"Ling Kitchen is a Chinese tasting-menu restaurant that's as committed to the presentation as they are the food. There’s one seating per night (at 6:30), and everyone dines around a long metal table next to the open kitchen where the staff prepares a procession of creative dishes. Get ready for a wooden chest that opens to a plume of smoke revealing pork belly, peking duck, or some other flavorful meat. There’s usually a lobster cream puff shaped like a little mouse and a dumpling molded into a UT longhorn. Fortunately, the theatrics aren’t just for show—everything is cute and tasty." - nicolai mccrary, matthew jacobs, raphael brion