Macky's Is Back in Town

The duck, when it arrived, was awesome—crisp skin over fat over dark meat still moist and fragrant with duck's gamy perfume. Fook had gone after it with a cleaver, leaving it in rough chunks that, if reassembled, would almost make up half a real duck again.

The plum sauce, however, I wasn't crazy for. It tasted of melted SweeTarts and 10 pounds of sugar—too sweet for the savory meat in front of me. But the duck I sucked clean off the shattered bits of bone, then turned to the crispy beef (served in a thick, dark, sweet sauce of ginger and garlic and topped with the rattling, dry pods of Szechuan chiles) and made that vanish like it was garnished with $100 bills.

Peter Mumford

Just try to say no to these dumpling hustlers.

Location Info

Map

Macky's Dim Sum

317 NW Gilman Blvd.
Issaquah, WA 98027

Category: Restaurant > Chinese

Region: Issaquah

Photos

0 user reviews	Write A Review
Save to foursquare	0

Details

Macky's Dim Sum 317 N.W. Gilman Blvd., Issaquah, 425-391-7200. 11 a.m.–9:30 p.m. Mon.–Fri., 9:30 a.m.–9:30 p.m. Sat.–Sun.

Related Content

• Moisture Festival
  March 14, 2012
• Comfort Comes in Noodle Form at Chiang's Gourmet
  January 9, 2012
• Issaquah Students Face 90-Day Suspension and Possible Criminal Charges for Drinking at Homecoming
  October 28, 2011
• Rachel Bilson Singing Sheryl Crow Heats Up Time Out Issaquah's Karaoke Night
  September 30, 2011
• Issaquah Gunman's Motive Still a Mystery to Police
  September 26, 2011

More About

• Steve Katsandres
• Sonny Wong
• Shanghai
• Main Dish Recipes
• Food and Cooking

Like this Story?

Sign up for the Dining Newsletter: The week's top local food news and events, plus interviews with chefs and restaurant owners, dining tips, and a peek at our print review.

Privacy Policy Cancel Continue

After that came the pork chops in coffee sauce—a strange mix of flavors with a high note of honey and a deep, dark base of espresso that I found overpowering and distracting. The sauce was clotty—thick and lumpy like scratch gravy—which might've been fine except that the coffee flavor was so strong that I couldn't stop thinking of drinking a steaming mug of chunky java while I was eating. I made it through half the plate before having the remainder boxed, pleading a surfeit of duck and chicken wings and eyes bigger than my stomach.

Just a few months in, things are still coming together at Macky's. The room is there. The crowds are coming—finding it slowly, as I did, as a dim sum joint first and a regular Chinese restaurant second. The menu is still in flux, still trying to reach that ideal balance of authenticity, uniqueness, and ease without slipping over the edge into suburban American shopping-plaza banality. But considering Macky and Sonny's years in the business, I have no doubt that they'll find their proper groove on Gilman—somewhere between the chicken feet and the shu mai, the crispy beef and the coffee sauce.

And with Sonny working the floor, handing out his phone number, always talking up his ducks, his pumpkins, and his cook, I know I won't be able to help but go back.

jsheehan@seattleweekly.com

Price Check
  Dim sum  $2–$5
  BBQ roast duck  $13/$24
  Crispy beef  $12
  Coffee pork chop  $13