Stephen wrote:Sounds like I'm going to have to try the ribs as well!

I hate to be a broken record, but can someone tell me the hours so I don't end up going when it's closed? I've done that several times in recent weeks and I'd like to be sure this time.

I think it's best to call the restaurant directly, especially during this 'soft opening' stage, when hours might be irregular.

773 769-1254

=R=

Octarine wrote:Fifille and I couldn't wait an entire week so off to Sun Wah we went last night. The place is spacious- no more bumping chairs with your neighbors. Started with hot sour soup, had an order of garlic fried ribs, and ended with the peking duck for two. The flavor of the soup was ever so slightly different from past visits, I am chalking it up to not having made it for a month. Still absolutely delicious. Ribs were spot on, one of my two favorite pork dishes in Chicago. The peking duck was also terrific.

We have tons of leftovers and I'm looking forward to a very nice lunch of soup and duck fried rice. One thing to note, there are several additions to the wait and bus staff. Our waiter was really friendly and engaging but was not 100% familiar with the menu (or LTH'ers appetites;)) I small thing but something to be aware of. I was impressed with the peking duck trainee; it was only his 8th time doing it and there was not a single lost appendage (of his, not the duck) despite some close calls! The duck soup while good can't really stand up to the hot sour soup at the same meal so almost all of it is in the fridge right now.

I'm very happy to have my favorite Chinese restaurant back in business and wish them all the success they can handle.

Funny - - RAB and I are eating similarly today. We went Friday night and also ordered the hot and sour soup - - in addition to the duck soup that accompanies the duck. I've already had a bowl of duck soup and one of hot and sour today. Looking forward to the few remaining pieces of duck and duck fried rice at halftime. We felt a bit funny having two gigantic bowls of soup for a party of four - - but, heck, it meant that we got to enjoy it again today, right?

RAB and I were joined on Friday by my father and step mother. It was their first visit to Sun Wah and I think they really enjoyed it, remarking that the duck was even better than what they'd had in Beijing a few years ago. The duck, carved by Laura, was as great as ever. Another favorite was the garlicky, crunchy baby bok choy.

As far as new servers go, we asked Kelly to take our order so that we could discuss which veggie dish to order, etc. It seemed like everyone was helping everyone else out as they work out the minor kinks.

Ronna

Oh, man! Hubby has the car and now I've got a craving for duck fried rice in front of the TV...

Mhays wrote:Oh, man! Hubby has the car and now I've got a craving for duck fried rice in front of the TV...

I got an order to go when I was there the other day. The leftovers are getting eaten today along with some kalbi I picked up at H-Mart that are marinating and going on the grill shortly.

My family and I stopped in today for a late lunch and will also be eating leftovers for the next few days. I was underwhelmed and maybe somewhat disappointed by our visit. First, we walked in very hungry, and it took a long time for someone to come over and take our order--easily a first-week issue, and the place was half full, which is a lot of occupied tables. Then I ordered wrong. I wanted some pickled vegetables but not Peking duck, so I thought I'd try something I hadn't had before, squid with pickled vegetables. It was very goopy and too sweet. Bummed about my choice, I turned to our large order of Hong Kong-style pork, which was very boney with skin lacking the characteristic crunch. I ate one piece, which is a new low record for me at Sun Wah. The soups and pig intestine were as good as always.

I guess I was most disappointed in the space. We had some time to look around while waiting for someone to take our order and then waiting for our food to arrive (also longer than usual given the first week, I hope). Aesthetically, I like the openness of the space, exposed brick, track lighting, new chairs*, expansive bathrooms with trough sinks... However, the space may be too big for my liking. (My ideal restaurant is Schwa-sized.) Coupled with the new staff, the new Sun Wah just felt like too different of a restaurant from the old one. Even with the most familiar of dining companions--my mom and sister--and sitting at a table close to the windows looking out onto Broadway, I could feel the sea of tables and people behind me. I felt like I was eating in a mess hall.

Two other random notes about the space. With the new furniture, I think the two-tops are too small. Two bowls of soup and an order of ribs, and the table is full. I guess I never sat at a two-top in the old space. Even if it was just me and one other person, we always got a table for four. Perhaps I just eat too much...

And, finally, a significant improvement with the new location: there is a bike rack directly in front of the restaurant. That makes me happy.

I'm very willing to give myself more time to adjust to the changes. I am absolutely thrilled that people are flocking to the new location--at 2pm today, over half of the tables were filled. I look forward to the welcome back dinner next week.

*My butt is wide and relatively flat, I think, so "butt cheek cuppage" is not so much an issue for me.

Winner and still champeeeeen............



Sun Wah was so on tonight and bumping at that. I heard "LTH" dropped a few times, saw a couple of beautiful looking Peking ducks go by, and as I was leaving I noticed Kevin Pang the hamburger man ordering congee with pork.

The new space is beautiful. They deserve the good digs. Go Sun Wah.

Maybe one of those Peking ducks was ordered by my wife and I and a couple of friends. We were there around 8PM.

Has anyone ever tried the Sun Wah "turkey treatment" that they offer around Thanksgiving? We saw it advertised last year, and I asked Kelly about it this past weekend and they're doing it again. We are now strongly considering bringing them a turkey, especially if it ends up tasting ANYTHING remotely like their duck...

Yum yum.

My dad and I enjoyed the Peking Duck dinner - for lunch! Unsurprisingly we had a good amount of leftovers. Very friendly service, a good overall experience.

We also got to try the BBQ Ribs, very tasty! Next time I go myself, I'll probably try the BBQ Pork over rice.

To echo others, that is sure a large room!

jn2001 wrote:Has anyone ever tried the Sun Wah "turkey treatment" that they offer around Thanksgiving? We saw it advertised last year, and I asked Kelly about it this past weekend and they're doing it again. We are now strongly considering bringing them a turkey, especially if it ends up tasting ANYTHING remotely like their duck...

Yum yum.

Just keep in mind that the turkey would shrink considerably under this Hong-Kong roasting style vs traditional oven roasted. The meat is drier too as the fat gets melted away, however the skin is fabulous!

my wife and I were in last night, too...just before 7pm so we could say "hi"/"bye" to Laura before she left the place in her older sister's capable hands...we also ordered the peking duck service...::sigh::...what a beautiful, delicious thing!

cheers.

tw.

Got over to the new space today for a late lunch of Hot and Sour soup and Roast Pork over rice (belly meat requested). New location, same great food and prices. Pork was on the dry side, but the crispy skin made everything okay as crunchy pig skin tends to do. Noticed a couple at a table nearby ordered fried rice and sweet and sour chicken...what sacrilege!

Going tonight, rather interested in the new digs. I called ahead to make sure I could get a peking style duck as well as the hong kong ribs, just in case and the man who answered thanked me for calling ahead. I've been several times to the old location, but never had the hong kong style ribs or the full duck, only parts of it on the mixed bbq plate, so I'm stoked.

Stopped by last night. Seems like the same place to me, where it counts. Fantastic. And the room is very cool; restoration of the ceiling timbers and metal is meticulous; walls are begging for some art, though. It's the sort of space that screams out for dim sum on weekends. We can dream.

All right, I'm back and I as well went last night. As I said previously, I called ahead to order the peking style duck as well as an order of the hong kong style ribs. The place looks great, it's massive in size and the wood/brick/silver looks great. The duck was amazing, maybe one of the better meals I had, well since Nightwood last week, but prior to that as well. The soup is amazing, I actually am eating some right now for breakfast and the duck was just out of this world. Unfortunately, when we got there, they "accidently" gave away our hong kong ribs, which I was very displeased about b/c I have been waiting years to taste them, but shit happens. So, instead we got a small plate of the roasted pork with crispy skin that was pretty damn good but a little cold. Did I say this place was now massive?

Had dinner last night at Sun Wah. Kitchen is doing great. The service demanded great patience. They were really in the weeds last night. I hope that knowing tonight's big LTH group is coming will help, but I fear a little what the consequences for the rest of the patrons will be.

But the food is still great, the space is absolutely gorgeous… I'm very happy Sun Wah is back open…

PS I will feel a pang of remorse when they retire the weathered old menus. I'd like to put my name down for a souvenir copy of one, please! Also sad to think that specials will probably never be advertised in marker on disposable plates on the wall. That's not to say I don't encourage them to develop. Just making note.

Is it still BYOB?

Efrain wrote:Is it still BYOB?

Sun Wah never has been BYOB. They sell beer and soft drinks.

I brought wine to the Argyle location on several occasions.

I've brought wine, too. I believe there was a $5 corkage fee.

Brought some liquor to the new location, still BYOB, as for the corckage, the bill is always so low, i never bother to check.

Went last night (Saturday) with my partner and in-laws and had the Peking Duck extravaganza. I'm not sure I like the new digs. Where we were sitting (south side of the restaurant about halfway in the large space) it was very loud. My 85 year old inlaws had a really hard time with the acoustics. Our waiter had a difficult time understanding that we wanted clams in black bean sauce for an appetizer. We threw him a curve, I guess. His English wasn't the greatest, either, so I have to give him props for his work. Plates were stacked on the table with silverware, napkins, and chopsticks on top. For some reason, every time the waiter came by, he fondled the silverware before putting it all back on top of the plates, like he wasn't sure if he was supposed to dole it out to each of us or keep it on top of the plates. Weird! Kelly recognized us (always a nice feeling; we're not nearly as regular as some of the LTH folks) and when we asked, she told us it was a big LTH group in the rear. Looked like they were having fun! I wanted to see what they ordered, but I didn't get up the nerve to go over and see. By the way, one of the kids was wearing a "Stroud's Chicken" T-shirt from Kansas City, my favorite all-time fried chicken place ever. The food was flawless, but we ordered 12 bao and only got 8 (no big deal), we almost didn't get the duck fried rice, and stuffed eggplant we ordered never made it. we got charged for the extra buns ($2 we gladly paid) and I'm not sure but I think the eggplant didn't make it on the check. It's hard to know for sure, because the check was in Chinese.

Clearly, they have a lot of shaking out to do. Service was spotty at best. It seemed like a lot of the waitstaff wasn't sure what they were doing and didn't really know the menu. While they were waiting for the new space, couldn't they have printed and laminated new menus instead of sticking new price labels over the old ones? I miss the intimacy of the old place even though I like the shiny cleanliness of the new place. Parking was a nightmare...never really had that problem before. Kelly is the same old Kelly even though she's now a multi-media star and has a huge space to manage. Still my favorite place to take a group of non-vegetarians.

Anybody know much they charge to Peking-ize a turkey? Sounds interesting.

faygelah wrote:By the way, one of the kids was wearing a "Stroud's Chicken" T-shirt from Kansas City, my favorite all-time fried chicken place ever.

That was my son. You should have come over and said hello. Unless you're edible, we don't bite.

I loved the open, bright and airy feel of the new space. I occasionally have trouble hearing conversation in loud spaces but I had no trouble hearing my tablemates last night. Compared to the former space, this new space is a palace. I think it's entirely befitting for the quality of food being turned out, even though it's clearly no longer a charming 'hole in the wall.'

Food-wise, I really enjoyed our meal last night and agree with most all of what Gary posted above. As I mentioned at the table, the garlic-fried ribs and baby bok choy were essentially the best-ever versions I'd had at Sun Wah. The fish was great and the Beijing-style duck delivered, as it always does. Nice menu planning, Steve.

I agree that service was a bit spotty but I'm not sure it was a whole lot different than before the move. Not surprisingly, peak hours seem to challenge them, so considering the vast increase in size and capacity, last night pretty much lined up with my expectations. All things considered, I think that peak-hour service at the new Sun Wah will likely end up being much better than it was in the former space, especially considering its quality only 1 week in.

I wish the Cheng family the very best in their new digs, and I look forward to making many return visits.

=R=

Made my first visit to Sun Wah last night as but one member of the rather large LTH party in the back of the room. The space is large. That much is indisputable. I'm not sure I would call it attractive. Let me crib that statement. It's a looker when compared to traditional Chinese restaurants--much more modern--but it's not exactly going to win interior design awards and certainly won't ever be called cozy.

I enjoyed my meal quite a bit, but I think it had the potential to be better. I'll address this more fully later, but I'd call the food on the plate the output of a Good Neighborhood Restaurant, not a Great one. For one, I found temperatures to be slightly problematic. The dishes served hot were soulful, rich, and delicious. Those that had been allowed to cool before serving might've been called tired and or greasy. The chicken was the perfect illustration of how a relatively simple dish, cooked and served properly, can become the highpoint of a meal. I liked the faintly sweet/bitter flavor profile and deep mahogany color. Conversely, the roasted pork--among my favorite foods, period--fell a bit short because the skin hadn't crisped up quite enough in the cooking and seemed to have been chopped, plated, and left out for too long before reaching the table. I fully understand that Chinese roasted meats are often served at room temperature, but in this case, imperfect cooking and imperfect serving augmented each other to ill-effect.

I think a lot of these issues come back to less-than-optimal staffing/organizational decisions. I will say, flat out, the restaurant is criminally understaffed. For the majority of the night it wasn't just inconvenient to flag down a server but outright impossible. This should never ever ever ever be the case. I'm used to surly/indifferent waitstaff at Chinese restaurants, but the staff ought to at least be efficient and simply has to be available. It should not take 10+ minutes to get a plate of steamed buns. Not only is waiting for the item frustrating, but the wait time allows the food already on the table more time cool and degrade. Requests for water should not have to be made in the first place, much less forgotten after multiple requests. Plates should be bussed and not stacked atop each other and left at the table. These service issues surely roll into and contribute to some of the issues with the food I already mentioned. Don't get me wrong, Kelly seems like a super nice and capable young woman, but there are huge improvements to be made in the service department if Sun Wah wants to be a Serious Restaurant and not just a good spot for Chinese roasted meats.

Among the other food we had, there wasn't really a clunker in the bunch. Perhaps the weakest dish was the soup whose broth was rather flat. Everything else was tasty, just some items could have been better. The salt-pepper baby squid was a cool dish, just a bit light on both salt and pepper to my tastes. Similarly, I wanted more seasoning on the ribs. Yes, they were addictive but could have used just a bit more punch. The duck was delicious, but the carving was a bit haphazard, and the dish was greasier than other Peking duck preparations I've had. Admittedly the majority of my experience with Peking duck has been in fine-dining restaurants, so perhaps comparison here isn't entirely appropriate. Despite some of these minor issues I think this restaurant can also put out food that is unexpectedly good. The relatively simple baby bok choy and duck fried rice dishes were nice laginappes that showed a deft hand at the wok.

The meal was a fun one. Got to try out an LTH mainstay, consume copious amounts of roasted and fried fatty four-legged beast (and even eat some veggies and fish, too), meet some interesting new people, hear more than a couple stories about Chicago hookers. The meal was also quite affordable, $30 including tax and tip. What more could one want in an evening? With that said, I'm not swooning over this place yet. Too many details need to be fixed before I can give my unrequited stamp of approval. I fully intend to go back--am actually thinking of planning a group meal for some co-workers as I think the mix between authentic yet accessible is quite appealing--and want to taste a broader swath of the menu.

Flickr set with iPhone pics here, http://www.flickr.com/photos/10227202@N00/sets/72157622637607139/

Bryan Z raises a number of interesting points about Sun Wah, its strengths and limitations. Part of what is charming about Sun Wah is Kelly, who provides light and energy. But Sun Wah is best with simpler preparations, especially meats. The more complex, the more I wish I was dining at Lao Sze Chuan. In fact, when I go out with one or two others I often will select LSC for the wow factor of the individual dish. However, I love Sun Wah for the LTH experience in which we can indulge in the range of meats, especially the roast duck and chicken and fried spare ribs - each of these delightful straight up dishes. Some of the service problems were surely due to the challenge of training new staff and coping with a much larger number of diners. I agree that the pork was not at its best, but in contrast I enjoyed the soup as a palate cleanser. As for salt-and-pepper anything, (Little) Three Happiness remains the best in my experience.

For our holiday party will we have the entire restaurant or a separate space? I trust we will not be sharing the downstairs.

GAF wrote:For our holiday party will we have the entire restaurant or a separate space? I trust we will not be sharing the downstairs.

For the party, we're going to have a screened off area at the back...unless we get 200 or more people who sign up for the party, in which case Kelly might give us the whole place.

My girlfriend and I stopped by SW last night, about 45 minutes before the LTH party, though certainly not before the crowds. It's sort of a Pavlovian response, I think: build a bigger restaurant, more people will come. They are, as a previous post noted, pretty understaffed, at least in the server department.

I asked Kelly was the LTH dinner was having and that led us to order the steamed dover sole--or, I think that's what we got; I believe Gary identified it as tilapia in the Event Calendar thread--which was the surprise of the evening: loved the combination of silky fish, stir-fried veggies, and the salty and gingery broth. We ordered the special butternut squash veggie, though I'm hesitant to call it that given the chunks of fatty pork belly all around it; the pork fat gelatinized the black bean sauce, which was a perfect accompaniment to the garlic fried ribs, which I'm now sold on (turns out they just needed to be dipped in pork fat to be great).

The only miss of the night were my standby rice noodles with mixed vegetable--the noodles were underdone and the sauce lacked the fragrant notes it usually does. I'll live.

hi everyone,

thanks for the comments, i'm taking notes! =) i'm trying to get the POS system running properly before i start training. then i'm taking on more servers. but for those of you interested, our GRAND OPENING will be this friday, november 13th@noon hope to see you all there!

quack quack!
kelly

LTH,

My comments on the LTH dinner currently in discussion may be found on the Events Board. --> Link

Enjoy,
Gary

Finally made it to the new Sun Wah location tonight and happy to say that the food quality was up to the standards I have come to expect from Sun Wah. While I like the modern feel of the new location, it just seems way too huge . . . perhaps a little too bright also. Service was a bit inattentive at times and awkward (awkward in that it seemed like we had a different wait person every minute) but I know from Kelly's post that they are working on service issues. I'll rest easily tonight knowing I got my fill of SW pork.