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| - It is a SIN that Sing High hasn't been reviewed until now. On behalf of all long-time Phoenicians, new-comers, I ask for your forgiveness.
Sing High is a simple Chinese restaurant that has been in downtown Phoenix since 1927. Yeah. Read that again. You're still on Yelp's *Phoenix* page, where the only things still enduring from 1927 are our retirees in Scottsdale. While Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig were demolishing the American League and Calvin Coolidge was in the White House, Fred (Yuk Cheung) Lee was instructing an Anglo sign-painter to write "Shanghai Chop Suey House" on his restaurant at 2nd Street and Madison. Mr Lee spoke no English and couldn't read it, and the painter apparently didn't take geography at what was then the Tempe Normal School (ASU). So what ended up on the sign was "Sing High" instead of "Shanghai".
Sing High is not at its original 1927 location. It moved in 1981, about a hundred yards so cut it some slack. Fred's grandson, Harlan Lee, is an ASU MBA graduate but he carries on the amazing family tradition behind this restaurant.
The food is perhaps not the kind that would blow your mind. But it is solidly good Chinese food (and fyi: you don't do business for 80 years by making mediocre food). There are a million different choices. The portions are huge and you will likely over-eat. The atmosphere and vibe of the restaurant are largely irrelevant to me. They're good, you sense the history when you walk in, but they're not trying to razzle-dazzle you with anything. There are old pictures of old Phoenix tacked on to walls. A 1970s print of the Great Wall of China. A random 1980s photo of Manhattan. That sort of thing. The service is what it is. Good. Friendly owners. Maybe you'll wait a little longer for take-out now and then because they're not totally organized. It's ok. Take a deep breath and wander around the lobby looking at the walls. Remember that whatever you're thinking about as you wait for your food, judges and lawyers and cops from the near-by superior court have thought the exact same thing as they waited for their Sing High serving, in 1930, 1940, 1950...
Every single judge who sat on the bench in Maricopa County has eaten here, in almost the entire history of our state (born in 1914), because even our old territorial courthouse on Central and Washington is a 60 second stroll away. Sandra Day O'Connor, I guarantee you, has eaten here.
I come here often--I can walk from my loft--with a sense of pride that Sing High has survived as long as it has in this city that barely existed until decades ago. As soon as I hit "Post It" on this review, I'm picking up the phone to call in an order to pick up on my way home.
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