House of Bing — Old School Chinese in South Shore

In the American-Cantonese Egg Rolls thread Da Beef wrote:I always wanted to do the old school Chinese restaurant 1-2 punch of Wing Hoe in Edgewater followed by taking Lakeshore drive to House of Bing in the South Shore neighborhood.

Wing then Bing? Oof, that'd be a couple hard shots to the midsection for sure. Some seven years ago I participated in a gut busting Dinner for Three at House of Bing with PIGMON and trixie-pea. They'd been planning a survey of egg rolls and wonton soup and Bing knocked them out in the first round. Stopped 'em dead in their tracks. I didn't think the meal was worth mentioning at the time but now with this frenzy of interest in egg rolls and such, House of Bing has acquired new relevance.



House of Bing claims on their website they were "formly known as House of Ing in Hyde Park." I don't remember a restaurant of that name (Eng, yes; Ing, no) and I'm unable to find any other mention of it. Regardless, I assume House of Ing/Bing was chosen to lead the unwary into thinking it's somehow related to House of Eng, Hyde Park's branch of the famous old restaurant on Walton (discussed in the egg roll thread).

Bing has a full bar, serving potent drinks of many colors.



They were pretty much undrinkable but made nice table decorations.

Egg rolls and fried chicken led off our feast. For some reason we thought adding an order of shrimp toast to the set dinner would be a good idea. It actually wasn't bad (ditto the bird) but was beyond unnecessary.





Egg rolls came stuffed with cabbage, finely ground and well dispersed pork, and an occasional small shrimp. If peanut butter was in there, it was very subtle (more than okay with me). I'm not the biggest fan of most egg rolls and examples like this only reinforce my opinion. I've certainly had far worse though.

We finished our appetizers and were already feeling we'd blown past our weekly grease limits. "I went here with my mom and the NBA Finals happen to be on and I was happy as a lard," reads one Yelp comment reprinted on Bing's website. We were feeling like unhappy lards after our Deep Fried Three Ways beginning. Then our real meal appeared. I give Bing high marks for presentation—food like this needs to be served in covered stainless steel pedestal platters.



So how were the portions?



I imagine there are trios of diners able to finish a meal like this but we barely made a dent. As with the appetizers, this is Chinese food without a bit of lightness or subtlety. I suppose I could see it hitting the spot very occasionally. It's certainly old school Chinese for better or worse.

In its 25 years Bing has become such a revered name on the South Side that the copy got copied.



This short-lived imitator wasn't so fortunate.

House of Bing
6930 S South Shore Dr
Chicago
773-363-5400
http://www.hobsouthshore.com/

Rene G wrote:Regardless, I assume House of Ing/Bing was chosen to lead the unwary into thinking it's somehow related to House of Eng, Hyde Park's branch of the famous old restaurant on Walton (discussed in the egg roll thread).

Bing has a full bar, serving potent drinks of many colors.



They were pretty much undrinkable but made nice table decorations.
In its 25 years Bing has become such a revered name on the South Side that the copy got copied.

House of Bing
6930 S South Shore Dr
Chicago
773-363-5400
http://www.hobsouthshore.com/

House of Bing was opened by Bobby the Bartender, formerly of House of Eng.

Louisa Chu wrote:House of Bing was opened by Bobby the Bartender, formerly of House of Eng.

Thanks, Louisa. That explanation makes perfect sense. I probably sampled Bobby the Bartender's work during his House of Eng days. It's encouraging to hear there is some sort of connection between the two restaurants, but I wonder why it isn't clearly explained on House of Bing's website or at the restaurant (during my visit seven years ago and again last autumn, I got less-than-convincing accounts of the restaurant's history). The timing makes sense too, with House of Eng closing in 1987 and House of Bing opening not long after. When I was at Bing several months ago, they were running a 25th anniversary promotion.







I don't know if they still offer the $3.95(!) special—a generous egg roll, two massive shrimp egg foo young patties in more gravy than you'd want and a mountain of shrimp fried rice. Also a can of pop, a fortune cookie, plus the usual packets of brown-colored salt water and orange-tinted HFCS. Overall, not too bad, and you sure can't fault Bing on portion size.