Hong Kong style Chinese

I have a friend from Singapore coming to Chicago in a couple of weeks. He has been working in Kansas for nine months, which is somewhat of a wasteland for good Chinese food. He is interested in finding Hong Kong style Chinese and the "best" roast duck. He will have a car. Any sugesstions?

I am most partial to Happy Chef, a horribly garish, plastic garbage sheet table-clothed restaurant in Chinatown. Not every dish I've ordered over the years at Happy Chef has been outstanding, but the vast preponderance have. There are plenty of wall menus and seafood specials, but I stick nearly always to the one page menu (with items on both sides for the family style meals. If nothing else, you can cheaply add a lobster or add a crab (cooked Cantonese style) to the meal. There are about 50 choices on this menu.

Some of the things I like at Happy Chef (and are on the family menu):

The salt and pepper whole, head-on shrimps

The poached chicken with ginger and green onion

The green beans in XO sauce

All the vegetable stir-fries with garlic or beanpaste

Soft tofu w/scallops and black bean sauce

Happy Chef
2164 S. Archer Ave (Chinatown Mall)
Chicago, IL

Wesuilmo,

In my opinion the single best and most authentic chinese restaurant in the Chicago area is in Schaumburg, Hong Kong Cafe. I have always been curious if anyone else on this board has frequented there.

While they have several different styles of Chinese available, as the name implies, they do serve Hong Kong fare.

Some of my personal favorites are: the sticky rice spring rolls, the shrimp stuffed spicy eggplant, the beef tenderloin in black pepper sauce, and any of the noodle dishes or soups are great.

Usually we are the only non-chinese people there when we dine in, so it may not be well known by the general public.

Hong Kong Cafe
1609 Algonquin Rd.
Schaumburg, IL 60173
847-397-8208

The owners of Fabulous Noodles, in Lisle, are from Hong Kong, and the food is generally Hong Kong style, I believe, though they do stray some. of course, Lisle was probably not your target destination. For more on the place, see http://www.lthforum.com/bb/viewtopic.php?t=1059&highlight=fabulous+noodles

Yummy Gourmet in Arlington Heights also serves Hong Kong style fare. See this post.

Yummy Gourmet Restaurant
847/253-0319
847/253-0326
Prospect Crossing Shopping Center
1255 N. Rand Road
Arlington Heights, IL 60004
11:30 a.m.-9 p.m. Su-Th; -10 p.m. F-Sa
BYOB

I suppose we should mention Silver Seafood, the once great, then not-so-great, now pretty-good, but definitely Hong Kong place in Uptown.

Ken Kee is my standby in Chinatown for Hong-Kong Chinese. I always seem to order the same thing: 1) Japanese king mushrooms with soft tofu; 2) rice noodles in XO sauce; 3) some type of green (pea pod leaves, water spinach, etc. etc.).

Ken Kee's kitchen is perhaps the fastest and most reliable in Chinatown. In fact, I've thought of timing the entrees but have not gotten to it. (Reminds of playing the Chinese-delivery game in NYC when I lived there: hang up the phone after ordering, start the stop watch, stop when the delivery man rang the doorbell. I think the record was 6:37. Yes, that's six minutes and thirty-seven seconds from call to door. Yes, the restaurant was 2 blocks away but still. . . .)

Never had the duck at Ken Kee and am not sure it serves a version. Actually, I'm sure it does. It serves a nifty butter fish for gosh sakes.

I savor the duck at BBQ King both on Wentworth and in the Mall.

Ken Kee is pretty darn HK - style for me. Sizzling Beef Udon is my gf's fave and I usually end up getting the Singaporean style chao hoh fun.

however, I have yet to find in Chicago a HK-style 'CAFE' in the ways of 'Garden Cafe' or 'ABC cafe', etc. in LA

TonyC wrote:Ken Kee is pretty darn HK - style for me. Sizzling Beef Udon is my gf's fave and I usually end up getting the Singaporean style chao hoh fun.

however, I have yet to find in Chicago a HK-style 'CAFE' in the ways of 'Garden Cafe' or 'ABC cafe', etc. in LA

What exactly is a HK style CAFE?

I wonder how close 7 Wives, on Wentworth comes, as they have all sorts of breakfasts with home-made rice noodles and gross ham (forgive the slight). I am not sure if this is what you mean, but maybe.

I would say that of the more general food I have at at 7 Wives, I was not so impressed, but the breakfast stuff was a lot of fun.

Of course my favorite breakfast Chinese food (dim sum excluded), is the weekend only stuff at International Mall in Westmont. Fresh made crullers, hot soy milk, "flapjacks" stuffed with thin pork. This is a place I am passionate about for sure. It is, however, more Taiwaines in style, then Hong Kong as I understand.

Rob

do NOT get me started on the complete farce they call Taiwanese food served @ International Mall. It's a gross take on what I grew up on and I almost hurled when I visited last month based on CH's directions.

The only edible thing is indeed the fried cruellers. Actually, I lie. The stinky tofu is pretty darn authentic, crispy on the ouside, soft and moist inside and plenty a-stink. The homemade soy milk is ... well, homemake soymilk and was not of any higher quality than Ed's Potstickers/ Chinatown. The 'authentic Taiwanese', as proclaimed by signs, oyster pancake from the left stall, and the the rice ball stuffed w/ dried pork and pickled radish on the right stall were both garbage I wouldn't feed my golden retriever. The 'flapjack' w/ beef literally made me gag - beef was too dry w/ no sauce and the flapjack had the consistency of cardboard.


HK-style Cafe? think Joy Yee decor serving Kee Kee food. You'll often see spaghetti / corn chowder / lobster bisque / ham sandwich / steak-n-eggs and other 'western' foods at HK-style cafes. They'll also 'charge' for tea and are replete w/ drink specials yielding boba, rose milk teas, papaya smoothies, etc. Finally, you'll find foods like chow fun / duck noodle soup / fried rice + various renditions of 'sizzling' plates on the menu.