Peking Dynasty
Margaret Kuo’s Wayne celebrates 15 years in business
RADNOR » When the Wayne Business Association snipped the ribbon on Margaret Kuo’s Restaurant and Sushi Bar at 175 E. Lancaster Ave. last week in recognition of its 15th anniversary, loyal customers, local dignitaries, business colleagues, and family and friends gathered to celebrate the award-winning restaurant and to honor its community-minded owners, Margaret and Warren Kuo.
“No matter what you do in life, you should try to do your best,” Margaret said. “Warren and I have always run our restaurants with honesty, integrity and passion.”
As soon as one enters Margaret Kuo’s Wayne, the décor, furniture, antiques and architecture make it obvious that this 11,500 square-foot restaurant is no ordinary place to dine. The walls and coves in the authentic Chinese and Japanese restaurant are filled with awards and framed certificates of achievement, setting it apart from others, before the award-winning food is even tasted. Year after year, Margaret Kuo’s has consistently won Best Of Chinese and Best of Japanese in all three Main Line newspapers, Best of the Main Line in Main Line Today Magazine, including Best Service in 2017, Best of Philly awards in Philadelphia Magazine, including Best Spring Rolls, a Panache award from the Philadelphia Restaurant Association and received Zagat ratings of excellence and a three bell review by Crag Laban of the Philadelphia Inquirer. Zagat’s listed Margaret Kuo’s as one of America’s Best Sushi Bars. Warren Kuo is also a 10time winner of Wine Spectator’s Award of Excellence, including Best Restaurant Wine List.
The road to their optimal success came from hard work, perseverance and their desire to bring authentic Chinese and Japanese cuisine to their customers. When Margaret was a young woman in Taiwan in the 1960s, she came to the U.S. to study at the University of Connecticut. It was there that she met Warren, who also was from Taiwan. After getting married 45 years ago, Margaret worked as a teacher for one year. The young couple moved to the Philadelphia area because Warren took a job at the former Women’s Medical College of Pennsylvania as a research chemist and agreed to manage a friend’s restaurant in King of Prussia. When Warren became ill and unable to work, Margaret turned to the restaurant business, opening her own place.
The famed restaurateur said that she conceived the idea to open a restaurant after her parents came for a visit. Warren and Margaret took the older couple to a very nice Chinese restaurant, where the menu listed entrees that were named the same as dishes enjoyed by the family in China. However, when the dishes were served, Margaret’s parents, Ming Hsiao and Yung Miao, did not recognize the food of their homeland. It was then that Margaret spotted the niche for authentic Chinese cuisine and set out to learn all she could so that she could open a place that would satisfy even the most discriminating palates. She not only opened one such restaurant, but continued to successfully open and operate others.
Her first restaurant was Peking in the Granite Run Mall, which was a running success for 40 years until the mall’s closure in 2015. The Kuos are currently in negotiations with the mall’s owner to determine if they will be a part of the new mixed use development currently under construction. They recently shared that they are “98 percent sure that they will return there, after ironing out a few more details before signing on the dotted line.” If they return, the new restaurant will have outdoor seating and a more modern, contemporary design than the former Peking, they said.
Margaret Kuo’s Mandarin in Malvern, celebrating 31 years, Margaret Kuo’s Media, celebrating 26 years, and Margaret Kuo’s Wayne, celebrating 15, followed the success of Peking. The Kuos also are now in the Lancaster County Farmers Market in Wayne.
Margaret Kuo’s Media became the very first restaurant on State Street, paving the way for the borough’s restaurant explosion of the last 10 years.
After opening Peking, Margaret Kuo is credited with being one of the first in the Philadelphia area to introduce authentic Taiwanese cuisine, authentic northern Chinese cuisine, Shanghai steamed pork soup bun, authentic Peking duck, and General Tso’s Chicken. She also introduced scallion pancakes, which she said her mom made for her sons Mark and Paul when they were younger and would stay over their grandmother’s house in Wilmington, Del.
“I knew how much my sons loved them, so I figured, why not add them to our menu,” she commented.
In fact, Margaret’s Mom taught Margaret how to cook many traditional dishes for Peking, most of which she still serves in all of her restaurants today. Her father helped her to recruit master chefs for Peking when she opened, who taught her authentic cooking methods and recipes. Margaret made the menu as sophisticated as the décor at Peking, introducing more upscale authentic Chinese foods, rather than the typical Chow Mein or Egg Fu Yung found on other restaurants’ menus.
At first customers were leery of the more refined Chinese dishes, she said, because they weren’t used to authentic Asian dishes. However, critics gave the food thumbs up praise and stellar reviews and the customers started pouring in.
Margaret said that some of the most popular foods at her restaurants include her whole fish, her dim sum dishes, Taiwanese Night Market foods, Peking Duck and dumplings, spring rolls and seafood entrees, to name only a few.
The grand dame of the Delaware Valley dining scene said that people recognize the authenticity in her food and appreciate that it’s the “real deal.” In addition to the excellent food and top-rated service, customers also like the atmosphere at her restaurants, she stated.
Margaret Kuo’s Wayne is like two restaurants in one. After stepping through the grandly dragon-pillared entranceway, customers find themselves in the Dragon’s Lair dining room, tastefully decorated in a variety of imported antiques, art and artifacts from Mainland China, pieces in Warren Kuo’s extensive collection of oriental art. Each room has plenty to view and admire, everything from gongs and vases to lamps and sculptures. The downstairs also has some private dining rooms to accommodate 1530 people, with each room emphasizing the cultural significance of the Ming Dynasty. The basement has a large room for even bigger banquets.
“We can accommodate parties of six-100 people,” Warren stated.
Upstairs, on the second floor, the world of Japan is embraced in the Akiri Room. Designed by Terup Sakata, an architect from Tokyo, the Akiri Room includes a bar with a peaceful Zen garden of rocks and sand under glass, a Sushi Bar, private cushioned high-back booths, cozy alcoves for dining and two intimate tatami private rooms, including one that’s designed with a table for diners to sit on the floor in traditional Japanese dining style.
BUSINESS » PAGE 16