About a few months ago, a reader named Steve tipped us off that Wong's in Garden Grove, an OC staple since 1972 (though they began in LA in 1952), would finally close and be sold to new owners.
I said in that post that if there's a category for restaurants such as Wong's in Garden Grove,
it's old-school. This is the Americanized Cantonese food that fed the
Baby Boomer generation. Think chop suey, egg foo young, and “sweet and
sour” everything. Throughout its lifespan, the world inside its doors
has been set on pause, frozen in the age of leisure suits, 8-track
tapes and Bruce Lee. When I ate there last in 2007, I sat in a brown
room with wood paneling, ornamental lamps with dangling tassels,
cottage-cheese ceilings and aging leather booths that squeaked whenever
we shifted.
Now there's new news for those who previously bemoaned its demise.
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Another reader named Nathan wrote in saying the plans the new
owners had in turning it into another Vietnamese/Cajun crawfish clone
called “Spicy Claw” hasn't happened. Instead, “the new owners kept the
old chef and waiters. They will be serving the
food on the old menu alongside new Vietnamese/Cajun seafood
offerings.”
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Before becoming an award-winning restaurant critic for OC Weekly in 2007, Edwin Goei went by the alias “elmomonster” on his blog Monster Munching, in which he once wrote a whole review in haiku.