house of nanking

Our buddy DJ was in town for some business this week so Ben and I jumped at the chance for dinner in the city with him! We chose House of Nanking, one of our favorites in ChinaTown. We first discovered House of Nanking in our Frommer's Guide to San Francisco. Ben likes to call this guide "the bible." For this restaurant, Mr. Frommer gives a few recommendations - one of which is for dumplings with peanut sauce - we have tried those and they are delicious! After Mr. Frommer's recommendations, he then says that if the waiter or waitress offers you a special then you should order that because they know their food!

Well, we walked into the restaurant and Ben immediately started speaking Chinese to the employees. This caught the attention of the restaurant owner who then came over to our table personally. He asked if we were Mormon - lots of Mormons go to Hong Kong and know how to speak Chinese . . . and John Huntsman is a popular customer at House of Nanking. Who knew? We said that we were Mormon and he then verified that we had no allergies and he took our menus away, saying that he was going to "take care" of us for the night!

Our five course meal arrived immediately after that! We were all so delighted and humored by such personal service!

This is what we got -

Wonton Soup

Fried Pork Dumplings with Peanut Sauce (their peanut sauce is amazing!)

Sesame Chicken . . how did he know that Sesame Chicken is a Ben Myers' family favorite?!

Something beefy - it was too spicy for me!

Garlic Fish . . mmm hmmm!

The food was delicious and I think we all enjoyed it more than we usually would have because the restaurant owner was sending out all of his favorite dishes!

Then the bill came . . . haha! We did not begin the evening expecting to pay for a five course meal, but when it was the owner, how could we resist?? Ben went up to bargain with him over the price . . (he later told me that he just likes to bargain for the experience . . uh-huh . . . and the lower price, I am sure). He did get the price down to half of what it was, but he felt badly about bargaining his way to such a good deal, so he came back having paid the full price but with some free restaurant t-shirts!

It was awesome. :)