An extensive 16 page menu in a beautiful laminated menu cover with an image of The Imperial Wedding  from the Imperial Museum. Ming's Villa Menu . located in Palo Alto California. Dated Spring  1996 . Measures about 9" x 12 1/2"when closed. Has the History of Ming's and an amazing list of Chinese Dishes.  This iconic restaurant closed in 2014


Due to the size limitations of my scanner, the entire menu may not show in some of the scans.  

From the Mercury News

PALO ALTO — To its last day, Ming’s satisfied diners’ eyes and palates and also tugged at their hearts. After 58 years, the iconic Chinese restaurant closed its doors for the last time Sunday, as hundreds of customers dined and reminisced about banquets, reunions, business lunches and especially family dinners. Owner Vicky Ching, 69, plans to raze the award-winning building and redevelop it as an extended-stay hotel. A scaled-down and reinvented Ming’s will return in about two years.

“I’ve been coming here from the beginning of time,” said Karen Fry, of Palo Alto, who was enjoying lunch with friends. “We learned how to use chopsticks here.” Like other diners, they enjoyed the restaurant’s signature Chinese chicken salad and Ming’s beef. Other favorites were specialties like egg rolls and pork dumplings, some of the savory and sweet small dishes of Ming’s Chinese Cuisine and Bar’s famed dim sum menu. 

Head dim sum chef Vincent Li, 62, teared up when asked about the closing. But later Li, who has worked at Ming’s for 29 years, laughed and said he was doing OK, as he turned out scallion pancakes and shrimp rolls.

The first Chinese fine dining restaurant on the mid-Peninsula, Ming’s opened in 1956 on El Camino Real. It soon became the destination for families hosting special occasions, Stanford staff and student gatherings and pre-Silicon Valley meetings. After El Camino was widened and displaced the restaurant, Ming’s relocated to Embarcadero Road east of Bayshore Freeway. With its high ceilings and elegant decor, “it really deserved the name ‘Ming’s'” — one of China’s famed dynasties — said historian Connie Young Yu, of Los Altos Hills. Her father, John C. Young, had started the restaurant, along with famed San Francisco restaurateur Johnny Kan, George Chow and George Hall — who designed and popularized the lazy Susan that’s become ubiquitous in Chinese restaurants. It was also a popular eating spot for the Stanford football team, who ate there after every home game. Dan Lee, another Ming’s founder who got a coveted place on the field’s sidelines, remembered many customers and greeted them by name. “Dan was always very welcoming,” said Gordon Campbell, a former Stanford team physician and Palo Alto doctor. “We all brought our children here,” said Campbell’s wife, Joan.

When Ching acquired the business in 1991, she continued Lee’s close rapport with customers. “It’s such a great place for a big group,” said Catherine Ross Stoll, who had her wedding rehearsal dinner at Ming’s. Her mother, Marde Ross, of Glen Ellen in the wine country, celebrated her 60th birthday there. Family-style dining is central to Ching, who fondly recalls weekly meals at noodle shops in Taipei, Taiwan, where she grew up. “You enjoy so much in family eating.” The camaraderie often crossed the lines between customers and staff. Hostess Teresa Ching Yueng could count off the customer voices and their usual phone orders she knew by heart. Even better than advertising, she said, is satisfying a customer who then would recommend the restaurant to family and friends.

But the Great Recession cut into business, as did competition, even as expenses continued to climb. Redeveloping to a less labor- and energy-intensive endeavor seemed to make more sense. Diners greeted and hugged Ching on Sunday, but she said her mind was occupied with all she still had to do — the final paychecks and severances for her 49 employees and a multitude of tasks. After the lunch crowd slowed, she made a quick run to pick up mai tai mix and Meyer rum. “Today, I don’t have time to feel anything,” she said. Monday, she would begin her new life. Ching, a lifelong student with a master’s in history and a law degree, wants to study technology and get up to speed on social media — and think about the new Ming’s. “Young people eat very simply but want transparency,” meaning they need to know what’s in their food and where it came from, she said.

So in its next incarnation, Ming’s likely won’t be its old Hong Kong-style restaurant. She’d love to rehire some of her current staff. For now, though, she may travel for a bit with her husband, Wu-Chung Hsiang — a retired Princeton math professor. But cruises are out. “People take cruises so they don’t have to cook,” Ching said. Her years in business will carry over. “I have a restaurant. I already don’t need to worry about what to eat.”