Ho Win Palace, Everett, MA (restaurant)

Name:Ho Win Palace
Type:restaurant
Street:22 Everett Ave.
City:Everett
State:MA
Zip:02149
country:USA
Phone:(617) 389-2348
Status:operational

Description:
Medium-sized Chinese-American restaurant. Large yellow/red sign out front in tiki-like Chinese font: HO WIN PALACE. Chinese-Szechuan-Polynesian Cuisine. Cocktails 7 days a week. Hours: 11am - 1am, Mon-Thurs, 11am - 2am, Fri-Sun. On a Friday at 5pm, the parking lot was packed (line of cars waiting to get in), and a line out the door to boot. Cocktail menu has the usual suspects: Suffering Bastard, etc. Drinks are between $5.00 and $6.00. Lots of Chinese decor -- inside looks like it's in good condition; outside looks pretty mediocre and unassuming. I didn't try drinks or food yet (I was on a tight schedule).

DRIVING DIRECTIONS
If you come from Boston: Take Route 1 N, go over the bridge; exit at the Everett/Chelsea ramp (after the 4th St. exit). Make a L off ramp; then a L at the light (onto RT-16). Two stop lights, and it'll be on your right (at intersection of Everett Ave. & RT-16, next to KFC and catty-corner from the Mobil petrol station).

A few intrepid souls and I made a field trip to the Ho Win on Saturday. Here's the place from the outside:

Lots of cars outside, people coming in and out - has to be a good sign.

The inside isn't anything special. Brick walls, a few generic-looking plastic plants and Chinese paper lanterns, and a big Chinese mural on the back wall over the kitchen doors; nothing exotic or Oceanic here.

The menu looks a little more promising. The cocktail list is full of old favorites, and the food offerings are old-school American Chinese and faux-Polynesian. Yum.

We ordered (from left) a Mai Tai, a Pina Colada, and a Suffering Bastard. They looked pretty good (at least none of them were pink), but unfortunately, any resemblance to tiki was superficial at best. The drinks were basically unrecognizable (I'm pretty sure the Mai Tai had lemon-lime soda in it). On the other hand, at least the pours were strong...

Then the food came... and kept coming... and coming... We ordered the Pu Pu Platter for 2, which got us a fire-topped mountain of greasy delights that would have been dinner for two people all by itself, and with the arrival of a "small" dinner for each of us, the table was entirely covered with food. We'd made a good-sized dent in the platter before I took this picture, but the food is still overwhelming:

The mountains of food were exactly what we needed to fight the cheap rum we'd just dropped on our insides. If you like cheap greasy Chinese food and cheap strong drinks, this place is awesome. But if you're looking for a good tiki drink or an exotic Polynesian fantasy, you're definitely not going to find it here.

Thanks for looking and posting. Wish you'd found something more interesting for your own sakes.

Thanks for the info.