Hmong Buffet Coming to National Avenue
Takeout-focused restaurant ChueYee's will offer up to 30 dishes each day.
Site of ChueYee’s, 3800 W. National Ave. Photo taken March 5, 2024 by Sophie Bolich.
A new restaurant from Joanna and Xeng Yang would bring authentic Hmong cuisine to the South Side, offering flavorful foods with a nod to both the family’s ancestral heritage and its future.
ChueYee’s, named for the couple’s youngest son, is slated to open at 3800 W. National Ave. The upcoming restaurant would operate as a buffet, serving both meat-based and vegetable dishes including pork belly, noodles, egg rolls, salads and more.
The buffet aims to be user-friendly and fully customizable, Xeng said, noting that customers will be able to pick and choose from the full spread, building a simple meal or sampling a bit of everything.
Food will be portioned into styrofoam containers and priced by weight. Xeng said he expects the buffet to feature 20 to 30 different dishes each day.
Xeng said he’ll be doing most of the cooking at the restaurant, drawing from past experience as a chef and restaurateur in the city. And he has plenty. The Yangs previously owned a similar restaurant, Jackie’s Cafe, on the Northwest Side, but sold the business several years ago. They have also been operating a catering business for six years.
In addition to housing ChueYee’s, the Silver City building will serve as a base kitchen for the couple’s catering operation. The company offers appetizers, noodle dishes, rotisserie meats, seafood and rice, along with sandwiches like banh mi and entrees including orange chicken, pepper steak and more.
A full catering menu is available to view online.
ChueYee’s is slated to open in a two-story building located just across the street from Pakeng Palace, a banquet hall that recently added a public-facing bar and restaurant. The corner building was previously home to Thai Lotus, which operated at the address for approximately a decade.
The restaurant, which will focus on carryout service, has not requested a liquor license. If all goes according to plan, Xeng said ChueYee’s could open by late April or early May.
Once open, the restaurant’s proposed hours of operation are Tuesday through Sunday from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.
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