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This was my first time eating at Happiness Chinese Restaurant. I’ve seen it and was supposed to eat there a number of times during previous Saipan trips. I’m glad we finally got acquainted. There must be something special about this place. It has several private rooms and a bar with a surprisingly extensive wine selection.
Happiness Chinese is definitely Chinese, since most of the clientele were Chinese. The wood screens, colorful statues, art pieces, collectible dishes, curios, and vases makes this interior more of a Chinese art and pottery store. The house specialties include several dishes, notably among them are two dimsum dishes: the minced pork dumplings and crab meat dumplings. Unfortunately, we didn’t have these on this visit (there’s always a next time)!
I was with two colleagues (Ben and Mark) and we opted for basic, non-spicy foods, starting out with crab meat and white corn Soup ($9), which was quite tasty and had visible pieces of real crab and corn. It was also a sizeable portion from which we each refilled our bowls several times.
The next dish we received was the Chinese roast pork ($12). This looked quite promising but seemed to have something missing or something too much. It was like pork tocino, and not char siu as I was expecting. It was the only thing we picked at and left some remaining. The rest of the meal disappeared!
We had the sautéed Chinese vegetables ($8) which happened to be kang kong. This is always a sure thing when eating Chinese stir fry. The vegetables are crisp, fresh and flavored with garlic and oil. The next to come was the egg fu yung ($9), which I do order occasionally when eating Chinese. Happiness does an exceptional job with their Egg Fu Yung. It is moist and has the freshest flavor.
We also had another delicious dish that was true to its name: Tasty Pork Rib Hot Pot ($10). This had a very distinct appearance. It looked like a stew with big chunks of meat covered by a patch of creme fraiche (or something similar). The sauce was rich and the rib meat was fall-off-the-bone tender. We all liked this dish as well.
The final dish to arrive was the steamed chicken ($10). We didn’t expect to see this dish presented in the manner that it was. It was chopped up chicken pieces in a gravy like sauce with vegetables, mushrooms, and jujubes. It was served on a dried papaya leaf that may have been used to impart flavor by baking the chicken inside. Really tasty and fun to eat! Whatever they did, this was another winner.
I really feel that I have several good reasons to come back to Happiness Restaurant during another visit.
Bon appetit!
