House of Nanking

• Cuisine(s): Chinese, Dim Sum
  Hours: Sun 12pm-9pm, Mon-Fri 11am-10pm, Sat 12pm-10pm
  Price: $$
  Payment Types: MasterCard, Visa
• Attire: Casual
  Features: Takeout, Wheelchair Accessible, Vegetarian Friendly, Family Style
  Serving: Dinner, Lunch
  Alcohol: Beer/Wine
• Reservations: Accepted, Not Accepted
  Parking: Street

Description

Here's what you do when you go to House of Nanking: Put your name on the waiting list. Spend the next hour or so at one of the many neighborhood watering holes (we like Mr. Bing's). Return to the restaurant, get seated at one of the communal tables, and instead of opening the menu, ask the server to bring over whatever's good that night. What you'll get are delicious examples of the house's richly flavored if nontraditional Chinese cuisine: onion cakes, lemon calamari, stuffed mushrooms, sesame chicken with sweet potatoes, tofu in black bean sauce, marvelous dim sum. The bare-bones setting is crowded, noisy, and brightly lit; the flower blossom tea is weird and irresistible; and the service is blunt and surly in the best Chinatown tradition.