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    Post #1 - January 28th, 2008, 12:41 am
    Post #1 - January 28th, 2008, 12:41 am Post #1 - January 28th, 2008, 12:41 am
    As happens about half the time when we go to Chinatown with the intention of getting some bubble teas at Joy Yee, we ended up eating a full meal.

    Tonight decided to try

    Hing Kee.
    Asian Cuisine - Sushi Bar
    2140 S Archer Ave Chinatown Square
    312 808 9538

    Hing Kee is one of the many newer restaurants in Chinatown Square and one of the many reasons to keep heading back to the area.
    At around 6 it was close to capacity crowds as were many of the other restaurants.

    The only seats available were at the small sushi bar so we saddled up.

    We had the Spicy Beef soup
    Image

    The Tom Yum Soup (sorry we got into this one before I broke out the camera)
    Image

    And a couple pieces of nigiri just since we are at the sushi bar.
    Image

    The soups were very good. The Beef soup had enough good size pieces of beef to be memorable and the Tom Yum was spicy and very reminiscent of Panaang which I have always considered to make great seafood soups. I would have liked a little more fresh herbs or vegetables but that could just be a symptom of my pho addiction as of late and otherwise we really liked them.

    We asked for the chefs preference for the sushi and were each given two cuts of yellow fin. The fish was outstanding. The different cuts had very distinguishable tastes and each was fresh, rich and slightly flavored from a quick rub of some wasabi. The only negative I can think of about the tuna is that it was served a little too cold, though I watched it come from the refrigerator to the cutting board to my mouth so I shouldn't really have expected it would be room temperature.

    Like I said, the place was full so we saw that most people were eating a large steamer basket of rice with a dungeness crab on top. A lot of tables also had orders of of greens which looked good.

    I wish we had been more hungry or in a larger group so we could have tried some more of the menu but we were very happy with what we did have and ended up with a bill of 20 bucks.

    They were out of take-out menus so I was unable to post a copy online.
    I will try to get a menu and add a scan next week after my second trip there.
    “Statistics show that of those who contract the habit of eating, very few survive.”
    George Bernard Shaw, Irish playwright (1856-1950)
  • Post #2 - January 28th, 2008, 8:27 am
    Post #2 - January 28th, 2008, 8:27 am Post #2 - January 28th, 2008, 8:27 am
    third coast foodie wrote:we saw that most people were eating a large steamer basket of rice with a dungeness crab on top.


    It's the "new" rage in Chinatown - it's a ginger-scallion sauteed (pretty classic) live dungeness crab served atop home-style egg-fried rice in a bamboo steamer.

    Lee Wing Wah has a weekday special for $19.95 where you get the aforementioned crab & rice steamer, a plate of greens (typically yu choy) and two palm-sized fried pomfret with black bean sauce - pretty good deal and pretty tasty.
  • Post #3 - January 28th, 2008, 9:41 am
    Post #3 - January 28th, 2008, 9:41 am Post #3 - January 28th, 2008, 9:41 am
    third coast foodie wrote:We asked for the chefs preference for the sushi and were each given two cuts of yellow fin...The only negative I can think of about the tuna is that it was served a little too cold,...


    Please pardon me if I'm clueless, but was that yellow "tail" snapper?
    We cannot be friends if you do not know the difference between Mayo and Miracle Whip.
    Pronoun: That fool over there
    Identifies as: A human that doesn't need to "identify as" something to try to somehow be interesting.
  • Post #4 - January 28th, 2008, 10:04 am
    Post #4 - January 28th, 2008, 10:04 am Post #4 - January 28th, 2008, 10:04 am
    seebee wrote:
    third coast foodie wrote:We asked for the chefs preference for the sushi and were each given two cuts of yellow fin...The only negative I can think of about the tuna is that it was served a little too cold,...


    Please pardon me if I'm clueless, but was that yellow "tail" snapper?


    Yellow-fin is a common type of tuna - prob most common type you'll be served in sushi restaurants.
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellowfin_tuna

    Aside: THIS photo however looks like escolar to me ("superwhite" tuna) which isn't tuna at all. However, that might not be the photo accompanying his text re: yellowfin.
    Image
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Escolar
  • Post #5 - January 28th, 2008, 10:24 am
    Post #5 - January 28th, 2008, 10:24 am Post #5 - January 28th, 2008, 10:24 am
    Jay K wrote:Aside: THIS photo however looks like escolar to me ("superwhite" tuna) which isn't tuna at all.

    Jay K,

    I thought the same thing, escolar.

    Far as Hing Kee, I peeked in the window a few times, always crowded, food looks, at least through steam clouded glass, tasty and prices seem quite reasonable.

    Thanks for the Hing Kee preview TCF.

    Enjoy,
    Gary
    Hold my beer . . .

    Low & Slow
  • Post #6 - December 10th, 2008, 8:34 pm
    Post #6 - December 10th, 2008, 8:34 pm Post #6 - December 10th, 2008, 8:34 pm
    Hing Kee is one of those restaurants that you try a long time ago, write it off, and never think to return. Well, my bad... We went in today because we wanted something lighter than our usual Happy Chef. And of course, I didn't have my camera... :(

    We started with the special wonton noodle. Special how? It came with a plate of vegetables with oyster sauce for the amazing price of 3.95. The noodles were a little too soft for my taste. The wonton was fresh and springy, which made me regret giving Mike the extra one... :(

    Next we had the peashoots with preserved eggs and golden mushrooms. The shoots were not young, but still tender. Crunchy shoots, springy mushrooms and the "preservedness" of the century eggs... Very well done.

    Salt and pepper smelts were perfectly fried. Crunchy and not greasy, the fish was very well cooked. Flaky white meat of the fish made this very addicting. The jalapenos added a nice zing to the dish without it being too spicy.

    Lastly we had the egg tofu with king mushrooms. I love egg tofu. I remember a time when you could not find them in Chinatown. I would smuggle them back in a lunch cooler when I went to Singapore or HK. Anyways, silky tofu encased in a fried skin, so fragile that you cannot pick it up with chopsticks without breaking them. The king mushrooms were meaty, and was nicely paired with the delicate tofu.

    One thing I must mention... I usually find food in Chinatown to be overly salted. And so I usually have a bowl of rice to offset the sodium. But I had this entire meal with rice. The dishes were not overly salty and it seemed like the kitchen saw that we were having S&P smelts and so made the other dishes less salty. This is the first time I have experienced such thoughtfulness from a Chinese restaurant.

    We ended the meal with a mango tapioca smoothie... Not as good as Joy Yee. For some reason, Joy Yee is the only place in Chinatown you can get a mango smoothie where the mango is actually ripe! Year round! Must be one of those kitchen secrets.

    All in all, Hing Kee may soon be another regular Chinatown restaurant in our rotation...
  • Post #7 - January 5th, 2009, 4:58 pm
    Post #7 - January 5th, 2009, 4:58 pm Post #7 - January 5th, 2009, 4:58 pm
    Well for me, surely chalk this one up to the never walking past Spring World on one end/Chi Cafe on the other syndrome, but a walk of the mall yesterday yielded this pleasant place of a place.

    It's a lot like Ken Kee, Chi Cafe, and Joy Yee as well, that is very large menus, bits from various cuisines, etc. It does lack the baked spaghetti and toast dishes of Chi Cafe/Ken Kee, but Hing Kee is plenty fulled with its own exotica. I will say that it is not nearly as flashingly fun as Chi Cafe (which is like eating in the middle of of one of those shows playing on the satellite TV), but the food was a tad better.

    Everything we ordered, we liked. More (!), it was all cooked very well. Like the fried (salt and pepper) eggplants, they were airy like something from Galatoire's. We were all over the place ordering, which I believe is part of the fun and appeal of a place like this.

    We got boiled fish fillets in spicy broth (with several nice pieces of baby bok choy); whole shrimps in a spicy Hammondesque (if you catch my drift, red stuff) sauce; the afforementioned eggplants; Chinese broccoli, filing in for on choy, with garlic, tofu salad, which was soft cubes of tofu on bright rips of romaine, dressed with that soy-ginger stuff that makes one like Benihanna, and mussels with black bean sauce. I might be convinced not to re-order the last as it was a bit on the gloppy side, but with 1,000,000 item menu, I'm not sure if I'd re-order anything twice again.

    In addition to the above, my younger daughter wanted out of family ordering. She went for a beef slice-fried rice dish that sounded right on the menu, carried a pleasant aroma to the table, looked damn good, but then to her palate tasted too much of cracked black pepper--it was peppery in her defense, but so what!

    Also, our fifth opted out also for sushi instead, and pronounced herself quite satisfied with said order.

    This is a keeper and one I'm looking forward to return visits. On that note, I should also add that the service was quite warm and engaging and helps even more entice me.
    Think Yiddish, Dress British - Advice of Evil Ronnie to me.
  • Post #8 - February 15th, 2009, 6:54 pm
    Post #8 - February 15th, 2009, 6:54 pm Post #8 - February 15th, 2009, 6:54 pm
    Returned to Hing Kee today after seeing the crowd at Happy Chef! We always end up overordering! Spicy Beef Noodle Soup, Mushroom Beef in Stone Bowl, Egg Tofu with King Mushrooms and Scallion Pancakes.

    Pancakes - greasy
    Spicy Beef Noodle Soup - Good broth, slightly too soft noodles
    Tofu - Good this time, unlike the stellar version we had last time

    BUT.... The Mushroom Beef in a Hot Stone Bowl was outstanding! The rice has a great crust on it, but moist where it should be. Even Mike started stealing my food! And the portions were so big, I am having some right now as dinner. Even after microwaving it, I still get the crunchiness.
  • Post #9 - October 15th, 2010, 7:21 am
    Post #9 - October 15th, 2010, 7:21 am Post #9 - October 15th, 2010, 7:21 am
    Monica Eng reporting in today's "The Stew" that Hing Kee is now doing hand-pulled noodles. In reading the thread, it doesn't seem like the rest of the report is accurate (she states that they recently changed from Vietnamese to an eclectic regional Chinese and sushi menu--from this thread, it would seem that they have been putting out eclectic chinese and japanese for several years) but the ramen description sounds promising...

    anyone been lately?
    "Knowledge is knowing a tomato is a fruit; wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad." Miles Kington
  • Post #10 - January 6th, 2011, 6:20 pm
    Post #10 - January 6th, 2011, 6:20 pm Post #10 - January 6th, 2011, 6:20 pm
    I tried out Hing Kee for the first time about a week ago. I went with a few friends and we all had the hand-pulled noodles - I really liked the noodles, thought the broth was fine, but not fantastic.

    Remembering something about this thread, I ordered the egg tofu, though we got the salt & pepper preparation, not the egg tofu with king mushrooms listed upthread. The little guys were a big hit at the table. The egg tofu slices were served as hot as plasma on a sizzling platter with a thin omelette at the bottom. I really enjoyed the custardy texture paired with the crispy, salt and pepper coating. Snagging a small bite of the crispy-edged omelette from the platter rounded out each bite. Really good stuff.

    -Dan
  • Post #11 - May 24th, 2011, 10:24 pm
    Post #11 - May 24th, 2011, 10:24 pm Post #11 - May 24th, 2011, 10:24 pm
    Spicy Beef Noodle Soup - Good broth, slightly too soft noodles


    Noodles not too soft anymore (at least not in my bowl); as per above they're taking their noodles very seriously nowadays (you can see them being hand-pulled before your eyes), and the beef soup was a good way to show them off, along with the beef, which tasted like it had a good deal of braising before being dropped into the luscious broth.
    "The fork with two prongs is in use in northern Europe. In England, they’re armed with a steel trident, a fork with three prongs. In France we have a fork with four prongs; it’s the height of civilization." Eugene Briffault (1846)
  • Post #12 - October 4th, 2020, 1:31 pm
    Post #12 - October 4th, 2020, 1:31 pm Post #12 - October 4th, 2020, 1:31 pm
    Xiao long bao and spicy lamb soup with hand-pulled noodles as carryout from Hing Kee last night both traveled and reheated well enough to make a rainy night during Covid more than tolerable

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