Monday, April 02, 2007

Chung Wah

3859 Superior, Cleveland, Ohio.
Weird place—not great—food not great. The “sea food” is artificial—fake seafood! Really FUNNY, but not great tasting. Cool booths. Mean (but funny) employees.
--RR 1989

22 comments:

Anonymous said...

Weren't they closed by the board of health because their chicken was actually alley cat?

Anonymous said...

I remember coming here with friends after the bars closed. this was in the early '80s, and to a bunch of just-out-of-college kids the food was great -- so long as you were really, really drunk! good memories, mediocre food.

Anonymous said...

It was a wonderful wacky place to go when you were high and starving. Food was so so, but the ambience was 'amazing' back in the late 70s!

Anonymous said...

Chung Wah existed for a long time! Used to go there with my parents in the Fifties! Different location than the one pictured. We got great food back then, as my Dad would ask to get whatever the cooks were making for themselves. Real Chinese food, not Hong Kong/American food. I think the old owner's daughter owns Li Wah, one of the better restaurants in Cleveland. Had Dim Sum there today!

dolly said...

they had the best egg rolls they have been closed for years someone recently posted the recipe for the egg rolls on face book. I ate there everyday as a child on my way back from petrie pool we would knock on the back door and the chef's would give us a free egg roll or a fortune cookie or a order that went bad. good child hood memories there

Unknown said...

Hi I am the great grandson of the owners. I grew up here We did not close because of the board of health. The pictured location was never used and it was always the red brick building by the tracks. The recipe for the egg rolls was never released and have not been made since the place closed believe me I have tried. The owners daughter does not own Li Wah. Oh and the amazing american women that ran the front that was my Mom. Best part was the night crowds from stories I have heard. Thanks Cleveland for making my family have memories of you.

Deborah said...

Chung Wah was the best. I can't even eat most Chinese food today because it doesn't compare with what we used to eat there. My Dad, a musician started going there after gigs. It was always the most requested choice for birthday dinners. I remember once (I think I was 8 or 9) the cashier motioning for me to come up to the register. She gave me a beautiful pair of blue silk embroidered slippers. Such wonderful memories!

Jana Caja said...

Loved this place. My family has been desperately trying to find the banana candy they used to give out for years. We scour every candy shop we can find.

Dennis said...

To Jack Wu;

Chung Wah had great food. My parents took us there all the time in the 1960's and 1970's. We also ate there late at night after getting off work at our family's night club in Cleveland. I still remember your Grandfather sitting at a table late at night counting receipts and doing the books on an Abacus !

Dennis

Anonymous said...

I remember eating there with my family as a child. We would get takeout once a week. I also vividly remember it being on the news being shut down for serving alley cats or pigeon or something along the lines. I remember the dusgust and disappointment my family felt. You shouldnt lie.

Anonymous said...

Maybe considering you are the great grandson of the owners they didnt want to burdon you with there kitty cat skeletons in their closet. So sorry for calling you a liar if that is the case. Local news, chung wahs, e.39th. I remember this very well.

Anonymous said...

W Lee was a great man if i could get a egg roll i would be a happy man I many stories of Chung wahs

Unknown said...


I am sorry to hear that they are closed. I am in and out of the area now for work and thought about going.
We would eat there every Friday night for dinner and would get dinner for two with an extra egg roll for me as a child.

My mom loved the almond cookies and banana candy. I looked all over the Chinatown in San Francisco for the banana candy and it was nowhere to be found.

The red brick building up the stairs from the road by the railroad bridge is the only place I ever knew for Chinese food.

These were good childhood memories from 50 years ago.

Good Bless the family for the memories and good food.

Anonymous said...

I worked refacing this place for a lady that they called "The Queen of the deep fryer. Supposedly she purchased it and was gonna open it for fried food. I tried to google it and found d nothing. I remember seeing empty cardboard drums of MSG and little strange bones strewn over a dirt floor in the lower part of the building.

Mcat918 said...

Ya and the ribs were made from dog. Scrumptious.

Anonymous said...

We use to head there after a night of partying at the cleveland agora in the mid 70's. All we ever ordered was a plate of egg rolls and a bowl of wasabi mustard! Great memories!

Unknown said...

Chung Wah was the best end of story. Through the 60s 70s and 80s my parents would take us up there from Akron to eat on Sundays. It wasn't fancy and it didn't need to be that was part of the charm. To the grandson who wrote In This blog, I believe the lady was named Betty. The Pressed duck, egg rolls, wonton soup, sweet and sour sauce, BBQ ribs, and much more all was made from scratch and you could tell the difference. I also remember the Chicken subgum, shrimp and lobster sauce, pork fried rice was the best from anywhere. They're homemade sweet and sour sauce you put on the egg rolls was made from pear, peaches and other stuff. Celebrities from Cleveland television elsewhere would come there and you never would think about it cuz it was so little of an unassuming place. It wasn't a highbrow place at all it was just a down-to-earth simple atmosphere wonderful Cooks and employees. You just can't find food like that anymore, such a shame. People today don't know what good American - Chinese food is. It just had a clean pure flavor all the food cuz it was wholesomely made.

Unknown said...

And I remember every time the kitchen door open all you could hear was people who cooks in the kitchen talking loud yelling and in Cantonese it was fun and authentic it was great.

Unknown said...

And just to add, I find it very hard to enjoy any Chinese food today at all anywhere and I tried so many places cuz they just don't match up to Chuck Wise food. To this day decades later I still compare Chinese food to Chung wah whether it's good or not. So sad the recipes weren't handed down and continued at another location. Such a culinary said to have these lost flavors gone

Unknown said...

So sad chung wah is no longer part of Cleveland's colorful cuisine! I too was young when I first tasted Chinese food and now, after living in several other places in the U.S., am glad it was here. It was the place to eat after a nite at the agora or in the flats.Cooking has become my passion and I have tried to reach for cw's brass ring to no avail. I was still living in Cleveland when mill's cafeteria was still in business.Had a lunch there the last day they were open for business. Those were the days!

Anonymous said...

TEkEs from Cleveland State would go there late at night. They were open till 4:00 a.m. as I recall. This was late 60’s $ early 70’s for me. On night I got chased by a Asian fellow with a meat cleaver fo stealing a discarded soy sauce barrel. Introduced Rico to egg foo young there. Place was eatery of late nighters; cops crooks, college kids! Great memories, great time of my life. Frank Jaklic scroll 602

Anonymous said...

The place became Town Fryer, I think. Deep fried anything. Everything auctioned off, including old Chung Wah items At the end. My sister-in-law got me the meat cleaver mentioned above and a few other items . Frank