If it's not among the top two or three Chinese restaurants in the area, the Five Happiness is unarguably one of the busiest. Its menu is extensive and at least a little adventuresome, and the food seems to always be a touch better than the last time you ate here. The emphasis on the Mandarin classics along the lines of moo shu pork. They seem intentionally to stop short of seriously good food and service, as if these might keep you in your seat a little too long. But you could do a lot worse than to eat here.
With a location convenient to Uptown, Mid-City, Carrollton, and even Metairie, the Five Happiness serves an unusually large pool of customers. Its menu is long and wine, covering everything from the most basic food for people who don't want to get too ethnic to enough ambitious creations to keep an Asian restaurant buff happy. All of this is sold at popular prices. And the take-out operation is very efficient.
Owner Peggy Lee and her family took over the old Chinese standby How Toy in 1978. They renamed and redecorated the modest restaurant, which at the time was one of three businesses in the building. Over the years, the Five Happiness expanded into both other spaces, as well as a former Sizzler steakhouse nearby (the latter for a banquet hall). The Katrina flood sent water to the ceiling and ripped off the roof, but the Lees reopened quickly, first in the banquet facility, then in a completely rebuilt original building.
The large, handsome room is completely new since the storm and much more comfortable than the old. The dominant atmospheric theme is the continual busyness of the place, with waiters and waitresses zooming around and customers moving in and out at a rapid clip.
The early evening hours are busiest, but there's another swell later from the university crowd. The waits are shorter than they may appear. As in all Chinese restaurants, getting take-out reduces the goodness of the food by fifty percent.
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| Environment | 1 |
| Hipness | 0 |
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| Value | 2 |
| Wine | 0 |
