Mogu Modern Chinese Kitchen opens in Hauppauge
"Kung Wow" black-pepper chicken at Mogu Modern Chinese Kitchen. Credit: Newsday/Erica Marcus
With the opening of its third restaurant, in Hauppauge, Mogu Modern Chinese is a little closer to its goal of changing the Chinese food landscape on Long Island. A tight menu of Chinese American classics is prepared here without woks or fryolators, and if the greaseless egg rolls are stuffed with mushrooms and leeks and served with sriracha aioli, if the “popcorn” wontons are crisped and browned in an air fryer, if the “Kung Wow” chicken lacks any hint of glop — they are all recognizably good-old Chinese takeout.
The Hauppauge Mogu, which opened on Wednesday, is the first tenant in a new three-story office building on Motor Parkway just off the Long Island Expressway. At 2,000 square feet, it is larger than its predecessors in Farmingdale (2020) and Commack (2022) and it also has more seats (65 plus more outdoors in good weather), a dining bar and three kiosks to facilitate takeout orders.
Hauppauge’s décor is the same jaunty blend of warm wood and leafy greens, and all three menus are identical: Chinese American favorites such as wonton soup, dumplings (pork, vegetable and spicy “Impossible” beef), scallion pancakes, and chicken with broccoli, as well as cold sesame noodles, sauteed string beans with seared tofu, "farm-fresh sauté" (with big shrimp and crisp-tender vegetables), and the "king & steak" — tender hunks of flank steak with meaty king oyster mushrooms and seared Brussels sprouts.
While authentic, regional Chinese cuisine is taking hold all over Nassau and Suffolk, Mogu founder Mike Wang noted that traditional mom-and-pop Chinese takeouts are under threat. Among the challenges they face are the physical difficulty of cooking everything in screaming-hot oil in a heavy wok and, most of all, a profound labor shortage. "Cooking in a wok requires tremendous skill," he explained when the first Mogu opened. "With fewer people coming here from China, and very few children of Chinese immigrants interested in doing this — it’s increasingly difficult to find people who know how to cook this way."
And so, working with his mother, Jen Li (of Jen’s Chinese Food in Massapequa) and MIT engineers, Wang came up with an "automatic wok-cooking platform" with a blade that mimics the flipping action of an expertly wielded wok and with a superheated surface that senses ingredients as they cook. Each dish has its own algorithm and "cooks" need only add the requisite ingredients.
Wang, Li and their partners are already working on their next locations: Woodbury (April), Mineola (September) and then Lake Success, Deer Park and Stony Brook. They also operate a Mogu with an abbreviated menu at UBS Arena in Elmont.
Mogu Modern Chinese Kitchen is at 410 Motor Pkwy., Hauppauge, 631-257-3834, moguchinese.com.
With the opening of its third restaurant, in Hauppauge, Mogu Modern Chinese is a little closer to its goal of changing the Chinese food landscape on Long Island. A tight menu of Chinese American classics is prepared here without woks or fryolators, and if the greaseless egg rolls are stuffed with mushrooms and leeks and served with sriracha aioli, if the “popcorn” wontons are crisped and browned in an air fryer, if the “Kung Wow” chicken lacks any hint of glop — they are all recognizably good-old Chinese takeout.
The Hauppauge Mogu, which opened on Wednesday, is the first tenant in a new three-story office building on Motor Parkway just off the Long Island Expressway. At 2,000 square feet, it is larger than its predecessors in Farmingdale (2020) and Commack (2022) and it also has more seats (65 plus more outdoors in good weather), a dining bar and three kiosks to facilitate takeout orders.
Hauppauge’s décor is the same jaunty blend of warm wood and leafy greens, and all three menus are identical: Chinese American favorites such as wonton soup, dumplings (pork, vegetable and spicy “Impossible” beef), scallion pancakes, and chicken with broccoli, as well as cold sesame noodles, sauteed string beans with seared tofu, "farm-fresh sauté" (with big shrimp and crisp-tender vegetables), and the "king & steak" — tender hunks of flank steak with meaty king oyster mushrooms and seared Brussels sprouts.
While authentic, regional Chinese cuisine is taking hold all over Nassau and Suffolk, Mogu founder Mike Wang noted that traditional mom-and-pop Chinese takeouts are under threat. Among the challenges they face are the physical difficulty of cooking everything in screaming-hot oil in a heavy wok and, most of all, a profound labor shortage. "Cooking in a wok requires tremendous skill," he explained when the first Mogu opened. "With fewer people coming here from China, and very few children of Chinese immigrants interested in doing this — it’s increasingly difficult to find people who know how to cook this way."
And so, working with his mother, Jen Li (of Jen’s Chinese Food in Massapequa) and MIT engineers, Wang came up with an "automatic wok-cooking platform" with a blade that mimics the flipping action of an expertly wielded wok and with a superheated surface that senses ingredients as they cook. Each dish has its own algorithm and "cooks" need only add the requisite ingredients.
Wang, Li and their partners are already working on their next locations: Woodbury (April), Mineola (September) and then Lake Success, Deer Park and Stony Brook. They also operate a Mogu with an abbreviated menu at UBS Arena in Elmont.
Mogu Modern Chinese Kitchen is at 410 Motor Pkwy., Hauppauge, 631-257-3834, moguchinese.com.
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