Bobby Huang makes sure that quality and consistency are the hallmarks of King’s Garden. His dishes include hot and sour soup, pu pu platter, Peking duck with a Mai Tai, Singapore-style rice vermicelli, and shrimp with honey walnuts and broccoli. (Photos by Jimmy J. Pack Jr.)
American Dream alive on Hill
Chinese cuisine at King’s Garden
still on the throne after 8 years
by LEN LEAR
When the Huang family came to Philadelphia in 1986 from a small farming village in Canton, China, they could not speak English, and all of their earthly possessions could have fit into the closet of a one-room apartment.
But like so many poor immigrant families before them, the Huangs refused to put a ceiling on their ambitions. The father, Rong Hui, now 62, began working in Chinese restaurants because that was the only employment opportunity available to him; his longest tenure was five years at Yangming in Bryn Mawr.
By 1996 Rong Hui was determined to open his own restaurant with son, Bobby, and brother-in-law, Kevin Lau, both of whom were also working in area Chinese restaurants. They felt they had found the ideal location, a huge property in the Andorra Shopping Center, but that building needed at least $300,000 in improvements, and the family was unable to get a bank loan because they had no collateral or history of business ownership. (The property they wanted in the Andorra Shopping Center is now a restaurant called King’s Palace.)
But Roxborough’s loss turned out to be Chestnut Hill’s gain. After continuing to work 24/7 in other people’s restaurants, one year later the trio were able to save enough money to open King’s Garden at 8225 Germantown Ave. in Chestnut Hill, which was previously occupied by the Vegetable Garden and before that by The Farmhouse.
Joe Zemek, 37, who grew up in Northern Liberties and who is married to Bobby’s sister, Sheila, once told me how difficult it is for native-born Americans to appreciate the almost superhuman work ethic represented by immigrant families like the Huangs.
“I used to work 70 hours a week (as a carpet cleaner and truck driver),” said Joe, “but I began feeling lazy when I’d see Sheila and her family members work more than 90. I honestly did not realize the opportunities this country affords until I began looking at life through their eyes. Now I can relate more to what our own grandparents and great-grandparents went through when they came to America.
“Anyone who does not believe that hard work pays off should look at Sheila’s brother, Ben. He spoke no English when he came here. Three years later he graduated from Abington High School with a full scholarship to Drexel University. He graduated from Drexel with a straight-A average and still found time to work in the restaurant on nights and weekends!” (Today Ben is an engineer and supervisor for Dupont but still manages to help out in the family businesses.)
King’s Garden opened in December, 1997. I wrote about them two months later in the Local and mentioned many of the prices on the menu, of course. This week I compared the prices on the current menu to those seven-and-a-half years ago and found them to be virtually identical. How does Bobby explain this in view of the fact that the prices of everything else have risen, in some cases dramatically (oil prices, e.g.)?
“I don’t want to upset our loyal customers,” he said. “Even if we raised entree prices by one dollar each, we might lose customers, and I don’t want that. There is so much competition these days, we need to maintain a competitive edge.”
Another competitive advantage is King’s Garden’s delivery policy. About 60 percent of their business is delivery or takeout, in part because they have such a large geographical delivery area; it includes all of Chestnut Hill, Mt. Airy, Germantown, Wyndmoor, Lafayette Hill, Erdenheim, Flourtown and Roxborough. During the week they have two delivery people on duty and four on weekends. A delivery purchase has to be at least $15.
As with most Chinese restaurants, King’s Garden offers a staggering array of options — dozens of beef, pork, lamb, seafood, poultry and vegetarian dishes. Having eaten at King’s Garden countless times, we can heartily recommend the Thai-style shrimp saute ($10.95), the jumbo shrimp with garlic sauce ($10.95) and pu pu platter (appetizer), just to name a few. The pu pu platter ($10.95 for two) includes two beef sticks, two spring rolls, two spare rib portions, two crabmeat Canton and two chicken with water chestnuts. The spare ribs and beef sticks are heated over a flame that comes with the platter.
Specials at King’s Garden change every month. During our most recent visit, some of the specials entrees were: White meat chicken sautéed with wood mushrooms, asparagus and water chestnuts in a white rice wine sauce ($11.95); lightly fried soft-shell crabs sautéed in a garlic and scallion sauce ($15.95); and shrimp and beef sautéed with a house-created hot pepper sauce ($12.95). (According to Bobby, in most Chinese restaurants, the head chef will not reveal the recipes for his sauces to hired cooks for fear that they may leave and start their own restaurants, using the prized sauces.)
Every day there are 20 luncheon specials, served with fried rice and hot tea, ranging in price from just $3.95 to $6.25. Several times I have enjoyed the shrimp with honey walnuts and shrimp with black bean sauce. There are also several low-fat meals steamed with sauce on the side and starting at $5.25 for lunch and $7.95 for dinner.
Old-fashioned Chinese restaurants usually have little or nothing in the way of desserts, but King’s Garden offers peanut butter pie, Oreo pie and mud pie, all for just $2.95 and all scrumptious. King’s Garden has a fairly extensive list of wines by the bottle and by the glass from California, Australia, Italy and France. Every bottle is under $25 except for the sparkling wines, and most glasses are just $4.25. There is also an ample selection of beer, non-alcoholic drinks, cocktails, after-dinner drinks and exotic drinks made with rum, gin, brandy and/or vodka for $4.95. The bartender is a delightful young lady named Michelle Zhang who travels one hour from South Philly to get to work. Her sisters, Ruby and Cindy, work in the kitchen.
As if running a restaurant were not enough, five years ago the Huang family opened two other businesses. The first, Kassie’s World, 3804 Castor Ave., sells major appliances, furniture and bedding to retail customers, but most of their business is wholesale sales to hotels and hospitals. Their second business, A Plus Appliances, 3621 N. Broad St., does sales, service and repairs of home appliances.
For the past year the family has also been scouting locations for a second restaurant. They have inspected properties in Abington, Willow Grove, Roxborough and Manayunk. The new restaurant will definitely have a liquor license “because it’s too hard to make a profit without one. When we got a liquor license here, we just about doubled our business.”
Bobby, 31, recently moved from Springfield to Montgomeryville with his wife, Fen, who also works as a server in the restaurant, and twin 9-year-old boys, Jonathan and Jimmy. “This business is very tough when you have a family,” said Bobby. “I go home after 11 p.m., and my kids are asleep. When I get up in the morning, they have gone off to school. Maybe in a few years they will be able to help out in the restaurant.”
King’s Garden is open for lunch and dinner seven days a week. For more information, call 215-753-0246.
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