BUSY CORNER BISTRO CHURNS OUT CHINA.

Byline: Larry Lipson Daily News Restaurant Critic

The new-style, quick Chinese cafe/takeout/delivery of healthfully cooked food without MSG is exemplified by the recently opened Wok Avenue Chinese Bistro in Burbank.

Conveniently located next to the Unocal station on the busy corner of Hollywood Way and Magnolia Boulevard, Wok Avenue purveys all the current popular Chinese items and lists several dishes on its comprehensive menu with humorous or catchy titles.

Dishes with names like Twinkle Walnut Shrimp, Seafood Commissioner and Robot Chicken may catch the eye, but especially pleasing to the palate are the more innovative recipes such as one called Milky Way Eggplant ($7.95), which produces a large portion of nonmushy eggplant pieces dipped in a light batter and then stir-fried to crispness on the exterior.

The eggplant pieces are thinly coated with a sweet and sour sauce and served on a bed of crispy rice noodles. The varying degrees of crunch vs. softness and the bringing together with these opposing textures opposing flavors - sugary and pungent - in the sauce, make for an interesting exercise in the efficient blending of contrasts. It's something like the way dissonance works in music.

Chicken in black bean sauce ($4.25 or $7.25) and Szechwan hot garlic shrimp ($4.95 or $8.95) are two of the more familiar dishes that denote merit in the kitchen.

Pieces of sliced white chicken meat have desired moistness and pliancy and the shrimp are firm and flavorful.

Dumplings vary. My vote based on flavors and lightness goes to the siu mai (4 for $2.50), delicate and delicious, over the sai-gow (4 for $2.95) and steamed chicken dumplings (8 for $4.95), the latter two leaning somewhat toward pasty and ponderous.

And the minced chicken mixture also seems rather heavy and awkward in cold lettuce cups (two for $4.25, four for $6.25).

But if the mark of a good kitchen is its soup, then Wok Avenue scores very well with its hot and sour ($3.95 or $6.25), not overly vinegary, beautifully balanced and with a pleasurable peppery kick.

Incidentally, the half portions always seem big enough for two to share here and sometimes result in leftovers to take home.

And vegetable items such as the al dente sauteed string beans ($6.95) and spicy hot tofu ($5.95) - not that hot - provide twosomes with dabblings for several days.

Little restaurants like Wok Avenue Chinese Bistro provide a welcome addition to any neighborhood.

THE FACTS

The restaurant: Wok Avenue Chinese Bistro.

Where: 3711 W. Magnolia Blvd., Burbank.

When: Open for lunch, dinner and snacks from 11 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. daily, to 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday.

Phone: [phone].

Recommended items: Siu mai dumplings, hot and sour soup, milky way eggplant, Szechwan hot garlic shrimp, chicken in black bean sauce, hot spicy tofu, sauteed string beans.

How much: Starters from $2 to $7, main items from $4.25 to $11, lunch specials $3.25 and $4.45, no desserts. No alcohol license. AE, MC, V.

Our rating: Three Stars for food; Three Stars for value.

CAPTION(S):

Photo

Photo: Owner Jimmy Chi holds plates of World Wide Aromatic Shrimp, left, and Velvet Shrimp at Wok Avenue Chinese Bistro.

Bob Halvorsen/Daily News