Hainan House Restaurant — Restaurant in Fort Wayne

Hainan House is about the only 1st-generation (1980s) Vietnamese immigrants' restaurant that I actually respect lol.

Yes. The owners are Vietnamese. Doesn't mean they don't make very authentic Chinese food though, and the place itself is very much a Chinese restaurant. I'm not going to discuss Vietnamese-Chinese history or demographics right now.

Anyway, back to what matters. Hainan House is a VERY traditional place doing your classic Chinese-takeout dishes, but it takes pride in its cuisine and tastes nothing like, say, Bamboo Garden. This is original Chinese-American cuisine in its best form, untarnished by runaway capitalism and the ever-growing desire for cheap ingredients. All of their takeout dishes are what I would call "reliable": Nothing too special and basically what you expect, but always better than most, and a safe bet for when you just want to eat something without worrying about it too much.

And of course, no discussion of Hainan House would be complete without mentioning their soups. You have your takeout favorites like egg drop, wonton and hot-and-sour, but also their house special the "tomato beef". These are basically exactly what they sound like, but in a way that makes you realize the usual kinds should be the weird one: The hot-and-sour soup is much tangier and has a far deeper crunch of woodear mushrooms, while the egg drop soup, my favorite, is thick and clear with pieces of chicken, vegetables, and skin. It's a purely chicken-based soup with drops of egg, as the name entails, not... whatever the neon-orange stuff at Double Dragon and co. is supposed to be. Egg doesn't look like that, yo.

Another forte of Hainan House is their classic appetizers, in particular the "beef strings". Ultimately, it's just barbecue beef in a fancier form, but it's better than any beef skewer I've seen. The shrimp toasts are worth trying too, and they have the best crab rangoons in town. Not that it's a high bar to clear.

Hainan House's strongest point though, has to be their dinner combos. So they are the only place I've seen in the USA that engage in what would be called "cơm phần" in Vietnam: A shared dinner whose amount of food would scale with the number of people joining, but each person still gets their own dish while free to have what everybody else is getting. Of course, in classic Asian fashion, this has to be done with lots and lots of rice. They call it "Dinner A" which, eh, could've come up with a better name. What this all means is that they are the perfect choice for gatherings between close friends, though. Everyone sits on a round table.

Regarding their Vietnamese cuisine, one of their signature dishes is mì xào giòn or deep-fried lo mein noodles (yes, we Vietnameses deep-fry stuff too). They are the only ones offering this in Fort Wayne and I must say, their rendition is pretty good. Their Vietnamese coffee is also nice, but like every other Vietnamese place in America unless otherwise stated, don't order the phở here lol.

TL;DR Best Chinese place in the Fort, especially...

This is, without a doubt, my favorite restaurant of all time. When I lived in Ft. Wayne, I went here at least once a week, sometimes more. Now that I live 2 hours away, I've made trips back just to eat here.

The crab rangoon is unlike what I've had anywhere else. Instead of folded in quarters, as most restaurants do, these are folded in half and full of an unprecedented amount of crab and cream cheese filling with a hint of sweetness. No sweet and sour sauce required.

I have tried various dishes and sides over the years and was never disappointed. The egg drop soup is also unlike what I've had anywhere else. It's thick, hearty, and delicious. I also love the hot and sour soup which I've found to be very hit-or-miss at other restaurants.

The staff is wonderful. They are warm and welcoming and, I recall, even after my first few visits, I felt like family. Once I found my favorite order, I rarely had to say a word when my order was taken. And the food comes out so fast and fresh, I'm curious about the magic that's going on behind the scenes.

I am looking forward to my next visit, which after my most recent, is going to be much sooner...

We have been 3 times: The first time was great, I ordered cashew chicken. The 2nd time I had a lemon chicken and it was awful - it was a breaded breast with a thick layer of lemon jelly on it. The last time we went I ordered sweet and sour chicken. I ate one large piece and it was wonderful - I was excited. I bit into another piece and it tasted spoiled...I cut ito it and smelled it and it was spoiled meat (my husband confirmed). I told the waitress, she took the plate, then literally brought it back to our table and said, "they tasted it and said it's fine." and set the plate back on our table. I didn't eat it, they still charged us for the plate. She did bring me an extra bowl of eggdrop soup I asked for, at no charge. My husband has always liked the food, I just had bad luck I guess. Its a nice atmosphere and the jasmine...