88 China Restaurant, 13635 Lee Jackson Memorial Hwy, Chantilly, VA (about five minutes’ drive west of Fair Oaks mall), 703-378-0869 (Metro Trip Planner – opens in new window) [Ylp]
I call it “The new old China Star.” It’s run by the people who ran China Star until 2012, and after the original Peter Chang version of the place. They have pretty much copied the China Star menu, to at least ninety percent (I don’t see ma la rabbit, however). I tried three core dishes for old times’ sake. The Szechuan chili chicken (on the bone!) was a whole level better than it used to be. The braised fish was clearly better and finer. The scallion fried fish had a better accompaniment of scallions than it used to have, but was slightly scalier in terms of the fried batter, overall a draw in terms of quality. So this is like the old China Star restaurant, but overall it seems to be definitely better. I will go again, and you should too.