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| - This is a really great neighborhood take-out place; we've been getting food here for many years. But pay attention to the "Asian" in the title; these are not Chinese people and they do dishes other than the expected standards. Also, this is not the place for your romantic once-in-a-lifetime gastronomic adventure; it's a place that gives you consistently good, well prepared, food, on a regular basis.
The folks in there are from Burma (brother, sister, husband thereof); they make food that seems to be from all over. Since this is the U.S., most of the menu is standard Chinese-American, but check out the dishes listed on the right-hand side of the menu. There's a real range. In particular the curried dishes are invariably yummy.
Ordering by phone is the right thing to do. Sonny would always tell me (it seemed) that your order will be ready in "40 minutes". For a while I was puzzled by this, especially since the food never seemed to be ready at the promised time. Eventually I figured out that they wait for you to show up and then make your meal and so you end up with fresh made dishes. We're regular customers, so this works out. You probably have to go there a number of times before they start to recognize you on the phone.
I'm a bit puzzled by some of the other reviews: you're not going to get something just like what you got in some particular West Coast eatery; eating out is about variety, and being open to different approaches. In any case, if you want to be picky, in my experience none of the stuff in this country is anything like what you get in mainland China (where the cuisine is just totally way better).
Among the things that I like about this place is that they cook everything to order (I can't believe someone compared Zaw's to the vendor at CMU that serves almost everything from a steam table; yuk). Certain dishes stand out: I hate to use this one as the example, but their General T'so chicken is (I think) the best I've had in the city. Many other places treat this as a "chicken-flavored fried dough" dish. Zaw's does it right: the batter is very thin and the chicken is all white. It tastes as a chicken dish; who cares if there's a bit too much sauce? Yes, I know that T'so's is not "real" Chinese, but I believe that Zaw's preparation of it tells you what you need to know about their general approach.
I should point out that there's also some real losers on the menu. But so what? Just figure out the bits that you enjoy and go for it.
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