Wah Kee goes beyond your typical Hong Kong style noodle house. Its diverse menu is what warrants the 4 stars. The variety of green vegetables dishes, downhome Southern Chinese soul food (more on this), clay pot (cousin of the Korean bimbimbap) offering with a variety of toppings, Korean kalbi, kimchi, Vietnamese Pho and Thai dishes are extraordinary for a place of this size.\n\nI can't comment on the SE Asia and Korean items as I didn't try them but I did have the wonton noodle soup with tendons. The soup had MSG in it but I expected that in an area that didn't have a large Chinese population. The wonton and tendons were good. I expected chopped scallions on top but was surprised not to see any. It would've been nice to have Chinese broccoli in the soup instead of cabbage but doesn't make it a deal breaker.\n\nOn the menu is salted fish and pork patty, stewed pork hocks and tripe from the Taishan region of China. This reminds me of the food that my mom used to make. I can remember her chopping pork round into grounded pork and mixing in chopped water chestnuts to make the pork patty. This stuff is down home Chinese southern soul food for me. \n\nI also had the clay pot (bo zai fan) with ribs in black bean sauce. I felt it didn't have enough black bean sauce but then again, there's never enough as far as I am concerned. The beauty of the clay pot is that when you're finished with the food, you can pour water into the pot and soften up the rice that's crusted on the bottom. Once that's soften up enough to be scrapped, you are in for a treat of a rice wafer with a smokey water flavor. I know what that sounds like but it tastes much better that what I've described. Trust me. When I was growing up, my siblings and I fought for this treat because there was only but so much to go around. This time I didn't have to share. HAH!\n\nI read one of the reviews about having been to China and this not comparing to that experience. That's very unfair. This is Madison, WI. This is not even to mention that all of China has many very diverse cuisines and it's very hard to master all the cuisines. Europe isn't nearly as big as China and no one can be a master at French, Spanish, German, Greek, eastern European, etc. The pot stickers, scallion pancakes and steamed soup buns (xia lung bao) doesn't compare to ones found in LA's San Gabriel Valley but that's a community that is close to 60% Chinese and the majority of them from Taiwan. That's their soul food. But without having to fly 6 hrs, this isn't too bad and a bargain to boot. \n\nWah Kee is not the best Chinese restaurant on the planet but it is pretty good for Madison and it's pretty good for down home soul food just about anywhere. As previously stated, just for the salted fish, pork patties, green vegetable variety (On Choi, Yu Choi, Spinach, etc.), clay pot and Asian and SE Asia choices, it gets four full stars. If it had Cantonese BBQ meats hanging in the window, roasted duck, soy sauce chicken, etc., it would get 5!
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