Right now there's an explosion of exploration into the Asian-American family experience of the last few decades – Fresh off the Boat on television, Crazy Rich Asians hitting movie theaters this summer, Everything I Never Told You as one of Reese Witherspoon's book club picks. Number One Chinese Restaurant is the next in this rich, newly-minted genre.

This book is rife with family drama between generations. All of the characters present as flawed, but few had enough redeeming qualities for me find them likeable. As a self-proclaimed foodie, I had hoped for more focus on the restaurant's food as a tie to pull all the characters together. Sadly, there wasn't enough delicious description to get me drooling, let alone to use as an excuse for ordering takeout.

Lillian Li's writing is well-crafted, but the story often felt like it was going nowhere; this one is 2 stars for me. The author's debut novel hits shelves on June 19th.

Thanks to NetGalley for an advanced digital copy in exchange for an honest review.

Multi-generational drama in which all of the characters are flawed humans. I liked how there were no clear heroes or villains - just people trying to get by at various levels.

What a wonderful story! The family of the Duck House could be anyone’s family, with all the trials and tribulations. I really enjoyed the book and I recommend it ...it’s a quick and interesting heartfelt story!
Thank you to Netgalley and Henry Holt and company publishers for the perusal. Read this wonderful book..for me, it was like reading my family’s story. I loved all the characters, especially Nan...thank you to author Lillian Li, you wrote a beautifully written tale!!!

*3.75 stars*

There’s a lot of good things to say about this book about a Chinese restaurant and the people who work there. Brothers Jimmy and Johnny Han own the business, but that’s where all similarities end. There’s also Nan and Ah-Jack, employees who have been there since the very beginning, still struggling to make ends meet and untangle their complicated feelings for one another.

It was a compelling read, with lots of soap-operaesque twists and turns. I especially felt for Nan, a single mother raising a son just on the brink of making a series of bad decisions. And I liked the Han matriarch, with her sharp tongue and even sharper mind. I wouldn’t like her as my own mother, however!

So, here’s what I struggled with. This novel is largely a character study, and I personally feel that we should see some arc in character growth. Here, I feel that most (but not all) the players remained stagnant, and that made the ending frustrating.

This is a smaller criticism, but I was also uncomfortable with the descriptions and attitudes toward the “amigos,” the Mexican employees working in the kitchen and as busboys. There are a lot of stereotypes happening there, and while I can accept that some of characters see these individuals in this light, I find it troubling that this is never addressed, but rather viewed as “facts.”

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC.

I expected to like this book. Quite a bit. Didn't. 2.5 but cannot round up as the boredom factor predominated.

I live near Rockville, Maryland, where the Number One Chinese Restaurant/Beijing Duck House is situated. I like books set in my area. And I like books with an ethnic flavor; potentially 2 for 2. But this was MEH. Did. Not. Care.

Setting: A "[restaurant inhabits its]...own world, inhabited by waiters and kitchen staff who have been fighting, loving, and aging within its walls for decades." A "story about youth and aging, parents and children, and all the ways that our families destroy us while also keeping us grounded and alive." All true.

And with quite a cast of characters. The Han family: Jimmy [front and center], his older brother, Johnny and his daughter, Annie. Deceased father. Mother. Long-time employees Nan [and her son, Pat] and Ah-Jack--and his wife, Michelle--and her boyfriend, Gary. The plot thickens. Janine. Who is connected to who? And the seedy Uncle Pang whose presence/interference is everywhere. There's a lot going on in this book. But not enough.

Some humor. "Duck is simply a chicken that takes longer to make." "She had a personality that did not inspire people to be better but persuaded them to be comfortable at their worst." "A wife holds all your secrets. Even the ones that aren't true."

So I kept on plodding through. Glad I finished, but...

Sadly, I just felt like there was a bit too much going on in this one. There was no shortage of family drama, dysfuntion, angst, and even crime thrown in their for good measure. And while the book itself was generally well written I found it jarring to follow the switching perspectives and settings without warning in the middle of a chapter.

I’m torn about this one. On one hand I found it entertaining and finished the novel on the other, the characters fell a bit flat and I found my self getting confused on Jimmy and Johnny as nothing about either really stuck out. Number one Chinese Restaurant does do a good job of weaving first and second generation immigrants daily life and stresses.

The premise of this book really drew me in, however, the execution fell flat. I enjoyed the writing style, with a little bit of humor thrown in. However, the characters fell flat. You don't always "relate" to a character, but you feel some kind of understanding of the character, and perhaps share feelings. There wasn't much of a plot, the characters didn't keep me wanting to read, and about three-quarters of the way in, I just finally gave up.

There are two ways to respond to a family legacy. One way is to try and carry on whatever one’s progenitors created. The other way is to strike out on one’s own to create something new. In Number One Chinese Restaurant, by Lillian Li, Jimmy Han finds a third way: to try and create a new restaurant that will leave the old family Duck House in the dust only to land smack in the middle of possibly irreparable problems. This novel follows Jimmy and a few of the employees of the Duck House at a moment of dynastic crisis, as they face questions about what they want to be and what they want to leave behind.

Number One Chinese Restaurant begins and ends with a conversation between Jimmy and Uncle Pang, a man who is not an actual member of the Han family. Pang, however, is a connected man and those connections have made it possible for the family to create the Duck House when they came from northern China to Maryland. Jimmy plans to open a new restaurant, one that won’t serve cheap Peking duck and Americanized Chinese food. He wants to go upmarket. He also wants to leave Uncle Pang’s favors behind. Unfortunately for Jimmy, Pang is not a man to let a lucrative venture go without a fight. Hours after Jimmy hands over what he thinks is his last payment to Pang, Pang hires a young ne’er do well waiter to burn the Duck House to the ground.

Jimmy trades places as narrator with Ah-Jack and Nan, employees who should’ve retired years ago, and Pat, the budding arsonist. Ah-Jack is a diabetic waiter who is still serving tables because his wife has terminal cancer. Nan has been in love with Ah-Jack for years, so she frets about him as much as she does her son, Pat. Each chapter of Number One Chinese Restaurant shows this handful of characters sinking into problems that they can’t see solutions for. Should Pat turn himself in, will he take down his girlfriend (Jimmy’s niece) with him if he does? Will Ah-Jack and Nan find a way to be together? Will Jimmy’s new venture succeed or go down in metaphorical flames the way the Duck House succumbed to real ones?

These questions sounds like good fodder for an interesting book. There are parts that made for good reading. My problem is that I wasn’t invested in any of the characters—except maybe Ah-Jack, because his problems didn’t come from hubris or a thwarted sense of entitlement. While I can deal with unlikeable characters (as long as I can understand why they’re unlikeable), I have a hard time with characters I just don’t care about. Still, readers who like books that take the quotidian and raise the stakes so that it feels like actual kingdoms are at stake might enjoy Number One Chinese Restaurant.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley, for review consideration. It will be released 19 June 2018.

This was an intriguing family drama, with a colorful cast of characters. However at times for me it felt a little slow.

The female characters get less time on the page (other than Nan) but ultimately felt more likeable and interesting to me. Each of them plays a role (long suffering platonic friend, elderly mother, new love) that is traditionally seen as passive and meek, but as the story continues they are revealed to be much more complex characters who end up providing the story with its heart and its forward momentum.

The men on the other hand are more aimless, more destructive. So it's harder to root for them (Seriously Jimmy. Stop driving drunk everywhere.) I felt like they made for interesting character studies, I just didn't enjoy hanging out inside their heads as much.

Because this is a family drama there isn't a lot of action in this book per se. It's more an examination of relationships: functional and dysfunctional, new and old, positive and negative. Each person in this book uses someone else to get their needs met. While that can seem distasteful at times it is the reality of how most of our closest relationships end up functioning. Ultimately it felt very true and very honest.

Thanks to the author and NetGalley for granting me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

I found the tone of this book a little too lighthearted for my tastes and DNF'd a few pages in. Perhaps more for readers who enjoyed The Wangs versus the World?

Thanks to Henry Holt & Company and NetGallery for this advance reader’s copy in exchange for an honest review. Its general description is amply available on GoodReads, on Amazon and elsewhere.

I truly enjoyed this book. Initially, I had some reservations that it would be another immigrant tale populated by immigrants fumbling along to achieve “the” American dream. Instead, it’s about dreams and hopes and how they change you by having them.
The story quickly drew me into the lives of a Chinese restaurant owner as well as his family and a few of his employees. I appreciated how, at the beginning, Jimmy disdained the business his father had established but later, his feelings changed when he opened his own restaurant. This evolution was subtle but credible and affecting. Various gems included the scenes when a young Jimmy starts an apprenticeship at Koi, a high-end restaurant. His euphoria from being in the rhythm, chaos and beauty of the kitchen is palpable. This high set into motion a powerful longing. His attempt to recapture that experience, that alignment of passion and purpose, propelled the story to the book’s conclusion.

Along the way, we meet two restaurant employees, Nan and Ah-Jack, whose relationship was complex and importantly, compelling. These co-workers spend a lot of time together and develop a dynamic, an almost co-dependent one, that reveals its limitations and strengths as they follow Jimmy to his new business. This parallel story grounded the book, providing a somber but mature contrast to the soap opera antics of Jimmy and his family.

I’ll note two things here. One, this book is rare because the Asian male characters have sex. And more than one Asian man does so. I’m not being flippant. It’s a sad reality that Asian men are emasculated and/or diminished, especially in American white society and too often by female Asian authors (e.g., A. Tan). And two, I cannot understand or accept how grown people hold on to children’s names, e.g., Johnny, Bobby, etc. It is worse when the adults are people of color. And way worst, when the men, as a category, had often been referred to as “boy.” In contrast, the white waiter in this book is named and called as “Tom.”

The Beijing Duck House in Rockville, Maryland is at the center of this tale. The owner, brothers Jimmy and Johnny, have opposing views on how to run the business and hire on staff. Longtime employees Nan and Jack have difficulties with the other staffers as well as with their tumultuous relationship. Nan's son Pat and Johnny's daughter Annie come together out of boredom and loneliness, and soon become implicated in the disaster that befalls the Duck House.

This book is extremely well written, and gives sympathy to otherwise potentially unsympathetic characters. There are a lot of nuances in the relationships for all of the characters, especially those that had been born in China. They carry over their customs and culture, which doesn't translate directly for the first generation born in America. They work hard with little commercial reward, putting on a good front for everyone else. That part will be very familiar for all kinds of readers, not just those of Asian descent or work in restaurants. Seeing behind the curtain into what makes restaurants successful is fascinating, and the descriptions are vivid and really draw you in.

Jimmy really didn't come across as likable to me as I was reading this book. He is angry, bitter, and resentful that he can't get what he wants or works for immediately. A lot of his actions throughout the book didn't really endear him to me, either. I could understand how he felt, but I felt more for Nan and Jack as the book went on. Jimmy and Johnny go through a lot and endure a lot of derision from their mother, which they are powerless to change. Nan and Jack, however, feel as though they're trapped in their situation, and they do the best that they can with it even if nothing ever truly changes. It feels as though the two of them have the most growth and forward momentum, so I have the most hope for them in their future. I suspect that the Han brothers will wind up repeating the same history.

Growing up in the New Jersey suburbs in the mid-1980s, my family ate dinner out nearly every Sunday evening, and more often than not, we ate Chinese food, as did many other families in my town. (I used to joke that there were classmates I saw more regularly at the Chinese restaurant than I did in high school!)

While there were several different Chinese restaurants in our area, and everyone had a favorite, we frequently ate at one particular restaurant, whose owners my parents had known for a number of years. The owner and his wife seemed to have a fascinating relationship, and the high school gossip I was then loved to make up stories about what was going on in their lives, as well as the lives of the other employees. Perhaps those memories were what drew me to Lillian Li's Number One Chinese Restaurant—that, and the fact that Li's book takes place in a suburb of Washington, DC known for its Chinese restaurants.

The Beijing Duck House in Rockville, Maryland, has certainly seen better days, but it's still a favorite among the community's restaurants. The creation of immigrant Bobby Han, the Duck House was once a place where presidents and celebrities dined, but Bobby's death left the restaurant caught between his two sons, the more managerially suited Johnny, and the more impulsive, ambitious Jimmy.

Jimmy has dreams of getting away from his father's legacy and opening a fancier Asian fusion restaurant where he'd never again have to serve the dishes which exhaust and repulse him. But to make his dream possible requires striking a deal with the devil, one who has been on the outskirts of their family for years now, and doesn't know how to take the word "no" for an answer.

When tragedy strikes, it may make the achievement of Jimmy's dreams closer to reality, but it also upends the lives of many others. For longtime employees Nan and Ah-Jack, they are forced to confront the so-called elephant in the room, their friendship/flirtation, and decide whether to pursue something more after 30 years. But if they do, how will this affect Ah-Jack's wife and Nan's rebellious teenage son, Pat?

Pat, a dishwasher at the Duck House since being expelled from high school, is in the midst of a flirtation with Annie, the hostess, who happens to be Jimmy's niece. While Annie has very little love for her father or her family's restaurant, she's not expecting to get pulled into a scheme which threatens to destroy both.

As Jimmy tries to hold on to his dream, he must battle his brother, their seemingly ineffective mother, and the family friend whose menacing presence has always kept everyone on edge. But what does Jimmy really want? Is it making a name for himself, or continuing to bask in the spotlight his father built all these years ago.

There's a lot going on in this book, with no shortage of melodrama, family dysfunction, angst, and even a little crime for good measure. While the different situations the characters find themselves in certainly have potential, they never really grabbed my interest as I had hoped. I don't know if there was too much to digest (no pun intended) all at once, or if it was more that the characters weren't particularly sympathetic, but I felt that the plot really dragged, and never picked up much steam.

If you like stories of family dynamics, you might enjoy this one. The one thing I truly appreciated about this book is that Li didn't spend too much time dwelling on the food, so I didn't get as hungry as I often do when reading books about restaurants and cooks!

NetGalley and Henry Holt & Company provided me an advance copy of the book in exchange for an unbiased review. Thanks for making this available!

Thanks to NetGalley and Henry Holt and Co. for allowing me to read Number One Chinese Restaurant.
Jimmy Han, after the death of his father, struggles to maintain the family restaurant and is convinced opening a new one is the answer to his problems. This book is full of exciting character development, beautiful cultural descriptions, love connections, love breakups, and ever changing character dynamics. The reader hopes everyone finds their dream and is happy in life, but the journey is not always smooth. This book is entertaining and beautifully descriptive of the restaurant and culture.

Plumped in spirit and energy this delightful novel is a tale of families and their relationship with the Duck House restaurant which becomes the pivotal nexus around which all the world turns. Jimmy Han is the central character who wants to leave his father’s restaurant to create a newer utopia in a restaurant of his own design. Other characters include his workers, Nan and Ah-Jack who have a wonderful friendship but hold an undercurrent of surreptitious love. Nan’s son Pat,struggles in school and life, unable to express his emotional needs to his mother, but instead acts out in dangerous ways that lead to a tragic incident. Johnny, Jimmy’s older brother, and Annie his daughter contribute to the turmoil that winds through this family. Rounding this multigenerational saga is their mother, one of the most colorful characters in this terrific novel. Her voice speaks loudly and ultimately holds the power in this story. With black humor, this colorful story exploring the inner lives of the characters is a delight of the senses.

The lives of the employees of the Beijing Duck House in Rockville, Maryland are never dull, and often intertwined. There are marriage break-ups, children who are a disappointment to their parents, parents that are often unavailable when one needs their parent the most. There are angry bosses, incompetent cooks and wait-staff and nights of being blackout drunk. There is also laughter, tears, hope and disappointment. All this and more can be found at the number one chinese restaurant.
I really enjoyed this book. The characters really grabbed your attention and made you feel invested in their story. I look forward to reading many more books by this author!

Loved this book. Didn’t want it to end. Highly recommend.

Love love love. Incredible book. Fabulous book club pick too

I absolutely loved this book. The well developed characters brought life to the story, especially how all of their stories intertwined. Of course, the characters all had the connection of working at the same Chinese Restaurant, but there were more complexities to their individual and combined stories. I loved how it was impossible to root for any of the characters at some points, but you found yourself hoping for them at other points. It was hard to put the book down as it careened through the family dramas of the Number One Chinese Restaurant.

This is a family drama centered around a restaurant, though it really does focus more on Jimmy than any other character. The family dynamics were pretty well-described, but I felt that some of the side characters (Annie, Janine) were a little neglected. Overall, though, an incredibly appealing novel that will find a lot of fans!