A friend recently told us about Wo Hop, a mainstay of the NYC Chinatown, that her father has been going to for decades. Andy and I had never heard of Wo Hop before, and were excited to check out this restaurant that has been in NYC since 1938 - a far cry than what seems to be the 1 - 2 year existence of so many city restaurants.
When we went on an early Friday evening, we were pleased to find no wait for a table. And it quickly became evident that had we shown up later - after 6:30pm/7pm - we would have had trouble finding an open seat given the emerging crowd in and around the restaurant.
We ordered a somewhat overwhelming array of vegetarian and non-vegetarian options, many of which seemed to be Americanized versions of Chinese food from decades past. We started with the egg rolls, which were vegetarian and chock full of cabbage with some carrots and scallions as well.
I have to admit I wasn’t a huge fan of the egg roll - it was fairly greasy, and I would have preferred more variety to the stuffing instead of just mostly cabbage. It also had a high stuffing to fried exterior ratio, and I generally like a higher amount of fried dough with all of my fried food favorites :-)
In any case, the meal definitely went way uphill as we continued getting our food. The vegetable chow fun, the wide noodles, were surprisingly tasty with a nice char from the stir-frying of the noodles with the vegetables, which were also cooked well.
The Szechuan eggplant was also surprisingly good - the eggplant was cooked to creamy perfection, and the sauce was both just slightly sweet and spicy. I think the eggplant was the highlight of my meal, even though I can be very hot and cold when it comes to Chinese eggplant dishes, which some restaurants prepare to be a sweet, sloppy mess.
The mushroom fried rice, which was the last vegetarian dish we ordered, was also very tasty with a rich, almost caramelized flavor from the high heat stir frying of the rice. And while I am not a fan of mushrooms generally, I had to admit they added a level of complexity to the fried rice that one doesn’t generally find with vegetarian fried rice.
So all in all, we had an extremely satisfying Americanized Chinese experience at Wo Hop and I wouldn’t be surprised if we returned one day, despite all of the other fantastic offerings in the area. In particular, I think what may attract us to the restaurant also reflects the one downside of the meal - the salt! Almost all of the dishes had a heavy salty flavor (though online I read they don’t use MSG?), but sometimes that flavor more than works.
Wo Hop
17 Mott Street
Chinatown/Two Bridges, Manhattan
Accessible from the 6 train at Canal Street or Brooklyn Bridge-City Hall, or the J/Z at Chambers Street