Plum Garden in McHenry - Home of the Hong Kong Chicken

Continuing on with the recent American-Chinese dining theme. Every year around this time a friend of mine throws an all day Oktoberfest party at his family farm in Woodstock. Big beer aficionados, they collect different seasonal Kegs from different breweries often crossing state-lines to do so. Food in the form of grilled sausages and a pig roast is provided but I wanted to eat something beforehand and remembered this locals favorite from a tipsy conversation at last years party and decided I'd go eat there this year.


Main Street in McHenry

Plum Garden is the oldest restaurant in McHenry dating back to 1965. I could go into detail about the history of this near perfect example of an old school American-Chinese restaurant or I could link to a video on it from YouTube.


'A Woman and Her Dream'

Considering it's still going strong in 2014 I'd say it's safe to assume the dream has been achieved and then some. I popped in on a crisp cool Fall day and was greeted by Perry who was playing the gaming machines off to the side. They do the heavy loaded luau style cocktails and some local craft beers at the bar which has a slick old Vegas type of vibe.


The Bar

Chef/Owner Perry has developed a few of the recipes you'll see on the menu though most of them are the same ones you'll find at every other small town Chinese restaurant. I'd heard the fried rice was good and can always appreciate a well made order of that so I tried their fiesta version with all the meats and some vegetables included in it.


Fiesta Fried Rice (chicken, steak, shrimp, bbq pork)

Most of this plate was ate the next day and while it was pretty good I don't like when the meats are large chunks, preferring it to be diced which is what the bbq pork was. Should there be a next time I'd just get some pork fried rice. Reason for the visit was to try their famous "Hong Kong Chicken" which the menu boasts has been served over a million times. Chef Perry came up with the recipe in 1972 and today it's one of the most popular plates of food in McHenry.


Hong Kong Chicken Lunch Plate

Large breasts of white meat chicken are hand-dipped resulting in a crispy house batter. The breasts are then sliced and topped with Hong Kong sauce and served over a crispy bed of bok choy, peapods, and water chestnuts. It's the epitome of American-Chinese food and to me this isn't a bad thing. Not all that different than War Sue Gai aka Almond Boneless Chicken. It's basically that minus the almonds and when the taste for some comfort food comes kicking I could understand why someone from around this way would head over to Plum Garden. They were also voted the best egg rolls in McHenry County and one comes with each lunch plate but they must fry them beforehand because the rolls I got were limp and room temp. I don't think it would of made much of a difference had they been fresh, while they are handmade the ground meat and vegetable mixture inside is lacking any peanut butter flavor and the house hot mustard was 1920's orphanage tame. All in all, a cool spot if you're in the area and from time to time like to indulge in the joys of Gold Rush Chinese Cuisine.


Inside of the Egg Roll

Plum Garden
3917 Main St
McHenry, IL 60050
(815) 385-1530

Wow, you bring back some memories (not all of them good) with this post. In a past life, I worked in McHenry as the program director for the local cable TV company (pre Comcast) and found myself eating at Plum Garden much more often that I would have liked. Yes it's old school, but not in a good way if my memories are anything like what's still going on there.

I once shot a video of them making their egg rolls (I wish I still had it. This was circa 1982). The egg rolls were never very good, even fresh from the fryer. They were almost all limp vegetation with nary a sign of meat of peanut butter.

In fairness, they were absolutely the best egg rolls in McHenry, but that's not saying much.