Joining the Barton Springs restaurant row is a new place that’s fueled by the vision of its chefs. It’s dubbed Modern Chinese and it features as many local ingredients the kitchen can source applied to classic dishes. We suspect the Sichuan peppercorns aren’t Texan, but they certainly worked in a bowl of toothsome noodles with bits of wok-seared lamb. We started our recent party with two pan-seared dishes: wontons and dumplings. Both were quite good, with chiles a welcome addition to the slightly bland latter. A very showy presentation of scallops came next, served under a cloche (the cloud of smoke put us more in mind of a humidor than an appetizer, but we did like the blood orange segments mixed with the salmon roe). Pea shoots, a regular at more traditional Chinese places, featured on-point cooking, and the pork ribs were excellent (better in fact then any we had when the spot was a barbecue place). Our portion of black cod was small, but the accompanying seaweed crackers added an unexpected and welcome crunch. A copious serving of fried katsu-like chicken suffered from a heavy hand with the orange sauce, but overall this new-style Chinese American spot is a nice addition to the area.