![]() A third thing is - the food never changes. No worries about if it’s moved or under new management. Indeed, one wonderful thing about Wo Hop is you know it’s always going to be there. That calls for yet another culinary pilgrimage. But now I’m getting ahead of myself.Īfter a night spent in the West Village, by 2 am I’m hungry again. Speaking of someone else, that’s your first (and only) hint as to why Wo Hop will always be special. My bill always tallies less than twenty dollars - whether I dine solo or with someone else. Even the prices don’t seem to have increased much over the past two decades. I’ve dined at Wo Hop perhaps 30 to 40 times ever since my first visit back in 1986. Expect classic Cantonese cuisine suited to conventional American tastes, although plenty of Asians seem to enjoy the food, as well. Located at 15 Mott Street towards the far southern end of New York City’s famous Chinatown, Wop Hop is one of the hundreds of similar ridiculously cheap Chinese restaurants seemingly wedged next to and seemingly stacked atop one another, almost all of which serve outstanding food and provide quick and efficient service. It’s a love affair that’s lasted 25 years. has been, and shall forever be, far more than just a Chinese restaurant. Prices are low at Wo Hop - good thing, since the restaurant is cash only.A Sentimental Journey to New York Chinatown’s Wo Hop Restaurant But since they are essentially deep-fried won ton wrappers, they just added an extra punch. We asked for chips to go with the soup - a very American garnish, we suspect. Matchstick pieces of roast pork (red on the ends) floated in the broth. First of all, the dumplings were perfect. The won ton soup was more of a revelation. The chow fun was similar, but with wide soft noodles instead of crunchy ones. ![]() They combined with the slight sweetness and pronounced saltiness of the sauce to hit the comfort-food sweet spot. The crunchy noodles are much more substantive than the old La Choy variety. Wo Hop’s chow mein (above) hits all the hallmarks of Americanized Chinese food: tasty bits of meat, a few pieces of diagonally sliced onion and celery, and a brown gravy heavily seasoned with soy sauce and thickened with a simple starch. (We understand that the recipe has since been changed.) Part of the appeal was the separate can of crunchy noodles. Honestly, our experience with “chow mein” was mostly limited to the version sold in a can by La Choy many decades ago. Not finding chop suey on the menu, we opted for two won ton soups, an order of roast pork chow mein, and roast pork chow fun. The room itself has a récherché charm, with its tiny square tables in a “Broadway Boogie” color dot format (“yellow table,” our server ordered) and its walls covered with dollar bills and photos of people we presume to have once been celebrities. The original restaurant occupies a small underground space, and the line to get in backs up all the way up the stairs and onto the sidewalk on Spring Street. ![]() Americans like this style and not very many restaurants in Chinatown sell it anymore.” Heck, the restaurant even brags on its website that “we serve old-fashioned chop suey style food. ![]() ![]() The New York Times notes that Wo Hop offers an “authentic taste of an inauthentic past.” That isn’t so much a criticism as an observation that the place serves Americanized Chinese food. If you want to taste what New Yorkers used to think Chinese food was, this is where you come. The restaurant has been in business continuously since 1938, making it one of Chinatown’s most senior establishments. Since we’re spending a month in Manhattan, we made Wo Hop our first lunch-time stop. Last December, the JBF named Wo Hop (17 Mott St., New York, NY 21 ) in Manhattan’s Chinatown to the America’s Classic honor roll. Maybe more to the point, the nominations reflect a kind of culinary nostalgia for the comfort food of someone’s childhood. The James Beard Foundation’s America’s Classic designations tend to shine a spotlight on homey, old-fashioned eateries. ![]()
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