The Pete Wells Effect
How the Hainan Chicken House went from anonymous restaurant in Sunset Park to a New York City destination. But all that attention brings out the haters — and boy are they vocal.
In New York City there is one man whose word carries more weight than all others when it comes to food: New York Times restaurant critic Pete Wells. A one-star review in The Times creates instant buzz.
That‘s exactly what happened in July of 2023 when he awarded a family-owned restaurant called Hainan Chicken House not just one, but two coveted stars. Then he named it one of his top 12 restaurants of 2023.
“The city’s most impressive source of Hainanese chicken at the moment is not the one that was singled out from among hundreds of vendors in Singapore and given its own stall in the multimillion-dollar Urban Hawker market in Midtown.”
To say it took the Low family by surprise is an understatement. Now, they are dealing with the added pressure that comes with such public high praise.
We caught up with Chris Low, owner of Hainan Chicken House in Sunset Park as he was standing in line outside Jing Fong with his mom waiting on Mother’s Day. Fresh off being named one of Pete Wells’ 2024 Top 100 Restaurants list, Hainan Chicken House is now one of the most talked about restaurants in New York City. And that’s no easy feat considering Hainan Chicken House is in a Brooklyn working class neighborhood, miles from Manhattan.
We checked in to see how things are going at his restaurant and to see where he’s been eating lately.
Hey Chris, what’s up? Sorry to bug you on Mother’s Day.
Don’t worry about it. I don’t get a lot of free time these days. I’m actually in line at Jing Fong with my mom. We haven't been here since it reopened. We used to love this place. We have such a deep connection to it. It was a dim sum institution in the city.
We always go to Ping’s for dim sum. Let us know how you like Jing Fong.
Oh, we love Pings, but we go for the banquet stuff. I don't think we’ve been there for dim sum, but I'll definitely let you know about Jing Fong.
Congratulations on being named one of Pete Wells’ Top 100. Not bad for a tiny place in Sunset Park. What does that kind of recognition do to a small restaurant like Hainan Chicken House?
The Pete Wells effect is transformative. We went from an anonymous neighborhood restaurant to a place where people from far away come to eat. But with attention comes detractors, which has been fun to deal with *sigh.*
That long sigh says a lot. What do you mean?
Here’s what I mean: There’s a weird phenomenon on Yelp that I try not to pay attention to. If we get a couple good reviews we get a 1 star right after. So hyperbolic it's almost not believable. One review is glowing, the next will say everything was flavorless. I’m like, really? To have our food be that bad across the board is mind boggling for me. I know some people in the neighborhood don't like that we are there.
Wait, what? You’d figure a place like Sunset Park would totally support a place like Hainan Chicken House. That doesn’t really make sense to me.
Because we are quite different. Aside from price point, aside from the type of food and the aesthetics. We are trying to bring in a variety of dishes and offerings that are interesting to me. Like we have a sake list. I think there’s a lot of working class enclaves where you'll get pushback because people don't want change.
So does that mean you are looking outside of Sunset Park?
I don't wanna get into it necessarily. We are working on another project but its too early to discuss. Friends floated an idea of opening in Flushing. But it's just my mother, sister, father and I. We don't have a marketing team or management team. We do it all ourselves and we’re taking it as slow as we can.
For a mom and pop operation to landing on Pete Wells list. That’s a hell of a trajectory.
It’s shocking. I don’t know how we were able to get so lucky. I guess a new Italian restaurant opens up every week in New York but that’s not true of Malaysian restaurants.
Alright enough about Hainan Chicken House. Have you been to any restaurants that surprised you lately?
Oh let me think, you know I just went to an Afghan restaurant called Eyval and I had a good experience. They are doing something really nice over there. We had grilled carrots with feta and herbs and… I forget the name of the dish but it was excellent. The ground beef lamb kabobs were good but didn’t really stand out. The ramp borani, which is like a ramp yogurt dip, was really good. But my favorite was the chicken fesenjoon dish with a pomegranate molasses sauce. It's almost like an Afghan mole.
I also went to a place called Gem Wine. It's a great wine bar with really forward looking seasonal dishes. Like 80 percent of the menu when we went was ramps. The ramp lasagna was by far the best thing we had on the menu. It takes three days for them to make. Absolutely worth it.
Alright we’ll let you get back to Mother’s Day dim sum.
Thanks man. Have a good one. I’ll let you know if Jong Fong is as good as it used to be.
Stuff we ate this week:
Yemen Cafe: This Cobble Hill institution is serving authentic Yemeni food in Brooklyn. We tried the $32 Lamb Haneeth.
Kwik Meal: Tiny food cart in Midtown with an outsize menu. We had the spicy $5 chicken koti roll.
Little Miss Muffin and her Stuffin: Hole in the wall Trinidadian spot serving some of the best patties in New York. We tried the $3 spicy beef and jerk chicken patties.
The best chicken biscuit in New York City is at Butterfunk Biscuit Company in Harlem. Come try it!
Come hang out with Chef Chris Scott at Butterfunk Biscuit Company to learn from the man himself as he teaches us about his incredible biscuit recipe. The same one that took him to the finals Top Chef Season 15.