.
Hey Gil. I’m also a fan of chicken lettuce wraps and it would be lovely to find someone who does them correctly. It seems like such a simple dish, but I got some on my recent trip to Atlanta that were inedible! I looked at Fan Tang’s online menu and they’re not listed. Were they a special that day? Thanks!
Online menus are sometimes not in synch with the menus handed to guests at a restaurant. That seems to be a prevalent theme.
I definitely recommend Fan Tang’s lettuce wraps as well as the lettuce wraps at China Luck (requiring diners to construct them) and of course, the lettuce wraps at P.F. Chang’s.
Shirley and I always loved Chows at Cottonwood Mall. When they closed we went a few times to Fan Tang on Central, but the logistics of the Mayor Barry destroyed Cental Ave. has made it unlikely for us to go there often. Glad to hear that the Montgomery location carries on the tradition of Chows/Fan Tang. We will be visiting soon.
If you wanted to visit the Nob Hill instantiation of Fan Tang, you might have to contend with the construction on I-25 and its daily wrecks. The Montgomery location is a godsend for those of us north of the construction.