The End of an Era in Philly’s Chinatown

A sour topic related to my love for circa 1970s-80s Chinese restaurants raised its ugly head again this past weekend. I had made plans months ago to meet with my family for dinner at one of the oldest remaining eateries in Philadelphia’s Chinatown – and the only one that still looks like the old-school places of my youth. Those plans unfortunately didn’t come to fruition and we had to move on to Option B.

The topic alluded to above is the number of Chinese restaurants – at least in my region – that scaled down from full table service to takeout-only during the pandemic and either took an extremely long time to reopen for full service or never did so at all. I discovered that the place we planned to visit Saturday – David’s Mai Lai Wah, which we hadn’t been to since before Covid hit – falls into the latter category a few days before the scheduled meal and was able to adjust our plans accordingly.

We instead met for an early dinner at Lee How Fook, which is another of the oldest remaining restaurants in Philly’s Chinatown. My wife and I lived in a condo building on the same block as Lee How Fook for eight years and both dined there and ordered takeout from them on a regular basis. They were justifiably considered to be one of the best restaurants in Chinatown, but we hadn’t been there since moving to the suburbs in 2012. 

Although it was pleasing to be seated at a large round table with a Lazy Susan, I didn’t choose Lee How Fook in the first place in large part because it hasn’t really looked like the type of old-school restaurant I tend to seek out for as long as I’ve been going there. David’s looked more the part. 

Nonetheless, I was still optimistic that we’d have a good meal.

The menu at Lee How Fook has a blend of classic Americanized dishes and more authentic regional Chinese specialties. 

While I normally order an egg roll at Chinese restaurants, they don’t have them in the style that I prefer at Lee How Fook, so I opted for a fried shrimp roll to start, recalling that I didn’t like their vegetarian spring rolls. 

The only other appetizers ordered were vegetable-filled pan-fried dumplings by my wife and my mother’s Peking duck roll. 

The deep fried crust for my shrimp roll was wonderfully crispy and not too greasy. As expected, based on having ordered them at a couple other restaurants, there was nothing but shrimp inside of the crust. The accompanying duck sauce went well with it. 

The three of us who had appetizers were very happy with them. But the tide of our meal turned a bit when the main courses arrived.

The seafood fried rice and Udon noodles with shrimp and chicken weren’t problematic. But at least a couple people at the table thought their entrees were too sweet. Granted that orange chicken and beef, both of which were ordered, are always somewhat sweet. But these apparently were a bit over-the-top. I tasted the chicken with ginger and pineapples – a dish my wife and I used to enjoy on occasion during our Chinatown days – and had the same complaint about that. It wasn’t as I remembered it.

As is often the case at Chinese restaurants, I ordered sweet and sour shrimp. It’s a dish that is virtually always extremely sweet, so that wasn’t an issue. However, there was something a little off about the flavor – probably a particular ingredient that I couldn’t place. It wasn’t terrible, but just enough of an issue to keep me from enjoying the dish as much as anticipated. 

It’s hard to make a definitive pronouncement based on a single meal, but I couldn’t help but think that the food has gone downhill a bit since my wife and I were regulars at Lee How Fook 15-20 years ago. 

Yet the biggest disappointment of the day remained the let-down over not returning to David’s Mai Lai Wah.

I was fortunate to be able to eat in Chinatown often while growing up during the 70s and 80s. Visiting David’s had been the last opportunity to relive those memories after the Imperial Inn, my longtime favorite, closed for good in early 2019. Now that they’re a takeout only restaurant, it feels like a treasured part of my youth is gone forever.

Here is an old post about my love for classic Chinese restaurants that includes photos of what may have been my final meal at David’s Mai Lai Wah, probably within a year of when the pandemic hit and they ceased dine-in service.

---

I’ll be back next week with my first cheesesteak post in a while.