Ken Fong Restaurant

My last dining experience here with colleagues from work was disappointing. The food was really good when at the previous location on Hotel Street.
I drove by tonight and noticed a sign on the door. Last day of business was Feb 28, 2014.

We have been eating at Ken Fong’s for over 30 years, and never disappointed.
We recently moved to Seattle and they will be greatly missed.

Average Chinese food. The beef broccoli was so so. Think the beef was a little under cooked. The broccoli was crunchy. The beef stew noodle soup was very good. Recommend it. The stew reminded me of home. Wish the noodles were rice noodles. They used wonton mein instead. But okay place to get something to eat. Bad part is the Chinatown meters have a one hour limit. $ 1.50 for an hour parking.

Ken Fong is nuzzled in Chinatown (on the same street as Little Village), and has the best oxtail soup I’ve had ! The oxtail soup is available everyday, but on Fridays it’s a lunch special for $ 8.50. the oxtail soup comes with either rice or noodles, and the soup is packed with oxtails, lotus roots, peanuts, and Chinese parsley ! The oxtail meat falls tenderly off the bone, it’s amazing.
The restaurant is run by an elderly Chinese couple, so service might be a bit slow. Don’t be shy to walk to the kitchen to order if you’re in a rush.

FAQ: «Ken Fong» is not named after someone named Ken with the last name Fong. It’s actually a much more clever name than that. Something about the actual Chinese character for the part reading «Ken» is supposed to be pronounced more like «gen» in Cantonese… So, I guess it’s just a clever reading of the Chinese character, so that the name of the restaurant, read in English, sounds like someone’s name!
…aaaaanywayyyys, didn’t mean to get sidetracked… back to the review!
Oooooo yea! Let’s talk about «hole-​in-​the-​wall». This is definitely the kind of place that you want to come to when you want some real Chinese food.
My dad speaks Chinese, so ordering wasn’t a problem. And, even though the owners have accented English, I noticed lots of working people who didn’t speak Chinese and got along just fine while ordering.
I would recommend it because it’s cheap and delicious… although, not sure if they use MSG… Oh well – not that I cared! The food was delicious. The ong-​choi (those fun vegetables with the hollow stalks that you can stick your chopstick through!) was perfectly cooked: perfect firm-​ness, not soggy, and cooked all the way through. The bitter melon was great. And, I really enjoyed their roast pork.
I hear that their daily specials (rotate throughout the week) are pretty good. Namely, the ox-​tail soup. Chinese-​style, not local style like the kind sold at Zippy’s…not really sure what that means yet because I haven’t tried it yet… But, my dad and bro say it’s a little different than what I’m used to – i.e. there’s lotus root for one of the ingredients!
Lastly, it’s cheap! Bargain of a lunch. For 3 people and 3 dishes with leftovers, I think we spent ~$ 7 – 8 per dish!

Hole in the Wall, but not a «Dive». Best describes this restaurant where if you are looking for cuisine that popo would have, could have made, this is it! Been there five times and never been disappointed. Definitely not for folks looking for the fancy pantsy kind of restaurants, and the prices are great values here. Others have mentioned some of the great dishes so I won’t reiterate. If you want popo to lecture you or give you her menu suggestions — try them, because she is usually right on the money.

This place has the most amazing hot & sour soup! The walnut shrimp, shrimp fried rice & chow main are great dishes! I really recommend this place to any tourist like myself!

Horrible…2 bites paid and went elsewhere.
Beef stew with daikon… dry tough meat, two pieces of daikon covered with luke warm water. No flavor
Short rib Bitter melon, black bean sauce. Disappointment number 2. Lucky us 4 strips of bitter melon and some sort of mashed up pork that looked a lot more like Carolina BBQ with diced black beans sprinkled in than Chinese food.
Maybe I ordered wrong but will not give them a second chance too many other places to try.

It was alright. We were wandering around Chinatown on a Sunday night and this place was open. We ordered salt and pepper pork chops and roasted duck. Both were ok, nothing to write home about. The salt and pepper pork was different from the traditional preparation that has five spice. The duck was a little old, you can tell it was laying around for a while and they just fry it up to reheat and serve. The meat was quite tough.

I’ve been going there since they were located on Hotel Street. The only thing I order and absolutely love is their Monday Special (Sam See Wor Ton). Don’t order it on Mondays because its cheaper and comes in a smaller bowl, or tell them you want the regular portion!
This is a wonderful Hong Kong rice noodle (really thin white noodles) soup. The broth is very flavorful and comes with chicken, duck, ham, bamboo shoots, green onion, salted pickled cabbage and six shrimp soup won tons. I’ve taken quite a few friends there for this and they all love it. I cannot find this dish in any other Chinese restaurant with this much ingredients.
Mrs Fong knows me and even though I only go there a few times a year in the past few years, she always knows what I want. Wow, I just made myself hungry and will have to visit them real soon!

I’ll admit that I generally don’t jump at the chance to eat at a Chinese restaurant referred to as a «hole in the wall», but I’m glad I took the chance and checked out Ken Fong Restaurant.
Let’s eat.
MINUTE CHICKEN
Minute Chicken is a dish that pretty much every Chinese restaurant will have on the menu but never tastes the same as another restaurant. It is for this reason that I love ordering Minute Chicken!
At Ken Fong, the Minute Chicken had a nice rich flavor. The level of flavor was surprising because the chicken looked rather white. Their Minute Chicken leans more toward the garlicky side, but is not at all overpowering.
They had Minute Chicken Chow Mein as a special posted on the wall, so we ordered that to get a taste of their noodles as well. The noodles were cooked until the ends were crispy, which was reminiscent of cake noodle, so that was nice.
Finally, it came with a good amount of green veggies (choy sum, etc.).
Conclusion: Good, balanced flavor. Will definitely order again
LAMB STEW
If you like lamb, then this is a dish to get at Keng Fong. The lamb flavor is definitely present, which is something that is not always the case when ordering lamb.
Take heed before jumping into this stew though because thar be bones within. Thankfully, the meat is so tender that it basically just falls off the bones.
Even if you don’t like bones, the flavor of the lamb stew will definitely help you to look past this as simply a minor annoyance. The broth melds well with the lamb and scallions are added to provide a nice contrasting flavor. In all, the lamb stew has a decidedly hearty flavor without feeling the least bit «heavy»
If you REALLY like lamb though, prepare to be slightly disappointed. In addition to the lamb and other garnishes, they also toss some bean curd into the stew. In truth though, they could have easily called this «Bean Curd Stew» because the bean curd: lamb ratio is quite high. «Lamb Stew» has a nice ring to it though, so I can’t really fault them there.
You do get a decent amount of lamb in the stew, but much of it is hidden by the mound of bean curd. Also, if you REALLY like lamb, you always want more, right?
Conclusion: Great hearty lamb-​y stew. Could do with less bean curd though.
AMBIANCE
Referring to Ken Fong as a «hole in the wall» is really not describing it properly. It is clean (though our table was kinda sticky), bright, and well organized. It is not a fancy restaurant by any means, but it is far from a «dive» as well.
Another good sign is that during our meal, we saw lots of regulars coming in.
I will definitely be coming here again to try some of the other specials I saw posted on the wall (Black Bean Spareribs sounded good).

Have to try the lamb casserole over rice — soft, flavorful, and unique. The bitter melon special is great too. Hole in the wall but that’s what keeps the prices and crowds down

Ken Fong’s is a very hole-​in the wall place on Smith street in Chinatown.
It’s got a few big round tables for parties of 8, and five or six tables that can seat 2 – 4 people.
A lot of downtown people (myself included) come here for lunch. They specialize in homestyle Cantonese food– lots of noodle soups and stir fry dishes.
I’ve been here twice now. The first time I had their daily special, which was like a big ‘leftovers’ soup of noodles, veggies and assorted meat– pretty good!
I also had their salt and pepper pork which was tasty but very oily.
Friend of mine had a hangover and wanted something to help him recover. I think, ‘great, hole in the wall Chinese noodle soup, nothing better.“
So I pick Ken Fong, since I haven’t been to it in a while (and was too lazy to finish the 1^st review, so I’m gonna refresh my memory.
Friend orders the beef tendon noodles, I get the roast duck soup. Roast duck is like half a chopped, bone-​in roast duck with green veggies, and thin noodles, pretty tasty.
Beef tendon has huge pieces of chewy beef tendon on top of same cantonese-​style noodles as the duck noodle. After about a minute of digging in he says ‘uh ho.‘
And finds this:
If you follow my reviews you know I have no fear of dive-​y eating establishments. Nor have I EVER complained about the sanitation of Chinatown restaurants– I can forgive dirty floors and even cups and plates. But insects in the food? I mean restaurants get shut down for this sort of thing.
Sometimes these things come with the territory of exploring unfamiliar eateries. I’ve eaten in some heinous places around the world, so an itty bitty bug didn’t bother me terribly, but for my friend it was a total buzzkill and he lost his appetite.
So much for trying to introduce my friend to a local favorite restaurant…

Unilocalers came through. The Island has other choices (Dew Drop Inn is a fav), but this is the best Chinese in Chinatown. It’s just a matter of preference in the cooking style.
The combo noodle is a must because it’s not too greasy, and the home-​cooking style hits the spot. From a cook, let me tell you it’s not easy to get all that quality ingredients on the Island.
Also, got to give kudos to Mrs. Fong. She suggested taking one dish off the order given our small group.
Already been twice this month, and I am combing through the Unilocal site for additional recommendations.

I’ve been going to Ken Fong forever… Maybe 1976 when they were on Hotel Street… Still my favorite place for Sam See Mein… like no other. Mrs. Ngai is a hardworking woman and serves good olé Chinese food.
Minute Chicken Noodle, Duck Noodle, Oyster Sauce Chicken Noodle… Roast Duck Lo Mein… so many favorites…
If you haven’t been there, ya gotta go!

So I stopped by this place after reading about it on Unilocal and having had a craving for some real Chinese food for the last several months. I’m very glad I stopped by this place. It was 6pm on a Friday and there wasn’t another patron in the place, but I gave it the benefit of the doubt and decided to try it anyhow.
I had a bowl of Beef Brisket and Won Ton Noodle soup and a plate of their Roast Duck. The soup was delicious. The brisket was tender and there were plenty of pieces. I wasn’t too big a fan of the won tons — not enough stuffing and too much of the wrap. The roast duck was awesome — though I’ve had better in L.A. and Hong Kong. The waitress, i.e. «PoPo» was friendly and accommodating. I will definitely try and stop by this place again.

This is a regular lunch stop for our office, we love this place. Food is great taste and value. I’ve ordered here «to go» and the owner will even meet me outside while I’m double parked — talk about service! No qualms or hesitation on recommending this place. Here’s our regular dishes:
1. Minute chicken (or beef) with cake noodles
2. Lamb hot pot casserole
3. Kong Shing Tsai, chinese veggies, with garlic
4. Eggplant stir fry

Granted I kept seeing this restaurant while I passed by so many times but have never gone in. I actually had my chance being it a rainy day and cold I was walking to Chinatown in hopes of something warm probally soup, it started to rain so I needed to find somewhere closer and I saw Ken Fong gee good time to try this place. I took a look outside to get a idea of the menu and decided hey looks good. Went inside and sat down and looked at the menu and decided on the Duck Noodle soup.
I got my Duck Noodle soup and wasn’t prepared for the sight, wow is that like a whole quarter of a duck in there? neat never had duck noodle not chopped up before, different. So I started eating and I have to say although interesting to have the whole quarter of the duck in there it was actually a lot more duck than anywhere else I’ve gone to to get duck noodle soup and it was good I need to come back here and try some other menu items. I think I’ve found another place to frequent.

Mrs. Fong is the star. She has a heart of gold, and that is why I have to bump my rating for Ken Fong to 4 stars.
Ken Fong offers solid, basic, local-​style Chinese food at a good price. The minute chicken noodle is better than most, however I don’t order it with cake noodle which I feel is little over-​fried and oily so I order it on regular chow mein noodles instead. Another dish is the char siu fried rice, I know it’s hard to get excited about fried rice, but it’s really very good.
I have gone with friends who sometimes don’t know what to eat so they simply tell Mrs. Fong what they feel like eating, like «veggies and some chicken on rice» and that they’re not too hungry, and she’ll whip something up that is always on the mark.
On one occasion, my friend’s young son was on the kids table eating char siu fried rice. He loves char siu so he was saving some of it by making a little pile on the table next to his plate. Mrs. Fong sees this and tells him not to do that because the table is «dirty» and promptly scoops it up and throws it away. She then returns from the kitchen with a little bowl of char siu for him to eat. Ya gotta love her!

Ok, for real, you won’t find this place if you try… ha ha! I didn’t even know it existed until tonight. You gotta go here… don’t let the strange fronting and the strange surroundings fool you (across from a tat palor).
Seriously DOPE fried rice (almost as good as Panda Cuisine) and the pan fried house special noodles was the sizzle. We also had the crispy chicken (looks bad, tastes good), salt pepper pork chops (pretty good and strangely boneless), tofu and fishcake soup (ok), and stuffed tofu (I have had better).
The service was strange and our items came out all out of order and piece meal. We got offered minute chicken and we ordered the crispy chicken, no problem, we waited and it was made, and it was good!!!
The man working there asked if we got our order. We said no and he said something really, really ingenious…“ok, I will go check on it, it is worth the wait”. That made me want to wait and was ok with it… strange psychology from a chinese food restuarant!!! I love that!!!
Anyways, if you can find this place, go eat there. Prices are SUPER reasonable and the food is good. What more can you ask for?
Now to check out that tat place across the street…