In the United States, most Chinese restaurants have names that follow a certain formulam with two seemingly random words chosen from a pool of about 25 or so. While there are a few Chinese Chinese restaurant names – you know, “Fuk Mi”, “Wang Hung Lo”, “Suk Mi Dik” and so on – most follow the formula. The country is filled with places like “Lucky Panda”, “Happy Panda”, “China Taste”, “Happy Taste”, “Lucky Dragon”, “Panda Dragon”, “China Star”, and so on. It’s hard to remember Chinese restaurant names, because they’re all so similar.
What are Chinese restaurant names like in other countries? Are they truly Chinese names, or do they follow the “pick a couple of random words from a standard list in the local language” formula?
I’m pretty sure I dined at a Chinese restaurant in London (UK) called “Jade Garden”; I will try to verify.
And on the other side of the spectrum…
There is an excellent Chinese restaurant in San Jose CA called…
“Chinese Food Restaurant”. The clientele is 99% Asian, so I suspect it has a nicer Mandarin name.
If any dopers live there, it’s just south of I-280 on Saratoga Ave. on the west side of the street.
In Mexico some Chinese restaurants have localized names like “Mandarin Palace” or “China Fountain” but most have Chinese-sounding names like Wan Chon.
As an aside - there’s a very common style of Chinese restaurant here that I’ve never seen in the U.S., where one side of the menu is Chinese food and the other side of the menu is indistinguishable from any other Mexican coffee shop, with huevos rancheros, molletes, etc., and with a variety of “Chinese breads” in the front window.
Not that you asked this either, but Chinese restaurants here are usually staffed by Mexicans, except the cashier/manager who tend to be Chinese.
Chinese restaurant names are pretty generic in general, including in Chinese. I won’t say they’re ALL the same, but you tend to see similar names again and again. And when you try to “translate” them to English they sound even more generic and awkward. Do the restaurants have Chinese names or not?
Don’t know about this “Panda” crap, though, that is probably a generic Chinese restaurant name of US origin.
What is this “spectrum” of which you speak, BB? “Jade Garden” is juuuust about as typical as it gets.
By the way, while we’re on the subject, anyone have any theories on why American Chinese food is generally so weak? The conventional wisdom is that it’s altered to suit American tastes, but it just ain’t so.
Some New Orleans-area Chinese restaurants are a little more creative. Among the better Chinese fare in and around N.O. are Trey Yuen, Mr. Tai’s, Cathay Inn, and Five Happiness.
Here in NYC, I’ve seen a number of evenly split Mexican/Chinese restaurants (which often reflect the ethnic makeup of the neighborhood).
And FWIW, many ethnic restaurants here seemed to be staffed by Mexicans–whether the restaurants are Chinese or Irish. I guess good, cheap cooks are good cheap cooks, no matter their nationality.
I was there not too long ago. Common names I have seen are names of chinese Cities (Beijing, Nanking, Shanghai, etc) and other Chinese themes like “Great Wall”, etc.
Chinese restaurants (actually mostly takeaway only) in my immediate locality (I live near Southampton, England):
Silver River
Canton House
Panda
Kam’s Palace
The Magic Wok
Happy Garden
Peking Kitchen
Lucky House
Happy Palace
Hong Kong Garden
Fast Wok
Magic Chef
Sizzling Wok
New Oriental
Blue Sky
Jumbo House
…and so on…
Then there are a few that are simply named “[location] takeaway centre” or similar, for example:
The Avenue* Chinese Take-Away
Lowford Chef
*(‘The Avenue’ is the name of the main road North in/out of Southampton).
In Taiwan there was one restaurant with a sign that said “Chinese Fart Food.” Maybe they served beans, or perhaps just had a pissed sign painter.
The best one I went to was a wonderful place called, “Happy Mouth.” Another great little fast food potsticker chain was called, Siu Hai Fu Long, which translates into, “The Dragon that Swims in Four Oceans.”
