Eat Up Havana: Chinese Food Favorite Is Back After Decade-Long Break

Over a decade ago, former Westword food editor Mark Antonation began his food-writing career by eating his way up Federal Boulevard. Now, we’re turning our attention to another vibrant culinary corridor.

The four-plus-mile stretch of Havana Street between Dartmouth and Sixth Avenue in Aurora is home to the most diverse array of international cuisine available in the metro area. From restaurants and markets to take-and-go shops and stands, food lovers of nearly any ethnicity or interest can find a place that will remind them of home or open new culinary doors. In Eat Up Havana, Antony Bruno will visit them all, one by one, week by week. Check out his previous stops.

This week, Bruno visits Chef Lui’s Kitchen:

Lately, it seems like there’s news of another favorite restaurant closing every week. And while many new restaurants open in their place as part of the ever-running circle of life, rarely do you hear about a once-shuttered restaurant coming back to life. 

That alone is reason enough to celebrate the quiet return of Chef Liu’s Kitchen on Aurora’s South Havana Street. 

A Welcome Return

Chef Liu’s Kitchen is the rebirth of Chef Liu’s Authentic Chinese Cuisine, which for years won the hearts of both diners and critics alike for its traditional take on Szechuan cuisine.

In 2014, it was our Best of Denver pick for Best Chinese Restaurant. When it closed later that year, we lamented, “there are far too few top-quality regional Chinese restaurants in the metro area. This is a real loss to the diversity of the Denver dining scene.”

The reason for the closure was the retirement of owner Zeng Liu, who moved to Oregon after shuttering his namesake restaurant. But that move proved short-lived. Liu and his family returned to Denver in 2020, and he has been looking and waiting for the right spot to return ever since.

He’d been eying Havana Street in particular (the original location was five miles east on Chambers Road), so when the former Menya spot became available in Havana Plaza, Liu jumped at the opportunity and began the rebuilding process. 

The doors opened on Saturday, September 20 in Hanava Plaza next to Coffee Story. While it’s been over a decade years since Liu manned a wok in Denver, opening night at the new restaurant felt as if he hadn’t missed a beat. The menu remains primarily focused on the Szechuan and Northern Chinese dishes he’s trained in, with a smattering of Cantonese fare.

The Hot, the Cold, and the American

The first question any in-the-know fan of Chinese cuisine asks about a restaurant is whether it serves traditional Chinese or American Chinese food. The answer here is a little bit of both. Scanning the menu, you’ll see such American Chinese staples as crabmeat cheese wontons, kung pao, sweet and sour, and sesame dishes. But they’re listed alongside more traditional (and far more interesting) options like spicy and sour potato strips, twice-cooked pork belly, and a spicy fish filet with either silky tofu, pickled mustard greens or numbing chile oil.  

While some Chinese restaurants offer separate American Chinese and Chinese menus (occasionally written only in Chinese), Chef Liu’s combines them into one clipboard accessible to all. The place to focus on is the Chef’s Recommendations section, which lists such enticing choices as a chong qing spicy crispy chicken, Peking-style shredded pork in soy paste, and sliced beef and ox tongue in chile sauce.

A notable standout is the enticingly named Mouth Watering Chicken, a cold dish of poached chicken covered in a chile and soy paste oil on top of smashed cucumbers. Also known as kou shui ji or hongyou chicken, the translation is more accurately “saliva chicken,” but it is commonly called “mouth watering” instead for Western eyes. Don’t let the cold dish thing stop you. When you name a dish “mouth watering,” it had better deliver, and boy does it.

With Sichuan cuisine, we need to talk a bit about heat levels. China’s a big place, with many regions known for their unique cuisines. Not all are considered spicy. Cantonese cuisine, for instance, is not known for spice. Sichuan cuisine is. 

So when you see two or three chile peppers on the menu of a Sichuan restaurant, you’d better pay attention. But it’s not Hot Ones painful hot. More like a warm, pleasant hot. But still…hot. 

The Szechuan green beans with minced pork, for instance, has one chile icon on the menu. You won’t immediately comment on the heat while eating it, but halfway through, you’ll wonder where the beads of sweat on your forehead came from. The braised beef noodle soup with spicy mala is a bit less subtle — you may see someone eating that with beads of sweat dripping off their nose. 

Wok Hei Hey!

The space is a far cry from the original Chef Liu’s. Whereas the old restaurant boasted dark wood and green floral carpet, the new space is small but welcoming, with craftsy wooden sconces and chandeliers brightening the room. 

Be sure to grab a table near the front of the dining area to sneak a peek past the counter at chef Liu working the wok. The furious stirring and flashing flames are not only good theater, but also a chance to witness the creation of the elusive “wok hei” that characterizes the best applications of Chinese cuisine. 

Wok hei is a Cantonese term meaning “breath of the wok,” which is the hard-to-define and short-lived flavor created by the searing, steaming and smoking activity that tossing food over the crazy high heat of a commercial wok can produce. 

The four-page menu has enough familiar items and interesting outliers that you’d need to visit several times to try everything that piques your curiosity. Fortunately, the quality and flavors provide compelling reasons to do just that. 

Chef Liu’s Kitchen is located at 2222 South Havana Street in Aurora and is open from 11 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and until 9 p.m. Friday and Saturday. For more information, visit chefliuaurora.com. 

All the previous Eat Up Havana stops:

• Old Town Hot Pot
• Leezakaya
• Chutney Indian Cuisine
• El Tequileno
• Milkroll
• Shin Myung Gwan Korean BBQ
• Watan Restaurant & Bakery
• Las Fajitas
• Mr. Tang
• Nana’s Dim Sum & Dumplings
• Yemen Grill
• Tofu House
• Sushi Katsu
• Coco Loco
• Ali Restaurant & Bakery
• Thank Sool Pocha
• Taqueria Corona
• Hanyang Wang Jokbal
• Coffee Story
• Tofu Story
• Havana Street Night Markets
• Seoul BBQ & Hot Pot (the Hot Pot)
• Seoul BBQ & Hot Pot (the BBQ)
• Pho 75
• Yong Gung
• Chopsticks A GoGo
• Angry Chicken
• L Cafe & Food Court
• Gangnam GT Lounge & Karaoke
• Katsu Ramen
• Dae Gee
• Snowl