02.16.11
Posted in Asian, Chinese, Lower East Side, New York City, New York City Reviews, rated 7 to 7.5 at 00:18 by Dominique
198 Orchard & Houston Sts., unjustly closed by the SLA
Great for: interesting dishes, Taiwanese food on Four Loko, hanging out with Eddie Huang
I have many fond memories of Taiwanese xiao ye, the night market, from visiting Taipei as a baby foodie. Imagine my excitement when I heard Eddie Huang of Baohaus fame was opening a xiao ye right here in my neighborhood! As it turns out, his dishes were considerably amped up from the basic food I remember, but I like and respect his creativity.
My date and I started with the poontang potstickers, made of LaFrieda custom blend pork and napa cabbage. They’re good but not mind-blowing. I would have liked more spice. The name (and pretty much all the other dish names) was cute, though – I like a menu that makes me laugh.
Taiwan’s most famous minced duroc pork in 5 spice and soy sauce over rice with braised egg and pickled daikon was nice. The famous Cheeto fried chicken with chili orange marmalade dipping sauce was juicy, tender and perfectly cooked. The Cheeto dust is just sprinkled on top, not quite as integral to the dish as I expected. In both dishes I could wish for a little more spice.
My favorite thing was probably the corn with garlic, red pepper and unagi sauce. The sauce is to die for and the corn is very crispy.
I had to try some of their funny cocktails. The Milk Skywalker is a yummy, crazy, end-of-night type drink. You are probably only drinking it because you’re already hammered, despite knowing it will just fuck up your morning (at least). The Taiwan favorite apple sidra with vanilla and bourbon is slightly less insane. It tastes awesome, surprisingly – the vanilla is a lovely finishing touch. Both drinks came in nice generous glasses for $12.
The super friendly staff and the hip vibe made this a very cool little restaurant. Everything was black wood with red accents, super Asian without being cheesy. And it was really good for an area of drunkards. My understanding of why they had to shut down so fast was that Eddie did some unlimited Four Loko deal right before it got outlawed and the State Liquor Authority came down hard on them about it. It wasn’t really fair but you can still get some Taiwanese goodness over at Baohaus, a few streets away. And for regular dishes there is always Saint’s Alp Teahouse in the East Village.
Rating: 7 / 10
Our cost: $75 (3 small dishes, 1 medium, 2 cocktails)
Noise level: classic old-school Eddie music
Chance of walking in: sadly, nil. Why, SLA, why???
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01.03.11
Posted in Asian, Chinatown/Little Italy, Chinese, New York City, New York City Reviews, rated 7 to 7.5, small plates at 16:25 by Dominique
14 Elizabeth & Canal/Bayard Sts., 212-964-5640
Great for: xiao long bao, scallion pancakes, pork belly special
Sometimes I remember that I live in Chinatown and there must be awesome random places there. Shanghai Garden sounded good to me and my neighbor Hagan the Wandering Foodie. Turns out they changed the name, for some reason.
To start we tried juicy dumplings with crab, which were awesome and a steal at $6.95. They had properly thin skin with lots of soup and pretty flavorful meat. The scallion pancakes were very thin and not as crispy as they looked, which I was surprised to really like.
As a half-Shanghainese girl I had to get the nian gao (rice cakes) with pork, shrimp and bok choy. It tasted strongly of the vegetables but the nian gao were somewhat bland. Overall, I found the dish nice but forgettable. Hagan’s walnut shrimp with cream sauce on a bed of nice broccoli was a bit sweet. The batter was crispy and yummy though we could do with less of it. It was definitely priced for white people at $14.95.
The special of thin-sliced pork belly with cabbage, scallions, peppers, mushrooms and tofu was the best of everything we had. Complex, in a very dark sauce, it was everything you want from braised meat. We ordered too much but couldn’t help finishing the pork anyway.
The waiters are friendly though their English skills aren’t great. It’s a nice, bright restaurant that closes a little later than Shanghai Café, so if you don’t make it over there before 9pm, you can at least get your appetizer fix here. And ask for the pork belly.
Rating: 7 / 10
Our cost: $55 (2 apps, 3 mains), cash only
Noise level: not bad
Chance of walking in: fine.
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09.05.10
Posted in Asian, Chinatown/Little Italy, Chinese, New York City, New York City Reviews, rated 8 to 8.5 at 00:38 by Dominique
1 Doyers St. & Bowery, 212-791-1817
Great for: noodles, nian gao
My friend G loves to organize little food outings in Chinatown, which is great because I live nearby and tend not to eat there. This time there were five of us. We took ample advantage of the sharing possibilities.
The fried pork dumplings, while not very crisp, were tasty. The steamed pork dumplings are both juicy and large; a good deal. The chicken and vegetable steamed dumplings are delicious too. I loved the chicken and vegetable rice cakes (nian gao), which were lovely narrow oval cakes in a nice gooey sauce.
You have a choice between hand-peeled and knife-peeled noodles in soup or sautéed, with various proteins. We chose fish meatballs, roast duck, egg with vegetable, and beef. The soup comes with a lot of spinach, scallions and pickled mustard greens. I was impressed by the quality of the duck and beef considering the very low prices. Overall, the hand-peeled noodles are skillfully executed, super thin and elastic. The knife-peeled look great and are that perfect mixture of chewy and tender, best described by the Chinese word qq (cue cue). It’s like al dente to the 4th power.
The people who work here are quite nice and they cook quickly. I have had trouble finishing this review because every time I sit down to write it, I want more of their food! (Haven’t had time to get down there yet.) I recommend either kind of noodle with anything.
Rating: 8.5 / 10
Our cost: cheap (I think it was about $45 for 5 people, but must have been too stuffed with noodles to take note)
Noise level: not bad, place is small
Chance of walking in: there aren’t many seats but it’s pretty out of the way, so maybe not too bad.
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08.06.10
Posted in Asian, Chinatown/Little Italy, Chinese, New York City, New York City Reviews, rated 8 to 8.5 at 00:49 by Dominique
66 Bayard & Elizabeth/Mott Sts., 212-625-2359
Great for: dumplings of all kinds, especially guo tieh (potstickers)
I live near Vanessa’s and their four dumplings for $1, but sometimes I make the trek over here for juicy, crisp, slender potstickers. Only my parents make them better (though they grind their own meat, so that’s not quite a fair comparison). I have been known to eat a plate of ten all by myself!
Their xiao long bao and scallion pancakes are pretty good too. Both are a little thick and could use some more spice – only in comparison with Shanghai Café, though. In general Green Bo does everything quite well. I was delighted to find yummy nian gao (oval rice cakes) here, and if I could tear myself away from the dumplings I’d be able to try many of the other delicious-looking things I see every time I’m here.
Rating: 8 / 10
My cost: $15. Cash only.
Noise level: it’s pretty loud during lunch
Chance of walking in: outside of peak hours, not too bad.
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03.09.10
Posted in Asian, Chinatown/Little Italy, Chinese, New York City, New York City Reviews, rated 8 to 8.5, small plates at 00:22 by Dominique
100 Mott & Hester/Canal Sts., 212-966-3988
Great for: scallion pancakes, soup dumplings, crispy half duck, any Shanghai specialties
I am half Shanghainese on my mother’s side. When I was growing up, I thought that nian gao, scallion pancakes and juicy dumplings were totally normal things on a menu. After all, we had them every time we went out. It wasn’t until I had to forage for Chinese food on my own that I realized how difficult it is to find Shanghai food, well-made or otherwise.
These are the best scallion pancakes I have had in years, and I’ve had them in Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Vancouver and San Francisco. They are fluffy and don’t even need sauce, which I can’t remember ever not needing. Somehow they are many-layered without being thick, and crispy without dripping with oil. My only wish is that they would have more than four per order. But at $1.75/order, that is not a problem.
The soup dumplings, also known as xiao long bao, are generally excellent. They are a little inconsistent with the thickness of the skin; one time, too thick, every other time, perfect. In any case, the flavor is to die for; most importantly, they always have lots of “soup.” In case you didn’t know, do not shove the whole dumpling in your mouth. Put it in a Chinese soup spoon, bite a little hole, and slurp out the juices. Add any sauces you may desire and nibble at the rest. If you eat it all in one bite, you will burn your tongue and/or throat and your friends will laugh at you while your eyes water in pain.
The only places in the city that compete with the quality of the soup dumplings are Shanghai Pavilion and Chinatown Brasserie. (Forget Joe’s Shanghai; it’s overpriced and for tourists who don’t know any better. Sorry to burst your bubble, tourists.) Plus, you get eight dumplings for $4.25, or with crab for $6.25. That is crazy cheap, not to mention crazy good.
The wonton noodle soup had very interesting, atypical wontons with giant chives, pork and shrimp in translucent skin instead of white. The noodles were the big fat white kind and the broth was a little too subtle, but still quite good. Maybe the noodles needed to be steeped longer – they were too big not to be flavored.
The waiters were fast and pretty polite, especially for a Chinese place. It’s quite big with standard Chinatown décor. This restaurant is a godsend!
Rating: 8.5 / 10
Our cost: $15
Noise level: quite noisy
Chance of walking in: not great, plus they’re always busy and close at 9pm most days.
The crispy half duck is also excellent. A juicy, crunchy delight bursting with flavor, it is a miracle at only $11.
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03.07.10
Posted in Asian, Chinatown/Little Italy, Chinese, New York City, New York City Reviews, rated 7 to 7.5 at 00:49 by Dominique
66 Mott & Canal/Bayard Sts., 212-334-0099
Great for: eating semi-late, noodles, large parties
We tried to go to Shanghai Café for more xiao long bao love, but they close ridiculously early. 9pm in New York City, really?!?! Fortunately, this place is open until 11 every day.
We had to get our soup dumpling fix somewhere – here, they were wrapped unusually, I think in regular dumpling skins. They weren’t very juicy either, but the flavor more than made up for all that.
The Boyfriend’s chicken chow mein (crispy noodles) was lovely, despite the odd flavor of the chicken. It might have been an end-of-the-day thing. Honestly, we almost didn’t care, the rest of it was so delicious. I loved my shrimp chow fun too. The chewy and tender noodles, plump juicy shrimp and tons of crisp scallion bits complemented each other very well. I wished a few more spices were involved, but overall it was terrific. Both dishes were big enough for two people.
I’d say this place well deserves all its hype. We are definitely trying the Peking duck next time. The only drawback is that it’s quite expensive unless you stick to noodles. There’s a lot of space, and the service was surprisingly courteous, though that could just be Chinese taking care of their own. Male Chinese waiters tend to be very nice to me. I really appreciated the uncluttered, non-crazy décor too.
Rating: 7.5 / 10
Our cost: $30
Noise level: probably noisy when full
Chance of walking in: not great.
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01.03.10
Posted in Asian, Chinese, New York City Reviews, Williamsburg at 22:08 by Dominique
208 Bedford Ave. & N.5th/6th Sts., 718-388-8898
Great for: everything, especially noodles, and it is not expensive at all
I usually only leave Manhattan for things that start with p: planes, poker and parties. In this case it was the bi-monthly Williamsburg Spelling Bee, which I suppose would go under prizes. I went on a lark with some British friends several months ago and won, and have been winning the local bees ever since. (There are also the NYC and Big Gay Bees.) This time I came in second. I could tell it wouldn’t be a good night when I spelled my first word, blintze, incorrectly. (Did you know it officially has an e? I was totally shocked too. In fact, Microsoft Word is giving it the red line right now.) But the winner spelled crazy words like emmeleia and pteridology correctly, so I wasn’t as upset with myself as I normally would have been. Plus I was meeting the New Boyfriend. He promised he’d move out of Brooklyn soon, which made me willing to explore it a bit while he lived there.
This restaurant is so good, I would seriously consider hopping a train for the two stops it takes from the Lower East Side just to have more of their noodley goodness. It’s better than a lot of the nearby places in Chinatown! We started with spicy wontons with peanut sauce, which are rather large and not terribly spicy. I thought it a tasty dish despite my dislike of peanut sauce.
He ordered chicken lo mein, which they got confused and served with beef instead. It didn’t matter – it was very, very good, with chewy, soft noodles and crunchy vegetables. I loved my terrific black pepper beef udon for basically the same reasons. The flavors and textures were perfectly balanced. It’s a lot harder to get it all right than it seems, and this jaded, spoiled Manhattanite was impressed. If he still lived in the neighborhood, we’d go back. As it is we might yet!
Rating: 8.5 / 10
Our cost: $40 (1 app, 2 noodle entrees, 1 beer and 1 wine)
Noise level: not too noisy but still lively
Chance of walking in: not bad.
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Posted in Asian, Chinese, Midtown West, Murray Hill, New York City, New York City Reviews, rated 6 to 6.5 at 21:30 by Dominique
30 W. 32nd St. & Broadway/5th Ave., 212-629-6450
Great for: noodles, eating non-Korean late in Koreatown
This was a really big day for me. I shot my first feature film (I play a gangster who stabs a girl after helping kill her fiancé) and had my first date with the New Boyfriend!
He got spicy noodles with chicken substituted for seafood, and it was quite tasty. The lovely round noodles were silky and slightly chewy. The sauce was a bit sweet, but pleasantly so. My Szechuan chicken was an absolutely giant dish. It was only medium spicy, with far too many mushrooms. The sauce was also on the sugary side without being annoying.
It’s a decent Chinese restaurant, and certainly a better bet than some of the Korean joints on the street. I love barbecue and regular Korean food, but it’s so easy to walk into a random place and end up spending $60 on maybe two plates of raw meat and wondering why we’re still hungry. (True story, at Won Jo.) Plus, this place seems to stay open forever – we left around 5am and there were still people coming in – and you won’t smell like barbecue when you leave. (Though personally I am always delighted by that smell.)
Rating: 6.5 / 10
Our cost: $30
Noise level: it’s pretty large so I imagine it’s not quiet when full
Chance of walking in: not bad.
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05.03.08
Posted in Asian, Chinese, New York City, New York City Reviews, NoHo, rated 9 to 10, small plates at 01:30 by Dominique
380 Lafayette & Great Jones St., 212-533-7000
Great for: best dim sum in the city (so far), sharing lots of food, taking sophisticated parents to lunch
Usually the Boyfriend complains if I try to drag him to dim sum, with good reason. New York has a big Chinatown and at least one Chinese restaurant on every block – I don’t get why the dim sum is so mediocre. Vancouver, Toronto and San Francisco are all better. (I know, I know, Flushing, but it’s over an hour away and outside Manhattan. I don’t like to spend my Sunday trying to avoid mystery puddles and creepy strangers in trains.) Though I haven’t tried every single place here, I’ve been to a good proportion of them, and this upmarket NoHo place beats the rest hands down.
I nearly had a fit when I saw fresh corn and egg soup with crabmeat on the menu. My favorite dish at my favorite restaurant when I was a little girl was a corn, shrimp and crab soup. This one wasn’t quite as mind-blowing, and the crab was actually lobster (no objection), but it was pretty darn good. It’s not like traditional soup filled with cornstarch; it was very clear, and grew on me as I got used to it. I liked the crunchiness of the corn as well. I wasn’t sure, but I thought the modern update of an old classic boded well for the dumplings we had coming. I also knew that Joe Ng, the executive chef, trained in Hong Kong, so I wasn’t terribly worried.
I was right to hope. All the dumplings had really thin skin, which is a sign of a chef who knows what s/he’s doing – it takes artistry to wrap everything up in a perfect little package without much doughy reinforcement. The steamed shrimp dumplings (har gow) were tender, scrumptious bundles of joy. The roast pork buns were small, fluffy and delicious; the crab and pork soup dumplings juicy and fantastic. Resign yourself to losing some soup from the first two despite your best efforts with the lovely soup spoons, as the dumplings are quite cozy in the bamboo steamer. The crispy shrimp and mango rolls with Dijon mayonnaise (a house specialty) were surprisingly good as well. I didn’t think I would like them but I totally did. The spicy sauce that automatically comes for the table, of soy, chili peppers, onions and scallions, was great too. Although you should not eat the chilies if you want to be able to close your mouth in the near future. Fortunately, I made that mistake at the end of the meal.
We were in raptures over the lobster tail tempura on a bed of roast shallots with mild wasabi mayonnaise and hoisin sauce. The claws were pretty good, while the tail was excellent. The Boyfriend loved the tail so much I let him have a bit of my half. It’s best when hot but still very good otherwise. The beef puff pastries and pork potstickers were great despite having some mushroom. The shrimp and snow pea dumplings that looked like small toad Pokémon were tastier than any little monster should be. The only dish we didn’t love was the crispy taro root shrimp “birds.” Each bird had a taro filament-wrapped shrimp and pork body with a funny bread head dipped in honey. Sadly, they had very noticeable mushrooms and I don’t care for taro so it wasn’t really my thing. But we’d had eight excellent plates out of nine and were stuffed too full of dumpling love to care.
Our flutes of Taittinger rosé champagne went surprisingly well with the dim sum. So did the courteous service – in Chinese restaurants I’m used to waiters who are overworked at best and more usually surly and incomprehensible (I speak Mandarin and they all seem more comfortable in Cantonese). Our waitress was absolutely lovely in looks and action. I liked the décor too, which was chinois without being tacky. The place is basically a French brasserie in layout and furniture, with Chinese floors and furnishings. It’s enormous and seems the type of place you could take your visiting parents. Not because it’s stuffy or boring, but because it’s sophisticated yet homey.
I was impressed with the extent of the dim sum selection. They had all the regular ones plus some fusion and high-end variations. The dishes are mainly four of each thing and come out in waves – you get as much as will fit on your table at one time. I thought the prices were pretty reasonable too. Of course it’s not as cheap as Chinatown, but $6 for most of the plates is not bad for such an upscale restaurant. (The price goes up to $8 at dinnertime.) I am so happy I finally found good dim sum in NYC. And I am delighted to take back my former disappointment that “there aren’t more chefs trying to do really good Chinese (not fusion) cuisine.” Chinatown Brasserie is a shining example of terrific, real Chinese food in an upscale setting. Thank you, Mr. Ng!
Rating: 9 / 10
Our cost: $210 (4 glasses of $19 Taittinger)
Noise level: loud-ish music, not too much noise from other tables
Chance of walking in: medium.
Two weeks later we came with four friends and shared the Peking duck as well as lots of dim sum, and the bill was about $35 per person (I think we ate less than last time, though). The duck was great and even our Hong Kong friend thought the dim sum was good. Must think of another occasion to go…
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03.30.08
Posted in Asian, Chinese, New York City, New York City Reviews, Queens, rated 6 to 6.5 at 14:28 by Dominique
39-07 Prince St. & 39th St., Queens, 718-359-1601
Great for: numbing your mouth as pleasantly as possible, old-school Chinese (non-)service
I had to be in Flushing one day, and this was the only Queens restaurant I ever bothered to put on my list, because of a rapturous review in the New York Times a few years ago and some mentions here and there since then. (You’d better have a good reason for me to leave Manhattan if it doesn’t involve a plane.) Luckily the shop where I had to go was only two streets away. I figured I’d better try Spicy & Tasty now, since I would probably never be so conveniently close again. So I got some takeout.
[I generally do not review places if I don't sit down and eat, but as a Chinese girl who grew up eating proper Chinese food, I feel a little more qualified to judge a Szechuan restaurant than any of the Caucasian reviewers whose articles I've read. Plus they made such a damn fuss over it, and my father is Szechuan. Here's to you, Daddy.]
Dan dan noodles are medium width white noodles on a bed of spinach and sometimes ground meat, covered in soy sauce and hot oil. The dish always comes unmixed, so that you can choose how spicy you want it to be. They did a good job here – the noodles didn’t stick together too much, and there was a good ratio of meat and sauce to the rest. Yum.
I also got what they call shredded beef with spicy sauce, which has some cabbage and large scallions underneath enough hot oil and ma-la pepper to destroy all sensation in a mouth for quite some time. The beef isn’t really shredded; it comes in nice big chunks. I’m not sure that’s the right name for what I got – the English translation of the Chinese name sounds like “Water-Boiled Beef” to me. It’s a standard Szechuan dish and an easy test of how good the restaurant is. They did it quite well here. I had to add a lot of rice to stop my mouth from bursting into flame. I was also happy with the meat, which was better quality than usual.
So, everything was good. I didn’t find it amazing, though. If it were in Manhattan I’d definitely make trips, but since it’s over an hour away by train I’ll probably not get back there. It is definitely better than a lot of the crappy American joints in the city that make faux Chinese food, but it’s still just a cheap little place. It’s sad that what should be the normal standard is accounted amazing by American reviewers. And I’m disappointed that there aren’t more chefs trying to do really good Chinese (not fusion) cuisine. Maybe one day Chinese food will be considered as upscale as Japanese…
Rating: 6.5 / 10
My cost: $18
Noise level: quiet at 3pm on a Monday, probably pretty noisy when busy
Chance of walking in: good.
In New York magazine on 5/11/08, the founder of Grand Sichuan discusses the same issue of crappy Chinese food. He seems to be pretty hopeful about it.
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