Chung Fa: Little Slice of Old China

Step into Chung Fa in Mahanagar and the first thing you notice is the glow. Red paper lamps hang low over wooden booths, and the interiors look much as they did when the place opened in 1981. Forty-odd years on, it still feels like a restaurant that has never felt the need to change.

The story starts well before 1981. Leon Chung, who runs the place today, traces his family back to his grandparents, among the early Chinese migrants to India who left during the civil war, before 1947. After his grandfather died in 1966, the family left West Bengal and settled in Lucknow in 1968. Their first venture was a tiny 12-seater called Simpson, tucked above Capital Cinema. By the late 1970s it was bursting at the seams, so Leon’s father took a chance on a new spot in Mahanagar, then very much the outskirts.

It worked. By the mid-1980s there were queues out the door for chow mein, drumsticks, chicken chilli and the then-new mutton chilli.

The menu still reads like a greatest-hits album of Indo-Chinese cooking: hot and sour soup, corn soup, wonton soup, American chopsuey, Schezwan rice, chicken Manchurian, chilli garlic noodles. The crispy chilli chicken is a touch softer than it used to be, a small concession to how tastes have shifted. Much of what lands on your table is still made in-house, from the noodles and wonton sheets to the red Schezwan sauce, following recipes handed down through the family and a kitchen crew that includes people who joined in the 80s and 90s. A meal for two comes to roughly ₹800 to 1,000.

You may also recognise the place. Its vintage look has made it a favourite with filmmakers, and it appeared in Bareilly Ki Barfi and Raat Akeli Hai. Atal Bihari Vajpayee ate here, and the restaurant even received New Year greetings from the PMO afterwards. Anupam Kher is another former regular, from his theatre days in the city. For many Lucknow families, though, the real draw is personal: first dates, birthday dinners, Sunday outings, all under the same lamps.

Chung Fa now has outlets across the city, with more on the way. But the original Mahanagar branch is still the heart of it. In a city that takes its Awadhi food very seriously, this little Chinese kitchen has earned its place by staying consistent, unfussy and warm. Some flavours simply don’t fade.