Sycamore's Taco King and Chinese Food a tale of 2 kitchens

SYCAMORE – Anna Chu and Lauro Temich run a restaurant in Sycamore with a unique menu – it serves both Chinese and Mexican cuisines.

Chu said she and Temich married in 2007. They make their food fresh and made to order. She said providing fresh food that people like is really important to them.

The online reviews help the restaurant.

"People tell us they come in because of Facebook," Chu said.

Manny Paspantoja of Sycamore, cooks, serves and works as cashier at the restaurant, said when he tells people he works at a restaurant that serves Mexican and Chinese food, people show him confused and perplexed facial expressions.

"They ask me all the time [about it,]" Paspantoja said. "But they like the fact we have that combination. They're impressed."

Chu, 52, and Temich, 45, used to run Gao Yeung, a Chinese restaurant in Huntley, then moved to the Huntley Outlet Mall in 2007, when they changed the name of the restaurant to Asian Express.

Chu is originally from Hong Kong and Temich from San Andres, Veracruz, Mexico. They opened Taco King and Chinese Restaurant, 265 W Peace Rd, Sycamore, in April 2019.

After several years in Huntley, the couple wanted to move closer to Northern Illinois University.

"But on the way to DeKalb we saw this place," Chu said. "I saw I could do two kitchens."

She said the layout and the price for the building were right for them, so they couldn't pass it up. They wanted to serve both Mexican and Chinese cuisines at their restaurant.

"We knew Mexican and Chinese were the most popular foods in this area," Chu said.

While the kitchen is split, the offerings on their menu are not as different from one another as one might think.

Chu said, for example, the restaurant has General Tso's Chicken Tacos.

The restaurant had to close during the summer of 2019, Chu said, because of ineffective staffing.

The problem was they couldn't find good employees, those employees could not work the hours the restaurant needed them to work, or the employees would quit.

She said it's been difficult running the restaurant. Chu said she hasn't had a day off. She works seven days a week and in addition to the restaurant, she works as an accountant.

Chu said she appreciates her husband.

She calls him "Mi Amor," which means "My love," in Spanish.

The good thing for the restaurant is Paspantoja likes Chu and Temichi, and he likes working at Taco King and Chinese Food.

"They're the best people to work for," Paspanto said with a smile. "They're really professional."