A Chinese restaurant that has quietly become a fixture of South Florida dining is celebrating an achievement few establishments in the industry ever reach — six full decades in business, spanning four generations of one family.
Wan’s Mandarin House, now situated at 664 N. Federal Highway in Fort Lauderdale, kicked off a five-day anniversary celebration on Wednesday, August 12, marking 60 years since its founding. Current owner Alex Kuk says the milestone is meant to honor both the family members who kept the restaurant running through the decades and the generations of customers who have treated it as a second home.
According to Kuk, it’s not unusual for three or four generations of the same family to walk through the door, alongside newer diners experiencing the restaurant for the first time.
The restaurant’s roots trace back to 1966, when Kuk’s great-grandparents opened the original location in Miami. Ownership and operations passed down through the family over the years, with the business relocating multiple times — first within Miami, then to Hollywood, and eventually to Fort Lauderdale, where it has remained since 2005. Kuk’s aunt oversaw the move to the current location before stepping back from daily operations last year, though she reportedly still stops by to greet familiar faces.
Kuk, who grew up in Broward County, took over ownership roughly eighteen months ago. Rather than overhauling what has worked for six decades, he says his focus has been on preserving the restaurant’s traditional cooking methods and hospitality while making thoughtful updates behind the scenes. The kitchen still handles its own butchering, vegetable prep, and dumpling-making by hand, with staff adjusting recipes daily based on ingredient quality — from pepper freshness to the fat content in cuts of pork.
Kuk says maintaining consistency remains the top priority, with the team present every day to ensure standards don’t slip, even as the restaurant enters its seventh decade of serving the community.