San Tung 2

I was intended to try San Tung but the line was ridiculously long, so I went over here to San Tung 2 and was seated in less than 30 minutes. I ordered the dry chicken wings, black bean noodles, shrimp dumplings, and green beans. The dry chicken wings were actually delicious, full of flavors, and crispy. Though, I feel that I expected more from the many great reviews because they claimed it to be «crack wings». I’ve had the same at one Korean restaurant before, so it didn’t blow me out of my chair when eating these dry wings. Black bean noodles were overrated because it was plain. Green beans were alright. The dumplings were good and I like it.
My husband and I noticed there was a smell in their water, which grossed us out and we’ve decided not to drink it. Customer service was so-​so. Are we going to drive back here all the way from east bay? Nah. I thought it was something more due to the long line, but I guess I don’t feel the same way towards the food like others do.

Basically the same as San Tung but with slightly more modern décor. All that matters is that the dry fried chicken wings are the same– and they are and at slightly less of a wait.
The chicken wings come fresh out of the fryer and are covered in a glorious concoction of honey, garlic, pepper, and other Asian spices. A plate of 10 of these can easily be devoured in minutes– but let them cool down or else you’ll burn your tongue! I also got some string beans to try the balance out the unhealthiness of deep fried goodness– but they are also oily and fried but nonetheless delicious and I guess a bit of fiber. Can’t go wrong with some of the sweetest and savory chicken wings!

*SAME chicken as the original next door!*
Boy does the original San Tung restaurant get packed! Being like everyone else, we placed ourselves on the wait list at the original location… time ticked away while we notice that San Tung 2 is practically empty!
Uhmm why is it empty? We decided to screw the wait and walked into san tung 2.
DIFFERENCE:smaller menu from orginal location BUT it has all of the MAIN dishes that you’d usually order next door anyways.
Con: No kimchi. Can be out of supply on certain dish.
FOOD:
–AWESOME SUCCULENT FINGER-​LICKING GOOD FRIED CHICKEN! It is exactly the same as next door. ⁵⁄₅ star
— Mongolian beef: tasted like how it would with regular chinese take-​out. ³⁄₅ star
— Hot and sour soup: humungous portion. You would need about 6 ppl to finish this. Tastes more sour with no balance of ‘hot’. ²⁄₅ star
–Potstickers: poorly made, filling lacks flavor, has barely any crunch. 1.5 /​5 star (stick with the dumplings!!)
Décor:
–much cleaner than san tung 1.
— more walkway space
–interesting girly lights (flowers/​butterflies?) on the ceiling
Service:
— servers were younger and they’re so much more courteous!
— they are fast with the wings! Other dishes came out with fair wait time.
Still giving thus place 5 stars just because of the wings! Plus with better service and shorter wait time, whose to complain?

Honestly, I just really love their dry fried chicken haha. Crispy, honey glazed and just delicious! I saw some chili peppers, but it’s not spicy at all (this is coming from someone who can’t really handle spice).
Came here because it was packed next door. It was noon and there was barely anyone in this restaurant, but hey… no complaints here! I also tried the string beans for the first time and it was pretty good. I like how they add the sliced Chinese pickles… this dish is kind of sweet though, so I wouldn’t recommend it if you don’t like sweet vegetables.
We also got the black bean noodles, which were not yummy at all. It felt kind of slimy, wasn’t really hot, and flavor was weird. I ate a few bites to figure out what the weird taste was, but couldn’t put my finger on it. Definitely doesn’t taste like your typical black bean sauce. They also add a few pieces of beef, squid and shrimp. Also not very tasty.
But go and try their dry fried chicken and string beans! Yumm!

The only thing worth ordering from here is the dry fried chicken. They were crispy, flavorful, and a bit on the sweet side.
The black bean noodles were not good, and the seafood soup noodles had a bitter after taste. There were more more noodles than soup, which was disappointing.
The Mongolian beef and fried rich dishes were OK.
The wait was about 15 min on a Thursday night.

We ordered the dry fried chicken and the black bean noodles. I must say the dry fried chicken was delicious and flavorful but the black bean noodles were overall bland, lacking in flavor, and did not have any spice as suggested in the name. We ate a few bites of the noodles and unfortunately had to waste a lot of it because it was so plain. The reviews overhype these Black bean noodles and I have no idea why they think it is good because it is super bland and plain.
Either way, 4 – 5 hours later after eating these two entrees, I am suffering from food poisoning and just threw up multiple times and stomach still hurts currently. Stay away from this restaurant because no food is good enough to be worth food poisoning! They have a very low health inspection score and the original San Tung straight up fails the health inspection as seen on Unilocal.Don’t ignore these red flags and heed these warnings! You do not want to be miserable and throwing up and diarrhea after dinner. This place is seriously not worth the hype and not worth putting your health at risk.

DRY FRIED CHICKEN!!!
Their chicken is fried then glazed to PERFECTION. It has a little hint of sweetness but not too sweet. Pair it up with green beans and jasmine rice and you have yourself a meal.
That is literally all you have to get here and your life is complete. The original san tung is right next door but the food is the same here. It is definitely a shorter wait at this location than it is next door. If you come with a group of people, each person much spend $ 7 or they charge you a service fee for each person.

Smaller menu compared to the original place, but has everything you need with a shorter wait. I usually get their signature chicken wings, string beans, dumplings, and black bean noodles. They’re known for their chicken wings and it’s pretty darn delicious. Tender juicy chicken meat, crispy skin, topped with a sweet glaze with a hint of spiciness. I enjoy their other dishes as well, but hate waiting in line so I don’t come here as often as I would like. Even with this express shop, you’re still expected to wait at least half an hour to get seated. They only have a limited numbers of tables and it’s pretty cramped. Parking can be a hassle in this area especially during dinner time. I haven’t been here any other time so I’m not sure how the wait is during the off peak hours.
I do suggest going with a small group (4 max) that way you can get a variety of dishes, but wouldn’t have to wait as long for a big table.

Not as good as San Tung next door for sure. The sauce in the chicken wings are tastier and much more flavorful next door. The service was quick, and we ordered way too many dishes for 3 people but we got lunch for the next day :) They were closing so we felt a bit rushed eating because they already started putting up chairs around us — which isn’t recommended to do because I felt as if I wasn’t fully enjoying my meal. We had the black bean noodles, fried rice, house special chicken, and string beans. My favorite were the string beans and the black bean noodles. I love noodles and black bean noodles are one of my favorite noodle dishes. Portions are generous and definitely suggest to go to the San Tung next door if it’s your first time, but it’s always packed on that side so this is a good alternative if you don’t want to wait.

San Tung 2 is the destination when the OG location directly beside it is too full. Let’s be honest. We’re all here for the chicken wings. Maybe the dumplings. Definitely the green beans. But mostly for the chicken wings.
I often wondered what the difference between the 2 restaurants were. San Tung 2 had been closed while we ate next door at the original location every time I had been there so I never got to try it out until a few weeks ago. We were told it has a smaller menu than next door. They said they dont have the cold dishes available. Fine by me… We were there for the wings and for the string beans. We put our name on the list and were called within half an hour. This was a little past 5pm. They hadn’t been open for the evening that long (they open at 5pm for dinner) at the time but both restaurants were packed with long wait times. It helped that there were only 2 of us. We were seated by the window out front on high stools. Right in front of the people looking at the menu taped onto the window. Kinda awkward because everyone could see what we were eating but it was ok. At least we were seated.
We went with one order of dry fried chicken wings, one order of garlic string beans, seafood soup and some plain rice. All of my focus was on the wings and string beans as that was all I needed. It was just as tasty and delicious as next door. They really are the most crackinest wings in the city. So good. And the garlic string beans, to me, are the perfect compliment to the wings. So tasty and they are pan fried/​sauteed in a garlic sauce worth writing home about. It was the perfect early dinner on a Saturday evening.
Wings. String beans… all you need. Check, please.

Of course I came here for the chicken wings!!! My boyfriend has never tried it and loved it so much that he wants to make a monthly trip to San Tung.
We ordered the wings, eggplant, peanut noodles and spinach. All were very good, but I probably would not order the eggplant again.
The staff is very friendly and provided great service to us. I will definitely come back… Monthly. :)

Difference between San Tung and San Tung 2 according to the workers: San Tung 2 has a smaller menu. From a customer viewpoint San Tung 2 is smaller, more modern décor, and intimate atmosphere.
We got the shrimp and leek dumplings, original fried chicken wings, garlic spinach, and peanut noodles. So much food for two people! Had to take two containers home, but definitely worth it to try it all since we’re from philly. Wings were crispy and flavorful, a good medium of both compared to other places I’ve been in philly where it’s either really flavorful or just really crispy. Shrimp and leek dumplings were good, not sure if there’s anything special about it except that they give you a lot, I think we had 10 – 12 pieces! (Thought we were going to be given like 6) Peanut noodles were good and the portion was so large, can’t imagine eating that all by myself. Wish it came with more seafood though, nonetheless still good. Garlic spinach was standard, just ordered that to get some veggies in.
Service was standard, people were nice and they weren’t busy at the time so they were attentive.

If you have never heard of San Tung, you’re missing out. Especially if you’re into chicken wings. The most amazing and delicious chicken wings that you’ve ever tasted? I think San Tung nails that description with their original dry-​fried chicken wings.
So if you’ve never heard of San Tung, let me enlighten you. Chicken wings. People make the drive from all sorts of places just to wait in line and get a taste of these delicious and mouth-​watering wings. And because it was such a hit with customers, they opened a second San Tung’s next door to the original one. I’m not sure why this one has much lower ratings than the original, but as I’ve only eaten from San Tung 2 twice AND enjoyed it, I don’t know if there’s that big of a difference.
The first time I tried San Tung’s, the line was quite long and it was almost closing time. We ended up ordering three orders of the original dry-​fried chicken wings and debated on eating it back at my friend’s apartment … or being shameless and eating outside of a liquor store on a public bench. With the AMAZING whiff of sauce from the chicken wings hitting our noses, we knew that we wouldn’t last the few blocks so we opted for the latter. Yep. We sat outside, using chop sticks and fingers trying to quickly eat up the chicken wings because they were that good, but also trying to avoid burning our tongues and mouths. We ended up burning our mouths anyway, but because it was so good, we didn’t mind. We just wanted to continue eating. Even though the chicken seems pretty lackluster, the moment you eat it with the special sauce, something triggers your taste buds to think, «no, I’ve actually never had anything as amazing as this.» It’s not fried to the point of KFC as the chickens are then doused in a sticky sweet sauce that hardens quickly.
So when I came back to San Tung with my family, the line for the original restaurant was horrendous, but there was no wait at San Tung 2. So … of course we headed to the second restaurant.
Garlic Green Beans: They’re good for a vegetable dish, but honestly it’s just a regular green bean dish. You can probably make just as good green beans at home. I wouldn’t say they’re anything spectacular.
Black Bean Noodles: My sister originally saw some type of noodle and asked the waitress what it was. The waitress told us it was the black bean noodles, and when it came out, we were pretty disappointed because it wasn’t the dish we had originally planned on getting. The black bean noodle dish is light in flavor and pretty unique, but for me — I just thought it was bland and tasteless. There were bits and pieces of meat inside, but personally, wasn’t a fan.
Rice: You pay by bowl.
Original Dry-​Fried Chicken Wings: Each order comes with 12 wings, and I don’t think you can do half orders, so we had 2 orders of chicken wings. Even though they were that good, we couldn’t finish it all and had to force ourselves to eat the remaining few wings. But, I’m glad we had rice to complement the sweet sauce of the chicken wings. The rice allowed us to feel as if we were eating a hearty Chinese dinner. After my family tried these wings for the first time, they agreed with me that it was really good. Something about the way they cook it and douse it with the sauce — it doesn’t taste too unhealthy. The chicken is crunchy on the outside with tangy flavor from the sauce seeping in, but upon biting into it, you get mouthfuls of tender chicken.
tl;dr — Yes, I actually wrote detailed paragraphs about how finger-​licking good the chicken at San Tung (1&2) really is. If there’s a long wait at 1, just head to 2 or order take-​out to save time. Original Dry-​Fried Chicken Wings is all you need from San Tung’s. I don’t know if there’s ever no line, so it kinda comes down to luck. You can also call in to order for pick-​up, but I tried that once and they told me they had run out of chicken wings. Definitely give this place a try if you’ve never had it. It’s worth the visit and you’ll leave feeling full and without any regrets.

San Tung 2 is an extension of the original San Tung just next door. San Tung just has too much business so they had to open the second one! I’ve never been to the original location so I don’t have much to say as to why the star ratings would differ when the two places serve the same food, etc. But I will say that my experience at San Tung 2 was perfectly enjoyable.
There’s a bit of a wait (it’s San Tung, after all), but get there early and you won’t have to wait too long. Write your name and number of people in your group on the little whiteboard that’s right next to the entrance. They seat by group size rather than going straight down the list (e.g., if a table of two clears up, they’ll seat another group of 2).
The food is great. The chicken wings (I think it’s called something something dry fried chicken wings on the menu) are amazing as always. It’s similar to Korean style fried chicken wings where the skin isn’t super crispy and the wings are covered in a sauce. I love how the wings are just slightly spicy. The skin is PERFECT — still crispy even when covered in the sticky sweet sauce. The meat is perfectly juicy and tender too. I’m from the 626 area and I can honestly say that I’ve never had chicken wings like this before. Oh yes, also, when you get the wings, be sure to eat them FAST, even though they’re piping hot, because that’s when they’re the BEST and they’re freshly made and if you wait, the sauce will caramelize and it won’t be as good.
We didn’t order too many other items on the menu as our focus was on the wings (3 plates = 3 dozen wings, yikes). We ordered the green beans, which I liked because they weren’t super oily and the crunch is great. We also ordered a veggie + tofu dish which I recommend as well.
The main drawback is, I think, that there’s only one restroom and the lines can get long. People need to wash their hands from the sticky chicken wing sauce!

I had family in town who wanted Chinese for dinner, so I Unilocal’ed and found this place. We originally planned to go to the original San Tung but they were on vacation so we opted for San Tung #2 which was next door. We arrived 30 – 40 mins before they opened at 5pm and there was a line slowly already beginning to form! By opening time, there was a long line down the block!
The food here is DELICIOUS! Their famous chicken wings lived up to its hype. Other notable dishes were their chicken fried rice, honey walnut shrimp, and green string beans! Service was also quick and friendly. They accept credit card, which is pretty rare for a Chinese resturant. I will def be back!

Limited menu, but still offers the basics of what everyone goes to San Tung for (ie: chicken wings, jangjangmyung, dumplings, etc)
Can’t really complain because all the times I’ve been here there was no wait time. Though my second time ordering jangjangmyung here, I felt like there wasn’t enough sauce, calamari, potato, or beef in it. On the bright side, their dry chicken wings haven’t disappointed me yet and keeps me coming back.
On a side note, for San Tung 2, they only accept 1 credit card per table, so heads up if you’re dining in a group.

San Tung #2 only serves the most popular dishes (when compared to the restaurant next door), and there is no crazy wait. :) San Tung #2 also does NOT serve desserts, since the owner of San Tung #2 did not want desserts on the menu. I think this place is family owned, since the wait staff told us that 1 brother manages San Tung and the other brother manages San Tung #2.
The original dry chicken is THE BEST. It reminds me of Korean Bonchon Chicken in Los Angeles. :) Flavors are fabulous, would come here next time just for the chicken wings!
We also ordered black bean noodles (it comes with shrimp, etc.). The portion size of this noodle bowl is huge, and could feed at least 2 – 3 people. Flavors were decent, although mild.
Also ordered a plate of potstickers. These are not ordinary pot stickers, they are HUGE in size! Incredible…

It’s like San Tung #1, but with less options.
Like, waaaaaaaay less options.
So much less that if you order takeout, they only allow you to get the dry fried chicken to go.
Then I got food poisoning.
Think I’ll stick with waiting around for location #1.

Everything was just as I remembered… San Tung #2 definitely has a shorter line for all the same deliciousness.
Spicy black bean noodles —
(cha jjang myun, but better!)
Peanut noodles —
(even comes with scallop and shrimp for less than $ 10?!)
Original dry chicken wings — never fails to deliver
A ton of food for 4 of us to share, and it only came out to $ 10 each!

San Tung #2 might be the offshoot location from the original San Tung, but it hits the spot all the same. I left here satisfied after eating my heart’s content of greasy goodness, but that said I won’t be knocking down the doors to come back anytime soon. The food just doesn’t quite meet the hype.
When you arrive here, you’ll quickly realize that the original San Tung and its next door counterpart serve a pretty similiar menu — so if you’re hungry — it really comes down to whichever place has the shorter wait. For us, this meant San Tung #2 was the move, and I actually ended up preferring it by the end, as it’s basically a slightly less cramped, nicer looking version of the original, plus it has a much shorter wait.
As I mentioned earlier, considering the absurd levels of hype San Tung generates, the food isn’t quite as good as advertised, but that said my expectations were also pretty high. The food ain’t bad, and it’s always fun to fill your taste buds with fried food from a Chinese spot every once in a while. Just be careful not to order too much. Because of the wait, we saw lots of people asking for multiple orders of everything and it didn’t end up well. You’re going to fill up fast, and this isn’t the type of food that keeps well for reheating.
Onto the food:
DRY CHICKEN WINGS — This was the main draw, and I have to say I was a little disappointed. The wings are decent, but for them to be known for them practically around the city didn’t make sense to me. I found myself enjoying the wings that were coated in sauce far more than the ones that weren’t, so the sauce flavor is certainly good. But other than that, the wings just really didn’t do much for me… there’s just nothing really special about the chicken itself. Enjoyable, but certainly disappointing.
BLACK BEAN NOODLES — A solid dish with a very unique flavor (still can’t quite put my finger on it). Heavy, creamy, a little oily, but the end result is somehow pretty good. A word of caution though: there are a lot of different ingredients thrown into the bowl, including what seemed like potatoes and also some still-​to-​be-​identified seafood. Good… but strange.
PORK FRIED RICE — A classic, but still highly suggested. The fried rice is an especially sound option if you order the black bean noodles, as they compliment each other well. But still, you don’t come here for the rice, so a minor victory at best.
OVERALL — I enjoyed my time here, as it’s definitely an experience. If you want to try the famous San Tung chicken, definitely stop by and give it a shot. But at the same time, it’s necessary to realize what this is… it’s basically Chinese fast food in a restaurant setting… which is fine, but 5 star this is not.