After a hiatus I went the LTH Friday with a co-worker who had never been. We had lunch specials, $6.95, salt and pepper shrimp and general tso's shrimp. Superb on both fronts, spicy, flavorful and fresh. Quality is good as ever, I'm glad I'm close enough to make it a lunch option every so often.

Anyone know if LTH has a new cook? My mom and sister, big LTH fans, were complaining to me today about a meal they had there two weeks ago. They said a few things they got were inedible. Chicken feet and maybe pork ribs with black beans were examples they gave; I can't remember details. I was surprised to hear their complaints (they're still complaining two weeks later) since from them it's usually LTH-can-do-no-wrong. Anyone?

Mr.K & I were there for dinner last night and we agree that something has happened to their cooking. We usually go 3 or 4 times a month, and last night was terrible. I'm trying to eat left over mu shu pork as I write but it's so salty, it's impossible...but I'll try.

If this was our first visit, I don't think we'd go back. The two cooks had a very loud screaming match throughout our meal. Our favorite server even brought one of the owners over to our table to look at our salt & pepper scallops, as she was serving them, because she said they weren't cooked right. The fella apologized and brought us a fresh plate, which was still nearly inedible.

We've noticed that there are some meals that aren't as good as others, but every meal there has been good, except for last night.

We love this place, and last night was one of those nights, after we both had difficult non-stop workdays, when we wanted some comfort food, along with a little visting with the staff. We asked the server if the cooks had changed, and she said no.

LTH, we still love you, and Anna, you're my favorite all time server anywhere, but we're going to take a break for a while.

I agree as well. Went there last week for a bite and it was pathetic. There was literally a pool of grease underneath the crab rangoon. Granted they were hot and fresh out of the fryer but not properly draining deep fried foods after coming out of the fryer is unexcusable. The BBQ pork fried rice actually came out looking like white rice instead of fried, and the salt and pepper shrimp were swimming in grease too. I love LTH and have been many times given the fact it's blocks from my house but I really hope things turn around.

I know I'm going to get slapped (by Gary) for saying this, but these latest posts make me think, again, that it was a mistake to name this forum after one specific place. Isn't it time to move on, with a more descriptive name?

Katie wrote:I know I'm going to get slapped (by Gary) for saying this, but these latest posts make me think, again, that it was a mistake to name this forum after one specific place. Isn't it time to move on, with a more descriptive name?

Absolutely not. It's part of our history and our narrative. Restaurants change over time just like (some) people. In another few years who knows what will happen in Chinatown, and who will be in any kitchen we have loved at some point.

Katie wrote:I know I'm going to get slapped (by Gary) for saying this, but these latest posts make me think, again, that it was a mistake to name this forum after one specific place. Isn't it time to move on, with a more descriptive name?

Would you re-name your children just because they're not as cute as they used to be?

=R=

It's not a child. Not to me, and not to some 7, 422 others who participate. It's an internet forum. And it's name is a pain to explain.

I know, I know, you've had and squelched this suggestion before. Over and out.

Katie wrote:It's not a child. Not to me, and not to some 7, 422 others who participate. It's an internet forum. And it's name is a pain to explain.

I know, I know, you've had and squelched this suggestion before. Over and out.

This is just begging for a thread in the "other culinary chat" page - suggestions for LTH's fictional renaming. Too bad I have to go to class, otherwise I'd do it.

Gak. Sorry. I meant "its name."

ronnie_suburban wrote:

Katie wrote:I know I'm going to get slapped (by Gary) for saying this, but these latest posts make me think, again, that it was a mistake to name this forum after one specific place. Isn't it time to move on, with a more descriptive name?

Would you re-name your children just because they're not as cute as they used to be?

=R=

No, but then I wouldn't name a child "I Had a Really Great Meal at the Little Three Happiness Restaurant Last Night"

Katie wrote:Over and out.

How did I know this wasn't really going to be the case?

Katie wrote:

ronnie_suburban wrote:

Katie wrote:I know I'm going to get slapped (by Gary) for saying this, but these latest posts make me think, again, that it was a mistake to name this forum after one specific place. Isn't it time to move on, with a more descriptive name?

Would you re-name your children just because they're not as cute as they used to be?

=R=

No, but then I wouldn't name a child "I Had a Really Great Meal at the Little Three Happiness Restaurant Last Night"

I used the emoticon >>> <<< to indicate that I was kidding around.

But in all seriousness, I'm not sure your query even deserves legitimate response. The name of this forum has to do with the passion felt about the restaurant, not necessarily the restaurant itself. We all have our own personal LTH's.

I've gone back and re-read this entire thread and you hadn't posted on it until now. Just out of curiosity, have you ever been to (little) Three Happiness? Or, are you just ready to change 5+ years of history based on a few recent opinions posted by others?

=R=

Katie wrote:And it's name is a pain to explain.

Not compared to "The site formerly-known-as LTHForum".
And it will always be "(New) Comiskey Park" and "Sears Tower".
What you talkin bout willis?

Katie wrote:Gak. Sorry. I meant "its name."

LTH,

Regarding recent downhill alerts for LTHForum namesake 'Little' Three Happiness. Occasionally even a wonderful place such as 'L'TH has an off day or two, the place is open 20-hours a day, chef's change, leave the country, have fights with their wife or husband, any of a million reasons. What make's 'L'TH great is they always snap back, and when on they are King Kong.

Here is my favorite trampling of 'Little' Three Happiness, from early 2005 by TonyC. my last abominable meal @ LTH

Enjoy,
Gary

I've been a lurker for a while, but my visit to LTH this weekend for dim sum with my dad has prompted me to finally post. To put it bluntly, it was the worst dim sum we've had in our lives and a shameful excuse for Cantonese food. Our palettes are quite attuned to what good dim sum tastes like as we are Cantonese and lived a large part of our lives with easy access to good dim sum in Southern California. My dad also travels frequently to Hong Kong and China and has had some great dim sum in San Francisco and New York before.

We got to the restaurant around 11:15 AM on Sunday, getting into prime time for dim sum. We should've known something was up when we walked in and were the only ones there. My dad was hesitant, but I told him I'd heard good things, so why not give it the benefit of the doubt? However, the second warning came when it was time to order: no char siu sou, no cheong fun with fried donut, and no tripe. To me, these are basic dishes that any respectable place serving dim sum should offer. The server told us that their beef stew was similar to what we were looking for with the tripe, so we got that in addition to our standard fare. Here's a breakdown on what we had:

-Beef stew: The server said it was basically like the tripe stew that is typical at dim sum places. This couldn't be further from the truth. Not only was the beef clearly sour and off, the sauce wasn't close. The stew is supposed to pack a huge five spice punch, but ultimately it tasted completely bland. LTH also took the liberty to swap bok choy in place of the more traditional radish which I didn't mind but found odd.

-Siu mai: Rubbery, dense, and filled with fillers like fat and starch. The outer skin was tacky and I suspect these were microwaved. The taste was average.

-Chicken feet: Very poorly butchered. The bones at the end were razor sharp and bone fragments were everywhere. I almost cut my gums up because of the sharp ends. The sauce didn't have the typical deep orange glow, but rather a light pinkish tint which made me think it was watered down char siu sauce. My eyes were probably right as that's what it sort of tasted like

-Cheong fun with char siu: The noodles were horrendous. Trying to pick a portion up with chopsticks was futile as the noodles immediately disintegrated into a mushy mess the moment slight pressure was put onto them. The dark soy sauce was extremely watered down.

-Wu gok (fried taro ball stuffed with pork): Two major problems with this one. First, the outside wasn't prepared properly. The outside is supposed to have a delicate, light, and crumbly outer shell. That is one of the defining things about wu gok. LTH's interpretation was lazy, as the taro was simply battered in flour. Also, the pork filling is supposed to be minced pork. This version substituted char siu for minced pork, making for a completely different taste. On the plus side, the taro had some great taro flavor. More often than not, the taro in wu gok can be bland.

-Spare ribs: Barely a trace of black bean sauce, which is the defining characteristic of dim sum spare ribs. They could've been more tender, but it's not like they were really tough.

-Sticky rice in lotus leaf: The filling is typically minced pork or chicken, but again LTH felt it was better to substitute that for char siu. If we knew they were going to substitute char siu for everything, we would've gotten the beef cheong fun rather than the char siu cheong fun. Unfortunately the pork was slightly off tasting, and the rice wasn't glutinous enough.

We immediately headed to Happy Chef, where I know the dim sum is consistently decent. Needless to say, I won't be back to LTH. Not even to try their non-dim sum menu.

beng--

Not being a particular fan of dim sum (Cantonese, IMO, pales in comparison to Sichuan cooking, and even Korean), I'm not especially wounded by your criticism of LTH.

However, your blog led me to your twitter account, which surprised me. I found this line interesting:

"after worst dim sum of my life at LTH, never using yelp/LTHForum again as a guide for asian food. white ppl have weird palettes
10:43 PM Nov 7th from TweetDeck"

What makes you think that we're all white? And that white people "have weird palettes" and are thus restricted from any authority on Asian cuisine? And worst yet, that Yelp is somehow separated by a mere slash from LTHForum?

Perhaps this isn't the proper place to address this; but be careful what you link to...

My palette actually goes from ivory all the way to eggshell. So step off.

@mtgl: I'm not here to explain any tongue-in-cheek statements I may have made on twitter, but oh well. Don't want to get off on the wrong foot.

If you know me, then you'll understand that it was meant to be taken sarcastically, but I am not so naive to think that what I said would not be construed as narrow minded by some. I thought it was funny for people who know me well, and to those who don't, oh well. I am also not so naive to think that people of any origin cannot be authorities on cuisines outside of their native culture.

beng--

I totally understand. My biggest complaint is comparing Yelp to LTHForum

I'm wondering where on LTH Forum it is recommended to go to LTH (the restaurant) for dim sum. That is certainly not their strength.

stevez wrote:I'm wondering where on LTH Forum it is recommended to go to LTH (the restaurant) for dim sum.

Here's a handful of quotes praising (from lukewarm to rave) the dim sum at Little Three Happiness.

I've been going to LTH quite a bit lately for lunch,it's not that far from work and I can't stay away from the chow fun noodles. It's also become a favorite dim sum destination, it's as good as anything in that department.

viewtopic.php?p=214261#p214261

I made my first trip to LTH Sunday for lunch. It was an unplanned visit, so I didn't have a chance to look through all the posts here to guide my order. Considering the size of their menu and that it was just me, my wife and our 4 year old, we decided to stick to dim sum items. We enjoyed everything we had and definitely plan to make it back to try more of their regular menu.

viewtopic.php?p=270266#p270266

One of the nice things about LTH - you don't need someone to hold your hand. While I wouldn't order AmeriChinese food here (so I can't speak to it) I've had good luck playing dim-sum-menu roulette, which is how I wound up with the silver needle noodles I enjoyed so much last time. At the risk of being redundant, it makes a great GNR.

viewtopic.php?p=243922#p243922

The sweet and sour pork spareribs from the "dim sum" menu.

viewtopic.php?p=247901#p247901

You can also eat at "little" Three Happiness restaurant (which our board is named for)
(Don't miss the salt and pepper shrimp)
And if you're around on the weekend you can get wonderful dim sum there for brunch.

viewtopic.php?p=241295#p241295

LTH has good dim sum, but Shui Wah, or the Phoenix for that matter, have better dim sum.

viewtopic.php?p=116721#p116721

At (Little) Three Happiness, shrimp toast can be found on the dim sum menu along with a very respectable rendition sweet and sour pork spareribs ($1.50 for the sweet and sour).

viewtopic.php?p=105913#p105913

I ordered my carry-out dim sum from LTH today. Pork and shrimp sui mai, pot stickers, wu gok, beef and brocolli chow fun, hot and sour soup, plus the smelt. I've learned that the smelt can be rehabilitated after the trip home by dumping them in a hot skillet to crisp up, and though they weren't as peppery as they are at their best, they were still excellent, as were the sui mai (especially the shrimp) and the pot stickers. LTH is where my late sister-in-law first introduced me to wu gok, and I'd forgotten how terrific their version is. I'd put it high on the "recommended items at LTH" list. It's an excellent transition dish for people who are graduating from egg rolls but are not yet up to sucking at chicken feet.

viewtopic.php?p=73796#p73796

LTH also has very good dim sum, congee and lunch specials during the morning and noon hours.

viewtopic.php?p=73939#p73939

'Little' Three Happiness, while my absolute favorite restaurant in Chicago, has quite good, but not great paper menu dim sum.

viewtopic.php?p=49217#p49217

So a nice walk down and back on wentworth to stretch kayak cramped legs, and we went into "Little" Three Happiness. Dim Sum was still available at 1:30 (they serve till 3, as do many in Chinatown), and we weren't hungry enough for main courses, so we ordered what we thought was very little, seeing as each dish was $1.50 to $1.80. I figured that would get us, for instance, 1 Char Siu Bao, not 3!

1) Shrimp Dumplings : nearly transparent dumplings filled with large pieces of shrimp. Very tasty, great texture.
2) Spring Rolls : always a favorite of mine. These are waaaay above average, filled with meat (dunno if it's pork or chicken, probably pork), shrimp and mushrooms, not just cabbage and bean sprouts. (Only 2 of these, 3 of everything else)
3) Char Siu Bao: These were hot, steamy and fluffy, with tasty meat inside.
4) Shrimp Balls: basically shrimp toast without the toast. Almost too hot to eat, minced shrimp held together by egg whites (and probably cornstarch). These went well with every one of the sauces they provided (soy, hoi sin, chili garlic).
5) Beef pancake rice noodle. We didn't know what we were getting here, and it was a pleasant surprise. Ground beef in a thin layer between rice noodles. Dark soy sauce drizzled on. This is the kind of thing that a high-end restaurant could get away with $11 on an appetizer menu and get raved about in the newspaper, assuming there was a parsley garnish (heh). Very tasty, but we were getting full here, and only polished off two of the three (the third is in my fridge, I don't know if it will survive the chill well).
6) Sesame balls: classic fried sticky dough with sweet sesame paste inside. Ate one on the way home, the boys got the other two.

For $11 and change, we had a feast! I'll have to go back next time I'm there and try a real meal.

viewtopic.php?p=7082#p7082

To be sure there are plenty of negative comments about LTH's dim sum as well but it's not surprising that a casual reader of this board could come away with a generally positive impression of their offerings..

Rene G wrote:To be sure there are plenty of negative comments about LTH's dim sum as well but it's not surprising that a casual reader of this board could come away with a generally positive impression of their offerings..

I guess it's possible, but I think posts on their other food far outnumber the dim sum posts. It just wouldn't occur to me to think of LTH as a dim sum destination, although I'll admit to ordering my share of LTH dim sum over the years to accompany some of the other more solid dishes.

Rene G wrote:To be sure there are plenty of negative comments about LTH's dim sum as well but it's not surprising that a casual reader of this board could come away with a generally positive impression of their offerings..

Rene,

I very well be the biggest booster of 'Little' Three Happiness and even I prefer Shui Wah or The Phoenix for dim sum.

That said, it never ceases to amaze me at the number of first posts that are negative, this is the second in just a week.

Speaking of 'L'TH, I've been asked by more than one person to arrange an LTHForum event at 'Little' Three Happiness, its been a while since we had a blow out dinner there. Look to the events board in the next couple of weeks.

Enjoy,
Gary

Shui Wah
2162 S. Archer Ave
Chicago, IL
312-225-8811

The Phoenix
2131 S. Archer Ave.
Chicago, IL
312-328-0848

beng wrote:@mtgl: I'm not here to explain any tongue-in-cheek statements I may have made on twitter, but oh well. Don't want to get off on the wrong foot.

If you know me, then you'll understand that it was meant to be taken sarcastically, but I am not so naive to think that what I said would not be construed as narrow minded by some. I thought it was funny for people who know me well, and to those who don't, oh well. I am also not so naive to think that people of any origin cannot be authorities on cuisines outside of their native culture.

More people have gotten into trouble being sarcastic. It really does not translate well on the internet. There is no twinkle in the eye, lilt to the voice or anything to give it away. I really recommend to people to be straight forward and not saracastic. The grief it causes just is not worth it to everyone involved. If someone misinterprets you because you clouded your message with sarcasm nobody grasped, it is your fault.

Regards,

On the other hand, some people find judiciously sarcastic writing entertaining to read. I'm wholly against the elimination of sarcasm from the internet. FWIW, the discussion that ensued from beng's sarcasm led me to his blog, which is chock full of outstanding stuff.

Hi,

Sarcasm is a really poor form of communication. I've seen too many people get their dander up, then the one who initiated it states, "You should get a sense of humor." That suggests it is the recipient's fault, when it really was the initiator.

Regards,

Well, that type of exchange exemplifies a type of writing I do dislike: the type where people post on food forums not to discuss food, but merely to criticize other people's posting style.

Cathy2 wrote:Sarcasm is a really poor form of communication. I've seen too many people get their dander up, then the one who initiated it states, "You should get a sense of humor." That suggests it is the recipient's fault, when it really was the initiator.

I'd agree sarcasm, irony and, in general, humor translate poorly on discussion boards such as LTHForum. That said, I've read some blisteringly funny/sarcastic/ironic LTH posts over the years. If one has a realization that sarcasm may be opaque on Internet discussion boards and strives for clarity, a good idea in general, it can work. Unfortunately most do not have the writing chops, or take the time to craft their posts.

I'd suggest further discussion be moved to Other Culinary Chat.

Enjoy,
Gary