After six years, David’s Mai Lai Wah reopens its renovated dining room, complete with a new cocktail bar
Chinatown institution David's Mai Lai Wah has reopened its dining room and it lives up to its name meaning "beautiful magnificence." Owner David Chan's daughter, Priscilla, has taken the reins.
While the pandemic didn’t fully close Chinatown mainstay David’s Mai Lai Wah, it did shutter its dining room. First opened in 1982 by Hong Kong native David Chan, it became legendary over the years both for its food — in particular, its salt and pepper chicken wings, their spicy, crowd-pleasing adaptation of the classic Cantonese dish made with squid — and for catering to a sometimes rowdy late-night crowd, which started in 1992.
Since 2020, David’s Mai Lai Wah has only operated as a takeout restaurant (with no delivery), despite its now-vintage neon sign proclaiming “Eat In Take Out” remaining lit up through the partial closure.
But on Monday, David’s Mai Lah Wah quietly opened up its dining room again, and the renovations were significant. The uneven floor was leveled and completely replaced. Gone are the rickety dining tables covered in pink tablecloths and tamped down with glass table tops. They’ve been exchanged for rectangular tables (with no linens) that flank either side of the room. A new bar glows under a new green neon sign of the Chinese characters “Mai Lai Wah” — a phrase that means “beautiful magnificence.”
Now, the interior lives up to the name.
The mirrored wall on one side of the dining room remains, but the other walls are papered over with vibrant photographs depicting many of Hong Kong’s famous neon signs. Walking in the door now feels like walking into a diorama of Hong Kong’s Wan Chai district, famous for its concentrations of classic neon.
Another image shows Philadelphia’s Chinatown Friendship Arch. The real one is just a few steps outside of the restaurant’s door.
“We had the photos made into wallpaper to create a mix of where [my father] was and where he is now,” said Priscilla Chan, 33. “When he came to Philly he was only 13 years old. His mom sent him here to stay with his uncle, who worked in restaurants and he’s been working in restaurants ever since.”
And restaurant work took a toll. “During COVID, we closed for two weeks and then remained closed because we were still able to do business and at that point my dad was tired,” said Chan. The boisterous late-night crowds also took their toll. He was “sick of all the fighting that would happen at nighttime,” said Chan.
Renovations on the restaurant didn’t start until this past February. Everything was done slowly as David’s Mai Lai Wah remained open for takeout.
The renovated dining room marks a changing of the guard. “My dad is still the owner but he wanted me to start taking things on for him,” said Chan, who was working as a nurse until she and her engineer husband (who had also worked in restaurants), Barry Li, both left their jobs to run David’s.
“We bought a house in July, got married in August, and now it’s September and we’ve reopened dine-in,” she said.
Chan is now the restaurant’s general manager. She and Li overhauled their point-of-sale system as she familiarized herself with the operation. When she started, “They wrote everything down by hand and brought it to the kitchen. We slowly introduced new things.” She cast a critical eye on what items were selling and what items were not, and what cost too much in labor.
“I know a lot of people really love the roast duck but it’s incredibly difficult and really expensive,” she said. “One day we might try to bring it back, but right now, we’re concentrating on opening, finding our flow and focusing on the big staples, like the salt and pepper series.” (In addition to the famous chicken wings, David’s Mai Lai Wah serves salt and pepper shrimp and scallops .)
Li designed a trendy cocktail menu with a yuzu margarita, a gingery take on an Old Fashioned, and an espresso martini made with Vietnamese coffee.
“We’re excited to welcome in old regulars,” said Chan. “But please don’t fight in here.”
David’s Mai Lai Wah is open for dine-in and takeout (no delivery) from 4 p.m. to 2:15 a.m. Last call for drinks is at 2 a.m.
David’s Mai Lah Wah, 1001 Race St., 215-627-2610, mailaiwah.com
