Wah Kee Chinese Noodle Restaurant

Their dishes capture an authenticity that few Chinese restaurants do. Some favorites: -Wonton noodles -Pork hock noodles -Pork belly with taro -Soup dumplings -Any of their cured meat dishes Portion sizes are large for the price. I typically order one entree per person, sharing family style, and leave stuffed, with enough for a second meal. Their chili oil is worth asking for too.

3.5 stars. I really do want this business to do better, but I was a little disappointed at my last visit, as nothing blew me out of the water. This time, we tried a szechuan dan dan noodles and vegetable subgum noodle (vegetarian). We also had steamed yu Choy with oyster sauce. Both the noodles were alright. They were generous portions, but flavors were not anything to write home about. The noodles were alright, but a little overcooked. My opinions are that the hit-or-miss comes with the fact that their menu is so expansive (hundreds of items available to order). Maybe we just didn't hit the right ones this time.

The first time I came across Wah Kee, I was browsing restaurants near Madison to try during our upcoming trip. In LA, there 's a Wah Kee bakery that my fiancé loves egg tarts from and soon as we saw Wah Kee , he goes, hey I love that place! . I immediately figured he was pulling my leg and was talking about the bakery annnnd nope, he meant Wah Kee Noodle! Apparently he had come here many, many times as a kid. After browsing some of the food photos, I was MEH at best because this just ain 't my kind of place. However, as soon as I saw the braised pork hock noodles, I was SOLD. And so, after traveling to Madison for the bigger part of that cold Saturday, we found ourselves at Wah Kee about an hour before closing. I had already spent the last half of our flight thinking about a delicious bowl of hot noodle soup, made better by soft, gooey, meaty pork hock and that was exactly what I got. I chose to have my noodles in soup and the broth was flavorful yet light enough to keep everything from becoming too rich. They also give you a little bowl of braising liquid to dip your meat in. It was a little too sweet for me and the noodle, pork, and broth combo was perfect as is. He got his favorite, the Singapore rice noodles which came with little shrimp. He really enjoyed it though I preferred the big ol ' pig leg by far. We also ordered two appetizers: the spring rolls and a cha shao bao (BBQ pork bun). The spring rolls are just okay and they come out scorching hot. It came with a sweet and sour sauce that was a bit too watered down, and the filling was powdery meat and cabbage. We had high hopes for the cha shao bao and was let down when we discovered the filling was not your traditional cha shao but rather... sweet-ish pork and ONIONS? The onion taste really throws you for a loop. One guy was all the wait staff they had that night and he was very friendly, and made sure to get us everything we needed. I 'd definitely return for a quick and cheap bowl of hearty, soul-warming noodle soup.

I get excited by new items every time I come here! Wah Kee is very good at adding flavors to the dishes but without making it too spicy or salty. My personal favorites now include clay pots, five-spice beef, appetizers. Need to explore more the next time I come here, and also try the noodles. Update: do NOT come during weekend nights... I think they only have one person taking care of everything. We went there and say for 30min and still no water. Waited for the meal for about an hour. Food still good though.

Too bad... I was really disappointed that the beef in the Korean BBQ beef over fried rice dish was extremely tough--so much so that I had to ask for a steak knife. It consisted of two thin strips of flank steak that had not been properly marinated or tenderized. The Korean component of the dish was an underwhelming BBQ sauce that was more sweet than spice. The only server this Thursday night was who I presume to be the owner and he was greatly outnumbered by the 10 tables of patrons who like me, had to patiently wait to be seated, for water, soda refills and even to pay the bill at register. A suggestion would be to cut down on the menu items (which I estimate to be at 120) and focus on 30 solid dishes worth coming back for. Another would be to remove the Korean characteristic from their dishes because it 's kinda like calling Chipotle Mexican food.