Yuen Gam Woo, Restaurateur Who `Made Best Almond Chicken In Town'

Yuen Gam Woo prided himself on the almond-fried chicken he served to hungry customers at his Moon Temple Restaurant in Wallingford.

"He made the best almond chicken in town," said his son, Paul N. Woo. "People kept coming back for it."

Both Paul Woo and his brother, Jack N. Woo, worked as waiters and managers during the 32 years their parents owned the restaurant, popular as a hangout for students from the nearby University of Washington.

"We had several generations of college kids eat there," said Jack Woo. "It was almost like the Blue Moon (tavern) of the area, a nice hangout for college students because the prices were reasonable and the food plentiful."

When Mr. Woo was 75 years old, he and his wife, Wong Shee Woo, reluctantly decided it was time to sell the popular Cantonese restaurant to a group of employees. Both sons had other careers and weren't interested in taking over the business. After three decades of nonstop work, it was a hard decision, remembers Paul Woo.

"He was a workaholic and was happiest when he was working," said Paul Woo, recalling that his parents never went on vacation while they owned the restaurant because it was impossible to find substitute cooks. Often the couple would spend 15 hours, seven-days-a-week at the eatery working side-by-side in the kitchen, not getting home until 3 or 4 a.m.

Mr. Woo, 85, died Jan. 17 after a brief illness. Services were held Saturday.

Mr. Woo was a member of one of the first Chinese families to settle in Seattle. His grandparents, Woo Ham Yew and Woo Chin, came here in 1872 to operate a small laundry business at Main and Commercial streets downtown. Mr. Woo's father, born in 1878, returned to China in 1901 to marry.

Mr. Woo was born in China's Taishan County in 1906, coming to the U.S. when he was 15 years old to help his father in the family laundry business, then on East Howell Street.

In 1924, Mr. Woo returned to China to marry. That marriage had been arranged during his and his perspective bride's childhoods.

He stayed in China three years, coming back to Seattle to work and send money back to his wife and, later, two sons.

"It was pretty tough to bring her over," Paul Woo said. "He didn't have enough money at the time and immigration laws were very tight."

Finally, in 1939, the family was reunited, getting out of China right before World War II started. Mr. Woo and his wife never returned to their homeland, though Paul Woo said he tried in vain to have them accompanying him on a trip to China.

Before starting the restaurant in 1949, Mr. Woo enjoyed trout fishing on Lake Washington and gardening at the family's Beacon Hill home. He also was a founder of the Luck Ngai Musical Society, formed to promote and perpetuate the art of Cantonese opera. Mr. Woo played in the orchestra and acted and sang in the operas.

During the war, the society staged operas to raise funds for Chinese victims of the war. The society continues today, performing to raise funds for charities, according to Paul Woo.

Mr. Woo was a member of the Gee How Oak Tin Association, Yee Goon Woo Family Association and Bing Kung Tong, a fraternal group.

Even after retiring, Mr. Woo continued to cook gourmet meals for family and friends, said Jack Woo. At least twice a week he would invite his children and grandchildren over to his Beacon Hill home, where he lived until his death.

"My father followed the pattern of most first-generation Chinese, owning a laundry and then a restaurant," said Paul Woo. "The opportunities were so much better here that even if there was discrimination he didn't feel it. He never complained; that's the way it was. He was very happy to be here. This way of life was way better than China."

Mr. Woo was preceded in death in 1990 by his wife of 66 years. Besides his two sons, both of Seattle, there are five grandchildren.

Memorials are suggested to a charity of the donor's choice.