Metro Detroit: Mattawan’s Chinn Chinn
This week we are going to a little town, just outside of Kalamazoo, where husband and wife Dan and Brayden Bracken run their family owned restaurant: Chinn Chinn in Mattawan, MI. Brayden was 12 when her parents, John & Michelle Tsui, closed their original restaurant Peking Palace in Portage, MI in 2003. In 2004 they opened Chinn Chinn, and today Brayden runs the front of the house and her husband Dan runs the kitchen allowing her parents to step back and enjoy life.
At first glance, Chinn Chinn might seem to be your typical “Chinees restaurant” . . . but it is so much more than that. They are more of an Asian American restaurant, bringing together the flavors of China, Korean and other Asian countries together with a “modern Western style” It is located in a strip mall and at first glance you might think it is not anything special but that couldn’t be more from the truth.
When you walk in you immediately realize this is not some darkly lit, 50 year old Asian restaurant. The dinning area is brightly lit and the whole restaurant id decorated very modern. It is not very big, it might seat 50 people at max capacity so reservations are recommended but walk-ins are welcome as well. Unlike most Asian restaurants the kitchen is a moder day open style kitchen so you can see what goes on behind the scenes.
There were 6 of us so we started with a couple sharables, the blue cheese wontons and fried chicken potstickers which were both very good, but everything on the menu sounded and looked awesome, next time I will get the Kimchi Fries with Kogi beef, queso and scallions.
They also offer a Pupu platter with a sampling of 7 different sharables to enjoy.
For lunch I ordered the House Curry with smoked pork and Teresa ordered the Ben Pao Shrimp off the sharables menu. I loved the House Curry, I have become a bit of a curry fanatic in the past few years. It was delicious with well balance flavors and just the right spice. Teresas shrimp were also not just delicious, but a very pretty dish. Other items ordered were the Kung Pao chicken, Panang with shrimp and Wonton soup which had some serious wontons in it. All the lunch and dinner entrees come with a choice of 2 sides and there are 12 to choose from.
They serve popular dishes like their Kun pao Chicken and Braydens grandmother’s Mongolian flatbread. There are a number of sharable items like potstickers, dumplings, blue cheese filled wontons and Kimchi fries to mention a few. We liked their CrEATe your own bowls which allows you to choose your meat or protein to go into your choice of 10 different preparations ranging from their famous Kung Pao, Black Bean Marsala and some delicious curries. They also offer other dishes like their Bulgogee which is a Korean seared beef with vegetables, Mandarin Chicken and for the vegetarians out there they offer dishes like the KFC which is Korean Fried Cauliflower and crispy tofu.
We really enjoyed this place and we are glad we were able to meet friends there to enjoy the experience. We definitely will be going back on our next trip to Chicago.
Chinn Chinn is located at 52885 N Main St in Mattawan MI. They are open Tuesday thru Thursday from 11AM – 8PM, Friday 11AM – 9PM, Saturday 3PM – 9PM and Sunday 12PM – 6PM.
Until next week . . . live well, eat well and enjoy life!
-Keith and Teresa Becker