Lun Wah, Roselle, NJ (restaurant)

Name:Lun Wah, Roselle, NJ
Type:restaurant
Street:587 Raritan Road
City:Roselle
State:NJ
Zip:07203
country:USA
Phone:908-254-0656
Status:operational

Description:
Like it's Jersey counterparts, Chan's Dragon Inn, Lee's Hawaiian Islander (both locations), and Jade Island (actually on Staten Island, NYC) Lun Wah is a Chinese Restaurant in the Polynesian style. Located in a rather bleak looking shopping center (like Jade Island), you would not know that Lun Wah was pretty amazing inside. Like Chan's, etc. it has several Bamboo Hut's and Tikis-a-plenty. In fact I thought it should have maybe been rated a notch or so higher on the Tiki Road Trip 'TiPSY Scale'. A very well maintained goldfish pond and waterfall is in the center of the space near the restroom. The bar was more impressive to me than any of the other NY/NJ tiki places I have been to, and I have been to most of them at this point. The bar is sectioned off from the dining room and has more of a secluded hut feel to it. I wish this place was closer to my house simply for the bar alone. I would hang out there pretty often! If I was to build my own home Tiki bar, I would want it to look like the one in Lun Wah.

There was music playing, but it seemed more Asian than Hawaiian with sounds of gongs and kotos (even though that is a Japanese instrument).

I can't really speak for the food because I ordered a steamed dish (dieting), but I did order an egg roll which was no big deal. Pretty average actually. I had a Mai-Tai and it was very similar to the ones served at Chan's. More on the fruit juice tasting side of the spectrum, but still very tasty and was served in the same dragon motif Mai-Tai glass that Chan's uses (both places probably order their glassware from Dynasty Wholesale). More evidence of Dynasty Wholesale was evident at the cashiers booth where they offered a few hula girl mugs and Scorpion and Volcano bowls for sale.

Lun Wah has been around for 30 years, and they just celebrated their anniversary which they advertise on the free business card-sized refrigerator magnets. No tikis on the magnet, just a palm tree and a drawing of a Chinese take-out container and fortune cookies (why no tikis on there?) The actual business card they have is a little more Polynesian looking with a big red palm tree on it.

If you have a car and live in central Jersey, Lun Wah will be easy for you to get to. For us city dwellers, that is still to be determined, I rented a car for the day to do some family visiting so it was easy. It's seems like it may be a bit more of a project to get to commuting from the city. Chan's is an easy ride, because a bus can be hopped from Port Authority and basically takes you to the front door. When I asked the gentleman at Lun Wah about public transportation, he said the nearest train was in Linden. I got the impression that the train wasn't that far, but not in walking distance either, so a local cab would probably be required to get to the restaurant from the train station.

Overall I found Lun Wah to be the most well kept establishment out of all of the NY/NJ tiki joints. Chan's is very cool, but compared to Lun Wah it seems a little rough around the edges. I guess the same could be said about Lee's Hawaiian Lyndhurst location. Great places but a little ramshackle compared to Lun Wah. I would love to go back. If you're in that area I highly recommend it.

[ Edited by: donhonyc on 2004-04-20 09:40 ]

Thanks to the elusive & mysterious donhonyc for the accurate description of Lun Wah. However, I'd still have to rank Chan's a little higher in my book (they get points for vintage waiters in vintage aloha shirts - chan's feels 'nookier' too).

WARNING: Tiki Emi had a chicken dish & suffered not quite extreme nausia for at least the whole next day. However, I washed my sweet & sour pork down w/ a pretty decent mai tai & felt fine.

Enjoy these pics from my recent visit:

Hey Chris!

Sorry Tiki Emi got the "Curse of Lono" (just made that up) from the food at Lun Wah. Good thing I got something steamed. Eesh. Good to hear at least, that my review was somewhat accurate. Yeah, I gotta make it back to Chan's soon. My last visit was early in April. The summer excursion is coming up soon!
:drink:

P.S. I'm 'mysterious and elusive'? COOL! :sheckymug:

[ Edited by: donhonyc on 2004-05-22 12:41 ]

I visited LW today and was delighted. Yes, it’s a bit rough around the edges and it needs a good dusting, but with the lights down low and my Pu platter aflame it did the trick.

Hey! My first post on the board! Woo hoo!

Anyway, I have been to Lun Wah and found the food and drink to be pretty good. For a small place in a strip mall in North Jersey, it's not too shabby.

--SBiM

It turns out I have some photos from a visit to Lun Wah that include the vessels they use.

Stephanie and Gordon with The Volcano.

Myself and my wife Traci.

Traci getting a little tipsy.

--SBiM

Looks like you guys had yourself a blast SBiM. I gotta get my ass back out to Jersey to go to either Chan's or Lun Wah.
Been a while.

Cheers :drink:

Having grown up just around the corner from Lun Wah, my family and I have been eating there for about 25 years. FYI, no one has ever gotten ill. The dining room also used to be a little more secluded, but they redecorated about 10 years ago I think. My favorite memories as a kid were the blowfish lantern lights hanging over the tables and tossing pennies into the goldfish fountain. Ahh, the memories!

[ Edited by: elpao 2007-06-17 15:33 ]

This is my first post! My boy and I have been going to Tiki places for a few months now; we've managed to go to 8 so far in NY, NJ, and MA. We thought it was time we start contributing to the Tiki sites we love so much! Anyway the pictures of Lun Wah wouldn't show up on m computer so we went here sight unseen and this is what we found!

Food was fine, on par with Chan's, and Jade Island. Personally I like the food at Lee's Hawaiian Islander better. My drink was great, some vodka and coconut milk concoction; However the Lun Wah Special drink wasn't all that great. Zombie was also good but didn't come in a glass.

The wait staff was great. Super friendly, and asked a lot about how we found them, being that they could tell, we weren't from there. They had matchbooks, but nothing exciting on them.

Drinks came with better garnishes, but I think you can tell we drank them BEFORE we took pictures :wink:

[ Edited by: Rockpup 2008-08-01 19:57 ]

Way to come out of the gates swinging, Rockpup! Welcome to Tiki Central.

How did I miss getting Lun Wah into Critiki? Well, it's there now:
Lun Wah Restaurant in Critiki

Great pics, this place has some spiffy features -- love all that bamboo. What's with the tragic white walls & ceiling, though? Imagine how much nicer it would look if it weren't painted to look like a tiki bar in a hospital.

Maaaaaaan, nothin like an old school Chinese/Tiki restaurant...East coast, no less, so I KNOW the food is probably better than anything Chinese here in LA.

Great post....I LOVE places like this. Welcome to TC. keep em comin !

Humuhumu, like 10 posts today from you...Glad to see you posting more regularly again. :)

Glad you liked the pictures! Here's one from in the bar that I forgot to post. The bar was more cozy than the rest......BUT the wall was inches thick with a huge collection of police patches. Strange.

We're heading to King Yum tomorrow in Queens, don't expect to find over the top tikiness or anything but I hear it's the oldest Chinese place in Queens. Have a good weekend!

Although I have not yet been there - I am told Lun wah place has the best Shrimp toast ever>

Next one to go please confirm. Maybe Dr Franken Tiki (since he lives near by it)

On 2008-08-02 13:48, Rockpup wrote:

We're heading to King Yum tomorrow in Queens, don't expect to find over the top tikiness or anything but I hear it's the oldest Chinese place in Queens. Have a good weekend!

Rockpup, King Yum has one room that is much more tiki than the rest. Hopefully you can get seated in there, but, if not, you'll have a good view of it from the bar.

The drinks at King Yum run the gamit but we felt their Gold Cup was the most noteworthy! You can check out the photos we posted on TC from our ohana gathering there this spring.

I got to visit Lun Wah when I was in the area over Thanksgiving. I liked it quite a bit, it's small, but very charming. We didn't have time to stay for long, so we just hung out in the bar and had a couple of drinks and some appetizers. The drinks were pretty awful, but served in tiki mugs, and really I didn't expect anything on that front anyhow. Trott was thrilled with his potstickers -- he grew up in New Jersey and apparently the potstickers we have here on the west coast don't match what he grew up with, so he was happy to revisit his China-via-NJ memories. The decor was much better than I was expecting -- the white walls aren't as glaring in real life as they are in the pictures -- but it could stand to gain a few more actual tikis. The bar was packed with locals there to watch a football game, and they were very friendly (during the commercials, anyway). The fellow behind the counter has been there since it became Lun Wah in 1974. Before 1974, the place was called Red Dragon.

On 2009-01-07 15:04, Humuhumu wrote:
Trott was thrilled with his potstickers -- he grew up in New Jersey and apparently the potstickers we have here on the west coast don't match what he grew up with, so he was happy to revisit his China-via-NJ memories.

That could be said for Chinese food in general...Much better on the East Coast.

I think that all depends on what you're used to! I'd have to put my money on San Francisco for best Chinese food.

Suzanne

On 2009-01-07 16:04, suzanne wrote:
I think that all depends on what you're used to! I'd have to put my money on San Francisco for best Chinese food.

Suzanne

Ever been to Queens or Long Island ?

Nope, can't say I have yet, Jim. :)

But if you're ever in SF at the same time I am, I'll take you to my fav places there.

Suzanne

I work with a lady who is from Roselle and has pictures of the Lun Wah from the late 70's and early 80's. She told me that they were of people not the decor, I told her, doesn't matter, the decor is in the background and all the fanatics can look past people. She's going to bring them in for me and I'll post when I have them.

On 2009-03-24 22:57, savage sissy wrote:
"I told her, doesn't matter, the decor is in the background and all the fanatics can look past people."

Sounds great. Always good to see the old places even with an aunt or uncle in the way.

I am a Lun Wah fan! Place is a great environment. I read some of the comments here but their eggrolls are the best, the music is definitely Hawaiian (although they sometimes forget to put it on, just ask and they will do so) and everyone is so nice and helpful! My wife has been going there for 20 years, introduced me when we got together 10 years ago. Never knew there was a network of people dedicated to tiki, but I signed up here just so I could comment on Lun Wah. I'll have to check out some of the other places on here!

LUN WAH IS GREAT!

I had an amazing dinning experience at Lun Wah Restaurant. Food was very delicious also the service was nice and speedy at very affordable prices. Nice ambiance , Fantastic Food and Great services.

[ Edited by: Bora Boris 2014-02-06 06:18 ]

Help keep tiki alive, or at least long enough for me to go there :wink:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1519644555/lun-wah-tiki-bar-bathroom?ref=video

On 2015-02-09 20:22, Pittsburgh pauly wrote:
Help keep tiki alive, or at least long enough for me to go there :wink:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1519644555/lun-wah-tiki-bar-bathroom?ref=video

i can personally attest the bathrooms do need a makeover.
the rewards on the kickstarter aren't very enticing; but maybe they will adjust them.
it is also worth noting that the bar changed ownership in 2013 and that the drinks have improved.