Sang's Chinese Food

Proprietors Purwan and Irene Cheung have cooked and waited tables here since they opened Sang"s 19 years ago. Nowadays, the unchanged, basic-Chinese-restaurant décor is tired, but two important details stand out: Most of the seats are filled with Chinese people, and most of the plates are filled with rewarding Cantonese fare. There are two menus here - ask to peruse both. You"ll likely want to start with items from the pink, more Americanized bill of fare, for that"s where you"ll find familiar favorites such as hot-and-sour soup, which is requisitely piquant. Egg rolls and dumplings also come from the pink list; the former are pretty standard, the pan-fried dumplings thick-skinned and plushly padded with minced pork. The more authentic and equally extensive white menu offers a fantastic, hacked-up half-roast duck with crisp mahogany skin and juicy meat; slowly braised stew of beef and turnips; and soft, sweet pieces of purple Chinese eggplant dissolving with flat, tender squares of beef in a spicy-sweet brown garlic sauce. Don"t miss the whole steamed fish plucked fresh from the fish tank in back. Sang"s waitstaff is a sturdy hybrid of no-nonsense personalities with no-incompetence efficiency. Prices are refreshingly affordable; most entrées on either menu cost $8 to $12. Lunch specials run from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., and some 60 dim sum snacks are available daily from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.