Chinese restaurant has served downtown SLO for nearly a century: ‘The food is always good’

The death of longtime San Luis Obispo County restaurateur Johnny Gin on Sept. 26 marked the loss of a rare link to the local Chinese community’s history.

Gin and his family operated the Mee Heng Low Chinese restaurant in downtown San Luis Obispo for more than five decades.

Now owned by Paul Kwong and operated by his chef son, Russell Kwong, the restaurant at 815 Palm St. is known for its noodle dishes, chop suey and dumplings — all liberally seasoned with nearly a century of culinary traditions.

History of Mee Heng Low building

At its height around the turn of the 20th century, San Luis Obispo’s Chinatown centered on a single downtown block of Palm Street.

Only four of the buildings remain: the Ah Louis store, now occupied by Karson Butler Events; the former Chong’s Candy Store, now home to Anderson’s Real Estate Services; a small bungalow and Mee Heng Low.

There was a building at the present-day site of Mee Heng Low in the late 1800s, according to San Luis Obispo historian James Papp’s study Friday of era photographs and the Sanborn Maps.

Early uses for that wooden structure likely included a general store, post office and bank.

When Ah Louis, a formidable leader in the Chinese community, replaced his wooden building with a new brick one that still stands today, the old one moved across Palm Street, two of Louis’ sons, Howard Louis and Young Louis, told Cal Poly professor emeritus and historian Dan Krieger.

That building, a 1-1/2-story structure with a balcony, eventually became the site of Mee Heng Low.

“Almost all the wood structures in San Luis Obispo were moved at one time or another,” Krieger explained.

Papp agreed. “Wooden buildings were too good to waste,” he said.

How did Chinese restaurant get started?

According to a 2020 Gin family cookbook, Gin Jack Keen opened Mee Heng Low restaurant in 1927.

He and his family operated the restaurant for almost two decades before he sold the business to his cousin Gow Gin in October 1945.

According to Gow Gin’s granddaughter Nancy Gin, Gin Jack Keen then returned to China and the family members he’d left behind.

Gow Gin’s second son, Johnny Gin, joined him in running Mee Heng Low in 1948, and Gow Gin’s first son Billy Gin joined the pair at the restaurant soon after that.

According to a 1958 article in the San Luis Obispo Telegram-Tribune, the Gins demolished the old Mee Heng Low restaurant in 1957 and opened their restaurant in a new two-story masonry structure.

The city had a strong hand in the design of the new building, according to Gin family members and the cookbook, titled “Mee Heng Low Gin Family Cookbook: A collection of recipes and a look back on the historic San Luis Obispo restaurant.”

“The city of San Luis Obispo was very insistent upon keeping the new design in line with colors they believed to represent the old Chinatown area, hence its red and green tilework,” Mike Gin wrote in the book.

The new building had a dumbwaiter inside to take food and dishes from one floor to the other. It was hand-operated in the early years and later converted to electricity.

The Gins remodeled in 1981 after county fire officials demanded a safer second-story fire escape that led directly outside, rather than over an adjacent structure’s roof.

In the 1981 redo, an upstairs apartment was removed, and the space was converted into another dining area.

Family cookbook reveals history

A menu reprinted in both editions of the 64-page family cookbook, mostly compiled by Mike Gin and featuring recipes from his mother, Anna Gin, includes six varieties of chow mein, five of chop suey, nine chow yuk dishes, three kinds of fried rice, two foo yung dishes, two sparerib dishes and six soups.

There were four noodle dishes on that undated Mee Heng Low menu.

Beef chop suey noodles were $1.05, while almond chicken or shrimp “a la Chinese” cost $1.50.

In the now out-of-print book, which includes a recipe for the restaurant’s signature egg foo yung, Gin family members share recollections of the restaurant and the small apartment upstairs.

Tommy Gin described the restaurant as “our playground growing up.”

“We slid down the stairs in cardboard boxes ... roller skating around the tables, playing roller derby,” he recalled.

“I would ride inside the dumbwaiter up to the second floor,” recalled Mike Gin, the youngest of Gow Gin’s grandchildren. “Of course, my siblings and cousins would stop me halfway and wait until I cried.”

Other family members shared memories of working at the restaurant — from stuffing fortune cookies with paper slips, picking seaweed in Cayucos and downing an entire tablespoonful of hot Chinese mustard.

Dick Gin a longtime San Luis Obispo trainer, recalled carrying “100-pound bags of rice on each shoulder from the street to the back of the restaurant. That was functional fitness before it became popular.”

Dick Gin recalled pulling early shifts peeling shrimp. “We would do an entire box (likely 50 pounds), and I’d get paid one dollar.”

“It was a unique place to grow up, and it was an incredible bonding place for our family,” Mike Gin wrote.

Gin family members and others gathered at Mee Heng Low on Oct. 21 to reminisce and celebrate the life of Johnny Gin, who died at age 92.

“It felt like old times,” said Gin’s eldest daughter, Nancy Gin, noting that it was a family tradition to “gather here or at a family house for a big dinner together on Wednesdays, our only day off each week.”

Gin, who has lived for decades in Wisconsin, said she hadn’t been inside the restaurant for years.

She expressed nostalgia at seeing so many artifacts on display, including a few dinner plates that date back to her family’s ownership of the restaurant.

“It was familiar with a twist,” she said.

New owners transform Mee Heng Low into noodle house

None of Gow Gin’s descendants wanted to continue in the restaurant trade, so in August 1998, the family sold the Mee Heng Low business to Sehn and Kim Hyun of Korea, whose last name is also spelled Hyunh.

That couple did some remodeling, added noodle-focused dishes to the menu, and ran Mee Heng Low for a couple of decades before retiring and selling it in 2008 to area chefs Paul and Dianne Kwong.

That plan was “something my dad had always wanted to do. It was his vision for a long time to do a noodle house,” Russell Kwong said. “When the building came up for rent, he jumped on the opportunity to fulfill his dream.”

The Kwongs expanded the Hyuns’ earlier emphasis on noodle dishes, reflected in the name Mee Heng Low Noodle House.

“Noodles are our schtick,” Russell Kwong said.

Today, the restaurant’s downstairs dining area has two high bistro tables, two red vinyl booths, one low table and a wall bar with four stools.

Server Drew Minnoch said the upstairs room seats about 40 people at tables and a lounge area with couch seating.

Outside, a big, red neon sign topped with a dragon advertises “Mee Heng Low Chop Suey Chinese Restaurant.”

Kwong’s menu is limited to a few favorites — including chop suey, chow mein, low mein and soup bowls, all with noodles — so it can be prepared efficiently by one chef.

Other offerings include dumplings and pork bao buns.

“We don’t do traditional Chinese American food here now. No orange chicken or egg foo yung,” Kwong said.

“I’m sure what we’re making is very different” from what Mee Heng Low originally served, he added. “What we do might be more akin to authentic Chinese food rather than Chinese-American food.”

Chop suey at Mee Heng Low Noodle House is served with flat noodles and a ginger soy sauce, rather than white rice.

The restaurant’s legendary chow mein is served on a bed of egg noodles fried into a crispy-topped cake.

“It’s still the most popular dish,” Kwong said.

Mee Heng Low gets positive reviews

During a recent visit to Mee Heng Low, Cal Poly students Derek Puckett and Jacob Perch of Visalia called the chow mein “different, but great!”

“I’ve never had fried noodles before,” Puckett said as he and his friend tried to master eating with chopsticks.

A plant science major, Puckett was fulfilling an assignment to review an Asian restaurant for his food and nutrition and culture and customs class.

He picked Mee Heng Low, he said, because online reviews for the restaurant highlighted “its history and how fresh the food is.”

Meanwhile, at a table by the restaurant’s front window, David Mott was enjoying a bowl of chicken soup, which is prepared in a housemade pork and chicken bone broth.

Mott was visiting his parents in San Luis Obispo during a week-long cycling vacation. His family has dined at Mee Heng Low for about a decade, he said, and often its at that table.

“It’s casual and quiet here at Mee Heng Low, with lots of history, and the food is always good,” Mott said.

What’s ahead for Mee Heng Low and SLO’s Chinese history?

Since Paul Kwong retired in late 2019, Russell Kwong has been at the helm of Mee Heng Low.

The restaurant was clobbered by restrictions and lags in business related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Business is picking up, but times are still tough for small downtown eateries due to rising costs and limited streetside parking, Russell Kwong said after his Aug. 23 lunch trade eased off.

He works mostly by himself in the Mee Heng Low kitchen, enlisting help from three employees who do double duty in the front and back of the house.

“We love being here,” Minnoch said.

“I used to be able to go in back and chat with Russell,” Papp said. “Now, usually, he’s too busy to talk. And that’s good for business!”

Meanwhile, Kwong ponders what’s ahead for Mee Heng Low, downtown restaurants and what used to be a busy Chinatown.

He and Gin family members would like to see a information center or museum built to honor San Luis Obispo’s Chinese heritage and Chinatown.

As for himself, the 32-year-old, who’s also a musician and composer, said, “I want to make a sustainable future here, maybe own a home — if the restaurant can provide that.”

“I hope (the business) can continue as the restaurant, with the name Mee Heng Low,” Nancy Gin said. “There’s so little left here that’s Chinese. And that’s sad.”

More about Mee Heng Low

Mee Heng Low Noodle is open 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. and 4 to 8 p.m. Monday through Saturday. For details, call 805-594-1500 or follow the restaurant on Facebook and Instagram.