NL_091219

24 | September 12, 2019 | the new lenox patriot dining out
newlenoxpatriot.com
The Dish
Variety, fresh ingredients set Wu’s House apart
Nuria Mathog
Contributing Editor
At Wu’s House, the cornerstone
of the dining experience
is an extensive
menu capable of accommodating
a wide variety of
tastes and preferences.
The Mokena restaurant,
which offers Japanese
mainstays such as sushi
and hibachi along with
other types of Asian cuisine,
opened at the end of
2018 after relocating from
its original site in Frankfort.
It is one of several
Chicago-area restaurants
owned by the Wu family
— two other Wu’s House
restaurants can be found
in Orland Park and Evergreen
Park, respectively,
along with Woow Sushi
locations in Orland Park,
La Grange and Algonquin.
Susan Ye, of Tinley
Park, who manages the
Mokena location, said one
of the restaurant’s greatest
strengths is its ability to
suit customers’ needs.
“If it’s someone who
doesn’t like sushi or raw
fish, they can always order
cooked food, like Chinese,
Thai cuisine or hibachi,
or they can even get their
sushi rolls cooked, not the
raw fish ones,” she said.
“And then, if they have
any allergies, we can always
handle that.”
The restaurant also can
work with diners who have
gluten-free restrictions,
Ye said. Many of the sushi
items on the menu are
naturally gluten free, and
customers can request that
other items on the menu be
made gluten-free, which
entails cooking the dishes
with alternative sauces,
such as lemon sauce.
The sushi rolls are the
Wu’s House
19826 S. LaGrange
Road in Mokena
Hours
• 11:30 a.m.-9:30 p.m.
Monday-Thursday
• 11:30 a.m.-10:30
p.m. Fridays and
Saturdays
• 11:30 am.-9 p.m.
Sundays
For more information ...
Phone: (815) 469-5189
Web: wushouse.com
At Wu’s House in Mokena, the spicy basil chicken ($13.75) features chicken cooked with asparagus, bell pepper,
onion, snow peas, scallion and basil in a chef’s special sauce. Photos by Nuria Mathog/22nd Century Media
The honey roll ($14.95) contains spicy yellowtail,
avocado and jalapeno, topped with fresh tuna and
mango and honey plum sauces.
among the top-selling
items at Wu’s House, Ye
said. In addition to standard
rolls — such as the spicy
tuna roll ($6.95) and the
avocado roll ($4.95) — the
restaurant offers a selection
of chef’s special rolls,
which are made with different
combinations of fish
and other ingredients. Top
sellers include the Godzilla
roll ($13.99) — a 10-piece
deep-fried roll featuring
eel, crab, shrimp, white fish
cream cheese and avocado,
topped with Thai chili
sauce, eel sauce and spicy
mayo — and the honey roll
($14.95), a colorful eightpiece
roll containing spicy
yellowtail, avocado and
jalapeno, topped with fresh
tuna and mango and honey
plum sauces.
“We always have fresh
fish,” Ye said. “That’s really
important for sushi.
It’s fresh and always tastes
good. ... People order this
all the time.”
The menu at Wu’s House
also includes a large number
of Thai and Chinese entrees.
The spicy basil dishes
($13.75 for chicken, $14.75
for beef and $15.75 for
shrimp) are cooked with asparagus,
bell pepper, onion,
snow peas, scallion and basil
in a chef’s special sauce,
and Ye said she is particularly
fond of the Thai
spicy crazy noodles ($10
for a meatless dish, $11
for chicken, $12 for beef,
$13 for shrimp and $15 for
a combo of chicken, beef
and shrimp), which she
described as a “spicy and
crunchy” dish consisting of
rice noodles stir-fried with
basil leaves, snow peas, onion
and tomato.
The Godzilla roll ($13.99) contains eel, crab, shrimp,
white fish cream cheese and avocado, deep fried and
topped with Thai chili sauce, eel sauce and spicy mayo.
For Ye, the best part of
running the restaurant is
getting to know the customers,
many of whom
have been repeat diners
since the restaurant’s
Frankfort days.
“There’s a lot of regular
customers, so we build
that relationship,” she said.
“When they come, we enjoy
talking. That’s the part
I really like. We’re like a
big family.”