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Ten Fu restaurant closes in Menlo Park

by Jane Knoerle

Ten Fu Chinese Restaurant has been sold to Fey Enterprise LLC of San Mateo. Its owners, Ruth and John Wang, are retiring after 28 years in business at 1352 El Camino Real in Menlo Park.

The restaurant closed Sept. 29. After extensive remodeling, it will re-open as a Chinese restaurant around Christmas, according to the Wang's son, Joseph.

With Ruth as hostess and John as chef, the Wangs attracted a loyal clientele. Ten Fu (means heavenly blessings) was the kind of place where they recognized you and remembered what table you preferred.

Their menu featured at least 15 chicken dishes and 19 beef dishes, but the most popular dish was honey walnut prawns, a combination of prawns, mayonnaise, honey and glazed walnuts, which tastes much better than it sounds. Ten Fu chicken — crispy chicken in a hot and spicy garlic sauce — was another favorite.

For more than 10 years, Mr. Wang demonstrated how to make hand-pulled noodles to the children at Laurel and Encinal schools. He even let the kids try their hand at stretching the rope of dough into noodles, a technique he learned at culinary school in Taiwan. He also brought along generous helpings of chow mein, so they could sample the finished product.

Ruth and John Wang moved here from Taiwan in 1980. Ruth was born in Korea; John was born in China. They have raised their two sons, Joseph and Timothy in Menlo Park, while running the restaurant. There are now three grandchildren.

A year-and-a-half ago, John suffered a heart attack. He has made a complete recovery, but it caused the couple to think about how they wanted to spend the rest of their life and they are taking it in a new direction.

A deeply religious man, John is a member of the Forerunner Christian Church in Fremont. Next year he will travel to China to do missionary work and Ruth will be going with him.