Did LeBron James order takeout from a Chinatown institution?
Chinatown's Sang Kee Peking Duck House received a DoorDash order for wonton soup from a mysterious "LeBron J." on Sunday.
Will the real LeBron James please stand up? Or at least tell us how he likes his soup?
Chinatown’s Sang Kee Peking Duck House went viral on Instagram Sunday after posting about a DoorDash order for a small wonton soup that it received from a mysterious “LeBron J.” at 3:41 p.m.
Could it be the LeBron James — basketball legend, Polymarket ambassador, and newly minted Sixer — himself? Is the King really just like us plebeians who order takeout on Sundays to avoid cooking?
Probably not. The Sixers played in Boston on Saturday, losing 106-144 to the Celtics in a preseason game where James didn’t even take to the court. James also lives in New York City and has been commuting via 45-minute helicopter rides to games and practices, so it’s unlikely he ducked into Philly just for soup.
That didn’t stop Sang Kee from dreaming.
“THE KING HAS SPOKEN 👑," Sang Kee captioned a photo of LeBron J.’s $18.36 to-go order of a small wonton soup with extra scallions, extra wontons, and shrimp dumplings.
“Solid move going with all dumplings no noodles ... Eating crazy early too ... We get it. Rest well, king,” the caption went on.
The post received nearly 2,800 likes in less than a day. The comments section is a mix of skeptics and true believers.
“Sang Kee, official food provider for the Sixers 👀?" one person wrote.
That’s “what I put my name as on DoorDash when I want my order to be fire,” admitted another.
Several also dunked on LeBron J.’s order from the Chinatown institution that has been piling heaps of perfectly roast duck into soups, stir-fries, and platters since 1980.
“No roast duck is terrible,” one commenter jeered. Others wanted to know how he expected to fit extra wontons and shrimp dumplings in a pint-sized soup.
Sang Kee general manager Henry Chow concedes that LeBron J.’s order was a little unorthodox. Chow was filling in on the noodle-soup station Sunday when the ticket came in, he said, so he ended up filling the order himself.
“It’s actually not possible to fit that many wontons and dumplings into a small soup container, so we had to upgrade to a larger one to get everything in there,” Chow said. And if the order really was for James, “he probably needs something with a little more fiber.”
Chow said he didn’t learn that the customer may or may not be a four-time NBA champion until after he filled the order. An awestruck server showed the receipt to Chow — a Sixers “diehard” — and encouraged him to post the proof on social media for all to see.
The real LeBron James hasn’t been glimpsed in Philly yet, but that hasn’t stopped Sixers fans from posting AI-generated memes of the GOAT, well, everywhere: ordering Wawa, buying real estate in South Jersey, popping wheelies on dirt bikes, and even posing outside corner stores.
Still, there is hope that James may dine in Philly for real some day. Recently, he took to Instagram to solicit Philly-based recommendations for seafood potato greens, a Liberian stew, on behalf of his wife, Savannah James.
“She likes all suggestions,” he wrote. (Have they tried somewhere near a heliport, perhaps?)
Sang Kee fulfills 40 to 50 takeout orders at time on busy weekends, Chow said, so the restaurant does occasionally see famous names on orders. Not that he has time to wonder.
“People always ask if we do something special if we see [a famous person’s] name on an order,” Chow said. “Honestly, we do thousands upon thousands of dumplings a day. It all has to be equally good.”
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