Mainly the usual suspects with the addition of two outstanding dishes, one I've had before, the lotus root w/house cured bacon and the star/sleeper of the show, Hakka stuffed tofu casserole made by Mr. Cheng from memories of his village. A real treat that's not on the menu but should be.

one of the stand outs for me was the
black chicken soup.
& the cuttle fish was great

deluxe wrote:Gary W. assembled 21 VERY diverse people, including an xtremely precocious young lady, Antoinette Wingo.

Diverse crowd sums it up nicely, anchored by BBQ people, including restaurant owners, chefs, BBQ sauce magnates and purveyors our group also included a personal trainer, former ballerina, young Antoinette, who seemed to have a good time even though she only had white rice and a Sprite, knowledgeable eaters of the LTH variety and of course Deluxe, one of the more wildly interesting and flamboyantly witty people I have the pleasure to call friend.

In addition to multiple Beijing ducks, an assortment of the dishes Sun Wah does so well, and the two dishes Jazzfood mentions there was also an intensely flavored black silk chicken/ginseng soup, xin qua with ground pork and a dessert of house-made tofu topped with two textures of candied ginger.

Hakka stuffed tofu casserole



Lotus root w/house cured bacon



Xin qua with ground pork (Thanks petite_gourmande for the fill-in on xin qua)



House-made tofu topped with two textures of candied ginger.



Clams in black bean sauce on crisp noodle. Sun Wah's take on Clams Evil Ronnie style, a perennial "Little" Three Happiness favorite.



Kelly Cheng, Lee Ann Whippen, Billy Rhodes



The two newest members of the Cheng family



Mr. Cheng and family are the ultimate hosts, an amazing meal at an equally amazing price.

Enjoy,
Gary

whose babies are those?! justjoan

justjoan wrote:whose babies are those?! justjoan

Kelly and Laura's brother Michael's children.

Regards,

sunwahrestaurant wrote:first: how to eat duck properly with the bones
step 1: attempt to stab with fork
step 2: use hands to pick up piece of duck since fork won't stab
step 3: rip off meat with teeth (or hands, whichever you prefer)
step 4: do be careful of bones but unfortunately, there's nothing i can do about them if you order the roast duck, pei par duck aka bbq duck, or the marinated duck.
step 5: skip all of the above and just order beijing duck dinner, even if you end up with leftovers for days...your stomach will thank you..

Thank you for the guidance, Kelly. Especially step 5--which I am advancing immediately to on my next visit!

Cathy2 wrote:Kelly and Laura's brother Michael's children.

Baby on the left is Michael's daughter Candice, on the right is Cheng sibling Cindy's daughter Isabella.

We did a Michigan Avenue run last Saturday and stopped at Broadway and Argyle for Spring Rolls and Pho at 777(great), took sandwiches from Ba Le home (6 for the price of 5) and picked up a duck to go at Sun Wah. Met Kelly and had a good discussion. Then it was back to Wisconsin. Made my own pancakes at home(for some reason she wouldn't sell them to me extra) and the duck was its usual superb self.
Sun Wah is a culinary gem!
Ba Le makes great Banh Mi.
What else can I say, great food all around!-Dick

We had family in for the holidays and after 3 days of cooking, I had enough and stated that we were going out to eat. However with 12 people we wanted to keep the bill reasonable, and I suggested Sun Wah.

We ordered 2 ducks, 2 orders of oysters with black bean sauce, 1 large platter of BBQ combo, an order of baby bok choy, and order of the house cured bacon with mixed veggies, 1 off menu order of egg fu young and 1 order of stuffed tofu with shrimp.

I was very pleased with everything, but noticed a slight change in the duck order. Instead of duck, duck fried rice and duck soup, we got duck, duck fried rice, duck lo mein, and duck soup. I really like this change bc it elimated the want to try or order a noodle dish.

Everything was wonderful, service was great and fed 12 people with lots of leftovers (could have fed at least 3 more) for under $200.

Love, love , love this place and will be bringing the extended family here again next time they visit. They have been raving about it since we got home last night and a few are eating the leftovers for breakfast right now.

CM2772 wrote:I was very pleased with everything, but noticed a slight change in the duck order. Instead of duck, duck fried rice and duck soup, we got duck, duck fried rice, duck lo mein, and duck soup. I really like this change bc it elimated the want to try or order a noodle dish.

I noticed this last time I was in a group that ordered two ducks. It was nice to get the noodles instead of a monster pile of fried rice.

AlekH wrote:

CM2772 wrote:I was very pleased with everything, but noticed a slight change in the duck order. Instead of duck, duck fried rice and duck soup, we got duck, duck fried rice, duck lo mein, and duck soup. I really like this change bc it elimated the want to try or order a noodle dish.

I noticed this last time I was in a group that ordered two ducks. It was nice to get the noodles instead of a monster pile of fried rice.

in the past with 2 ducks i've asked for one rice, one noodle. i always assumed they were interchangeable on request. i guess they do it automatically now for variety.

We had a delicious meal Sunday at Sun Wah. The duck dinner was great, we ordered one duck for 6, along with:
- Congee with Fish (my sister and I are big fans of the congee)
- Stir-fried Chinese Broccoli
- Shrimp dumpling noodle soup
- Fried scallops appetizer
- probably some other stuff but I can't recall.

Very good value, great service, would go back again.

Are they open today - 31 Dec? I've called a number of times and there's no answer... Jonesin' for some Peking/Beijing duck.

mchodera wrote:Are they open today - 31 Dec? I've called a number of times and there's no answer... Jonesin' for some Peking/Beijing duck.

According to Kelly's post on the previous page, their New Year's hours are as follows:
12/30: closed (it is thursday)
12/31: 9am-10pm
1/1: 9am-10pm

putting out feelers for my chinese new year feast....this year, chinese new year is february 3, 2011. we're planning the new year's feast for the following weekend. if anyone is interested, please email me at sunwahbbq@gmail.com or call me at the restaurant at 773.769.1254. as usual, the menu will be prix fixe. if i see enough interest generated, i will post the final menu in the events section along with the price. see you all soon!

quack quack!

kelly

Solid solo lunch at Sun Wah today, comforting bowl of wonton soup and small order of Mike's chicken hit the spot. Love being able to order a small portion of Mike's chicken, that stuff is great.

I had my 2nd annual birthday pig at Sun Wah last Saturday. (See last year's report here.) I can't think of a better way to celebrate a birthday than to gather up 30 friends and eat a whole pig, or at least make a dent in a whole pig. One thing that I really enjoyed this year is Kelly butchered the pig for us at the table, where last year they showed us the pig, then butchered it up front and brought out plates of it to the tables. (This may be partly because we got a smaller pig this year.) My 6 year old daughter and her friend were fascinated by this part. They both sat and watched the pig being butchered from start to finish - probably 15-20 minutes total. I can't remember the last time she sat that quietly for that long without a movie playing.



Kelly offered to pick dishes to go along with the pig for us, but several people had their hearts set on specific things, so each table just ordered their own dishes. Along with the pig, we had a few peking ducks and maybe 15 or so other dishes between our 3 tables. As always, the food was fantastic and Kelly and the rest of the staff were great and very accommodating of our somewhat chaotic group. I'm also amazed at the price. It came out to just $15 a person, including a pretty generous tip.



And, as an added bonus, I again got to take home the head, feet and bones, along with several containers of pig meat. I've already made a stir fry rom the leftovers and a few quarts of stock from the bones, with another batch going in my slow cooker now. I think that will be turned into pig and dumplings for tonight's dinner. Plus I have the head in my freezer for later. I think I love the after-pig almost as much as the pig itself.

I am long overdue for a trip to Sun Wah. Thanks for the visual reminder!

I love this place. I don't know how their prices are so cheap. I did not believe I could get a combo plate of duck and chicken over rice with Chinese broccoli for $5. but I did.

What blows my mind is all those times I went to the old location and found it less than full, or certainly with no wait, and then going to the new location and seeing such a significantly larger space so busy and bustling. Warms my heart, not just because the food is spectacular, the service great and the prices beyond reasonable. I've never had a bad meal here, my dining companions have never had a bad meal here, and we've always all left so happy and sated and ready to tell other friends, family and visitors that that they have a new favorite restaurant in waiting.

Vitesse98 wrote:What blows my mind is all those times I went to the old location and found it less than full, or certainly with no wait, and then going to the new location and seeing such a significantly larger space so busy and bustling. Warms my heart, not just because the food is spectacular, the service great and the prices beyond reasonable. I've never had a bad meal here, my dining companions have never had a bad meal here, and we've always all left so happy and sated and ready to tell other friends, family and visitors that that they have a new favorite restaurant in waiting.

That doesn't surprise me at all:

They've turned it from a hole-in-the-wall into a restaurant. Decor matters.
My mother would never have gone into the old spot. Ever. The new location is much "safer" and probably one of the most yuppie-looking restos in that neighborhood. That being said, the neighborhood is still a mofo to get to from the burbs.

Lastly, two words: Check, Please.

JoelF wrote:That being said, the neighborhood is still a mofo to get to from the burbs.

Yeah, well, getting to the 'burbs from "our" neighborhood (we live two blocks from Sun Wah) is no joy either!

eli wrote:I...One thing that I really enjoyed this year is Kelly butchered the pig for us at the table, where last year they showed us the pig, then butchered it up front and brought out plates of it to the tables. (This may be partly because we got a smaller pig this year.) ...

eli, what size pig did you get for 30 people? I showed the photos to my husband and he would love to re-create this for his next birthday!

Jen

I'd also like to say to everyone who has been there since their opening in the new location, their service is now much improved. I went there last weekend, and not only was it the best service I've ever received there, it was the best service I've received at any restaurant in that area. They have hired more serving staff, trained them better, and optimized operations. Not only is the food great, but the owners are making a really concerted effort to improve on areas that customers are unhappy with.

Pie-love wrote:

eli wrote:I...One thing that I really enjoyed this year is Kelly butchered the pig for us at the table, where last year they showed us the pig, then butchered it up front and brought out plates of it to the tables. (This may be partly because we got a smaller pig this year.) ...

eli, what size pig did you get for 30 people? I showed the photos to my husband and he would love to re-create this for his next birthday!

Jen

Last year, we asked for their largest size and there were a metric ton of leftovers...at least one small takeout box for each of the 30-35 people, plus the head and bones for me. This year they asked what size we wanted and I just said "whatever you recommend for 30-35 people." It was definitely smaller than last year, but I honestly don't know what size it was. Really, all the set up I did in advance was to call Sun Wah and tell them I wanted to order a whole pig for dine in and make a reservation for 35 people. It was super easy to set up. (But do be sure to say it's for dine in. They also offer whole pigs to go.)

Hi,

Sun Wah roasts whole pigs daily. I was there once for a program where I learned you could buy the pig head for $5. I was considering buying it, then a friend quickly swooped in to buy it.

At least on this occasion, they chopped up the head with a cleaver for convenient packing. When my friend opened it later, she was uncomfortable viewing the pig's chopped up features. She ran outside and tossed it into the garbage.

She later wished I had bought it and not her. Leason learned: you can get the head whole or all chopped up. Having made headcheese before, all chopped up would have been an advantage for me.

Regards,

In my whole pig experience, approximately 1 pound of pig (butchered, not "on the hoof" of course) per guest is plenty for everyone to have a lot of food with a decent but not huge amount of leftovers. I suspect the ratio might change with very small pigs/sucklings, though -- relatively more non-meat at the small end.

I'd also like to say to everyone who has been there since their opening in the new location, their service is now much improved.

The staff all have name tags, even the guys and girls clearing the tables. To me that (rightly) signifies pride, though for all I know it's just to make it easier to yell at people in the back.

well now, let me just say, that is a very scary picture of myself cutting that pig. and you should be proud eli, that was my first time actually cutting the pig. by myself... i'm surprised i wasn't sweating bullets.. hehe!

JoelF wrote:

Vitesse98 wrote:What blows my mind is all those times I went to the old location and found it less than full, or certainly with no wait, and then going to the new location and seeing such a significantly larger space so busy and bustling. Warms my heart, not just because the food is spectacular, the service great and the prices beyond reasonable. I've never had a bad meal here, my dining companions have never had a bad meal here, and we've always all left so happy and sated and ready to tell other friends, family and visitors that that they have a new favorite restaurant in waiting.

That doesn't surprise me at all:

They've turned it from a hole-in-the-wall into a restaurant. Decor matters.
My mother would never have gone into the old spot. Ever. The new location is much "safer" and probably one of the most yuppie-looking restos in that neighborhood. That being said, the neighborhood is still a mofo to get to from the burbs.

Lastly, two words: Check, Please.

The old place smelled bad too. It may be a haul from the 'burbs, but it's really close to Edgewater. It's the reason we don't go to Chinatown as much anymore.