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| - I am Chinese American and have been to China before. I ate here yesterday with my wife and the in-laws and was very happy with the food here. Everything here is made fresh from scratch: the scallion pancakes, the noodles, and the house secret hot sauce mix are all top-notch.
If at all in doubt, get the hand-pulled noodles. The noodles here are the best and most distinctive Chinese food in Madison. We ordered a basic dish of vegetarian scallion noodles when we came, and the balance between the soy sauce, sesame oil, green onions, vinegar, and hot sauce was perfect and delicious. There are precious few Chinese restaurants who do this trick in the entire Midwest. Their cut "cat's-ear" noodles are also rock solid.
The restaurant itself takes its name from the Taigu region of Shanxi province, in northern China just west of Beijing, where the owners come from. If you know your Chinese culinary geography and stick to that region's strengths, you certainly won't go wrong here. Fugu is too sweet and Ichiban is too oily (even for Szechuan cuisine). Taigu has neither of these faults.
I can't speak to the quality of the more Americanized Chinese menu here, since we didn't order off of it, but given how good the noodles are, why bother? just skip straight to the noodles! And don't forget the hot sauce - they charge $0.50 for it separately, but it's important for the full flavor.
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