Hong Hua

Came for lunch on a Sunday just after opening. Waited for a while to be greeted at the front, peeked my head around the corner to subtly get someone's attention and it worked. We were one of 3 tables at first, one of 6 by the time we left and there appeared to be at least half a dozen waitstaff who all shared duties. Our water glasses were always full and dishes taken quickly. The place is dimly lit with cloth tablecloths and a sign which says "proper attire suggested"... whatever that means. We weren't aware and were dressed quite casually, but so were most of the other customers. YMMV for dinner time. Some of the booths were well worn, our tablecloth stained, and the lanterns a little dusty. Could use a refresh and deep clean. I appreciated that they had a vegetarian section. The braised tofu with mushroom and snow pea also had carrots and it was just wonderful. I very much liked the sauce and everything seemed to be gently prepared, not over or undercooked. Rice is sold a la carte and they have brown rice as an option, which is great! I also liked the way they serve the sauce for the spring rolls, I was able to use just a little and not feel the need to side eye my husband for using a lot because there was a whole syrup jar of it. Plenty to share. The chopsticks were plastic, reusable sort and the first waitress asked if we wanted forks and knives while taking them away... but put them back when we told her we were fine with chopsticks. It was a funny moment. Didn't check out the bathroom so I can't speak to that. My husband had the sesame beef with honey and was blown away, it appeared to be ever so lightly breaded and flash fried. Tender and juicy. He ate it all in one go as it probably wouldn't reheat well. Our total came to $49 (before tip) for two entrees, two brown rice, and two spring rolls. So not the cheapest place but I feel the prices were fair. Docked a star because of the well worn look. They won best of Detroit in 2002, and I doubt they've done any updates since. No one wants a dusty lantern hanging over their food!

Authentic, great service and good choice of dishes with hot sake on a cold winter night ! We love this place !

Wow, so impressed with Hong Hua & it's honestly the best Chinese food I've had to date in Michigan. It feels very much like a SoCal restaurant to me - especially with the Cantonese influence & slant here. It was popping on a Sunday night and for good reason. Mia, our server, was great! Super attentive and helpful when ordering. We had the: *Peking Duck: 北京全鴨 ($62.95 - Young duckling expertly prepared in two styles: crispy honey-glazed skin with Chinese crepes, scallions and Hoi-Sen sauce.) This was the STAR of dinner of course. It was my first time having Peking Duck in Michigan and honestly I didn't know what to expect. It's carved tableside which is a nice touch! The "crepe" its served with is interesting -- it's not quite the kind of used to which is a round, super thin batter - truly crepe like. This is almost in between like a flat lavash bread (s/o Yelper Tina H. haha) but I didn't mind it. It was a +$7 upcharge for duck fried rice but my-oh-my is it worth it!! The wok hei on the fried rice was perfection. I was VERY surprised you didn't have pre-order this at all! Guess demand is high. *Seafood Chow Mein (海鮮炒麵 With assorted seafood and vegetables) - you can do this lo mein style but I mean at a Canto please you HAVE to get it "liang mian huang" aka CRISPY. Their egg noodles are a little thicker than I'm used to but it was really good! The seafood (big shrimp, scallops, no cheap filler calamari!) and veggies it came with was super fresh too. *Pepper Salt Prawns (椒盐虾) I technically didn't see this on the menu but I saw the other classics like Pepper Salt Calamari, Pepper Salt Pork. Mia made it happen though! This is served whole prawn, head on -- they deep fry it in a way that it's pretty cooked where you CAN eat the shell and head -- almost like soft shell crab or like tempura but that's completely personal preference. *String Beans (干燒四季豆) - I mean a classic dish and theirs is awesome. They put a leaf for spicy but I didn't find it spicy at all! *Black Pepper Beef w/Pineapple? - It was a special so we got it! Served in a pineapple with cooked pieces of fresh pineapple! I was into it. The beef was very tender. I did notice that they have a regular beef sirloin with black pepper sauce served on a hot plate - that one might be delish for next time.

Base on Michigan and metro Detroit standard. This is one of the best Chinese restaurant in the state. Chinese menu and English menu is a little bit different by the way, I just realized that while typing this out. Peking duck, duck is lean which I like, but small. Good flavor, I really like the pancake that comes with it, it is warm and soft. I made a little taco out of it. Everyone is getting Peking duck for dinner. So you will have leftover meat and they supposed to cook another dish for you. We got stir fry and seems like a lot of the meat was missing. Staff probably snack on it. Everything was also good, they don't cheat and just dump msg into the food.

Everything so delicious!! Real chinese food. No dark brown fried rice either!! Be back for sure.