"Little" Three Happiness is on the south side of Cermak Road and is not the gigantic 2-storey dim sum palace that sits on the northwest corner of Cermak & Wentworth. Two restaurants with identical names located within a few dozen yards of each other: well, there's bound to be some confusion.
This place, the little one, is a teeny terrific hole-in-the-wall Cantonese joint, seating maybe 20 people on a really busy evening, but only if you packed them in shoulder to shoulder. But the food is amazingly high quality. Though they do pander to the clueless with a certain number of dumb things on the menu like crab Rangoon, chop suey and egg foo yung, all staples of a thankfully disappearing "Chinese American" cuisine of hodgepodge origins. The authentically Chinese dishes here, which are many, are so well thought of, in fact, that a group of Chicago food enthusiasts named their foodie web site after this place, www.lthforum.com, "lth" standing for "little Three Happiness." For them, this restaurant is the epitome of a small, locally owned, well run ethnic eatery, the type of place we all should be thankful for.
I've eaten many a fine dinner here over the years, though I really didn't discover it until my absolute favorite Chinatown eatery, located a few doors west of Three Happiness, happened to burn down one sad evening. I still mourn Hong Min (though I hear they have a small outpost in the far southern suburbs which I've not ventured cross country to try--yet.) For me, Three Happiness comes in a close second, and now first, by default.
My latest meal here was a late night stop off: for $18.78 plus tip I got a small chicken noodle soup, order of 3 curried chicken puffs, string beans with minced pork in chili sauce, steamed rice, hot tea, fortune cookie & water.
My soup had many large chunks of good white meat chicken (no bones or nasty bits), along with a big mass of thin noodles at the bottom. Though the broth was a bit thin and watery to my taste.
The curried chicken puffs, an appetizer of three fried wonton wrappers covering, not surprisingly, curried chicken. They're good, really good.
My entree of string beans with minced pork bemused my waiter a little bit as I ordered it, as it's the kind of Chinese home cooking that often isn't even found on many menus. The flavors were wonderful: the earthy note of the beans contrasted with the rich umame of the minced pork (here used as condiment, rather than centerpiece) and the aggressive heat of the chili sauce. The huge platter of green beans is amazing just to look at. I felt healthy munching the green veggies while a bit decadent with the pork sprinkled over the dish.
An added attraction for this place is that they are almost always open. The host said they're open all night except for a short period from 6 AM to 9 AM, when they close for 3 hours each morning. So the next time you're starving at 3 AM, don't raid your refrigerator for unknown items wrapped in aluminum foil, instead just head on over to (little) Three Happiness. You'll be glad you did.
(One further note: if you are in the least bit claustrophobic, do not try to walk down the tiny hallway to the little bathrooms at the back of the restaurant. I didn't know they even made doors that narrow. Evidently, they do.) read more