Sun Wah Bbq - Chicago

Kelly is the friendliest owner ever and I could not recommend a better place to throw a private party/smaller wedding.

Kelly is the friendliest owner ever and I could not recommend a better place to throw a private party/smaller wedding. Everything is worth the price and wait!

If I could give six stars to the Roast Duck Dinner all on it's own, I would. It is presented as three courses: The roast duck is brought to your table and carved (in an impressive display of knife skill, if that entertains you so much the better) to be eaten in the small, puffy buns with shredded vegetables and sauce; then the carcass is taken back to the kitchen and the scraps are made into Duck Fried Rice (you can request fried noodles instead, if the server is paying attention, and we always do), and the the bones are used to make a brothy soup for the end of the meal. Officially you are supposed to make a reservation, and specify that you want the roast duck dinner as part of it, at least a day in advance, but I get the impression from what I've heard at tables near us that the rule is not rigidly enforced (the ducks clearly take a while to roast and this has to be done in advance, so it may depend on whether they have any spare birds). We as a family love it so much that if there are going to be more than 4-5 in the party, we get two ducks.The rest of the restaurant is fairly standard but good Hong Kong style (i.e.: Cantonese) Chinese restaurant food. Definitely better made and presented than strip-mall bog-standard, but still not froufrou. The quality of the individual dishes self-evidently varies based on the quality of the ingredients used, but the menu stays the same even when they can't get something fresh, so watch out.I get the impression that the service is still recovering (Aren't we all from the impact of Covid. It was never exactly attentive before, but since they have reopened for dine-in, things had gotten perceptibly worse. I have _never_ had anybody be even slightly less than polite, much less rude, but it can be a challenge to flag somebody down for simple stuff. The place has a full bar, but except for he occasional beer I've hardly ever seen anybody use it. The corkage fee is enforced quite narrowly, and I'd recommend bringing you own opener (or going screw-top or be prepared to wait. Parking is always available, and even usually free, if you're willing to look around on the side streets to the west.Bottom line: A solid place that we go as regularly as we go anywhere. Absolutely worth going out of your way if you are going to get the duck, and still fine even if you don't.

I'm gonna be a broken record here and say GET THE PEKING DUCK DINNER. It's all that we needed. I had been craving Peking duck for weeks and missed out when my parents had brought some home. My husband found this spot and it shot up to the top of the list of places we go eat on our vacation to Chicago. The duck itself is absolutely five stars. Some things that I couldn't get my mind off of that could be improved to get that fifth star. It absolutely did not disappoint. It's no wonder a reservation in advance to reserve the duck and your seat is highly recommended. They supposedly go through 130+ ducks a day. We were impressed with just how quickly the duck is ordered, carved, and served. We knew we were on the right path when they asked if we wanted extra steamed buns and we immediately said yes. The magic at Sun Wah isn't just how fast the duck is carved for you; they use ALL of the duck. The parts carved make the famous Peking Duck bun/bao with the fixings of hoisin sauce and veggies. But also the rest of the duck meat is used for your choice of duck fried rice or duck stir fry noodle (you have to ask them about the noodles to get it. Otherwise duck fried rice is the default). The bones of the duck are used for an herbal duck soup. For two people we walked out stuffed and satisfied. I will say, I wish I knew I'd be full on duck alone or I wouldn't have ordered a roast pork and bbq spare rib plate too. I figured why not try some of the other bbq dishes too. These types of eateries are what I loved about Hong Kong and Boston. However I was disappointed the other barbecue items didn't meet up to how good the duck dinner was. I'm not sure if it was seasoned or roasted enough. String beans was an interesting choice when I usually expect bok choy to be the veggie paired with it. I definitely didn't need to order it but I'm glad I at least got to try. Overall, I do believe I'll be back and my husband and I will plan for it whenever we vacation here again. We'll be calling in ready for that Peking Duck Dinner again!

I got the whole duck. It was still good, but it's not what it was used to be anymore.