Vegas has never been shy about being a glamorous pretender. Many may recall the billboard ad for Lavo (Mediterranean restaurant managed by the same company as Tao) with a barely dressed woman and the unforgivably atrocious Asian-punned tag-line: "If you liked our dumplings, you'll love our meatballs".
With this in mind, it's amazing that unassuming joints like China Mama exists less than a mile away from Lavo and Tao. Drive up to the gritty strip mall at the corner of Jones & Spring Mountain and you may wonder if that TV show "Dirty Dining" has paid a visit to any of the restaurants here. There's no sequined mini skirts and guest-list clipboards. There's just really authentic Chinese food served by Chinese people who speak marginal English. Take that same amount of effort you'd have put into getting past the velvet rope at Tao to muster an order to the China Mama waiters. I'll bet you the latter will be nicer to you.
For a middle-of-the-mill palette, order the Steamed Juicy Pork Buns from the Pastry section (the mislabeling charms a former ESL student like myself who has definitely tried literal translations, and failed); they're actually dumplings made with perfect dough and a divine gingery broth that spills onto your tongue after that love-at-first-bite encounter. For an exotic palette, try the jellyfish with house sauce. I always add a starter of seafood tofu soup and braised bamboo shoots, they're healthy options that ease my guilt of eating greasy Chinese.