Happiness Chinese Restaurant

The building on East Sprague doesn't look like much from the street, but Happiness does a solid job where it counts. The portions are big and everything comes out piping hot. My go-to orders are the almond chicken and the house special lo mein.

Happiness opened on East Sprague in October 2014, in the space that had been Peking Garden. When the Inlander wrote it up the following spring, the owner was also the chef — Kingsley Chen, who had spent eleven years cooking in his uncle's restaurant in Portland before coming to Spokane — and his sister Natalie was running the floor. The menu is a long one, running from the American-Chinese standards through a section of sizzling platters and Yu Hsing–style dishes, and the hot and sour soup and the crab puffs are among the items the restaurant itself marks as popular. For two or more, the family-style dinners bundle soup, an appetizer plate, fried rice, and entrées into a single order.

Check the day before you go: Happiness is closed Mondays, and the lunch menu stops at 2:30. The menu is deep enough that it pays to know what you're after, or to lean on the family dinner and let it do the choosing. Portions run generous, so plan on leftovers. It's a neighborhood Chinese restaurant doing what a good one should.