The dinner menu goes on for pages - with eight duck dishes, for example. Entrees you can count on are shredded pork with bean curd strips, lamb with green onions or garlic sauce, and steamed fish that's cooked only until it's barely gelatinous. Even better are sauteed baby shrimp on a bed of spinach, and eggplant with garlic sauce. But what makes Richland a standout is its appetizer list, at least 30 items, among them a Chinese pizza that is similar to the white pizza Italian restaurants sell for four or five times the price. The pan-fried radish cake is far less interesting.
Cold appetizers provide contrasts in crunch, tang and lightness.
Spicy pickled cabbage is outstanding, and there are bean curd sheets rolled around black mushrooms and cut into handsome slices that look like mushroom strudel. Finally, there's stewed duck in spicy salt water, its flavor reminiscent of France's confit. Richland serves large portions at low prices in a comfortable dining room, which is enough to make it a solidly successful suburban Chinese restaurant. But it is more. Its service is solicitous and its cooking is highly competent.