NYC Chinese Restaurant Recommendations

[moondogge]

thereuare, You have steered me to the best bagel shop, Ess-A-Bagel, in the past, so can you or anyone else recommend a really good Chinese place? Thanks,

[thereuare]

Can you please follow-up your previous threads: Hotwire St. Pete Beach and Palm Beach Hotel from Hotwire with whatever you did for each stay.

For your upcoming trip where are you staying... does the restaurant need to be near your hotel? Also, if you purchased via PRICELINE or HOTWIRE, please share your win with the board so that others can benefit from the information.

Please use the PRICELINE and HOTWIRE links on the board to begin your travel purchases.

Thanks.

[blkjck1]

thereuare, You have steered me to the best bagel shop, Ess-A-Bagel, in the past, so can you or anyone else recommend a really good Chinese place? Thanks,

Let me take a crack at this as a Chinese person. The simple answer to this question is that generally, any restaurant in Chinatown is good, because things are so competitive, you need to be good and reasonably priced to keep people coming in. A rule that should be followed is that if the restaurant is filled primarily with Chinese people, and the meal specials are written in Chinese on the wall or table card (and with no English translation), it should be pretty good.

That said, the places that I always go to in New York based on family recommendations and personal experience:

For Chinese barbecue: Big Wong Restaurant 67 Mott Street (between Bayard and Canal)

For dim sum: Grand Harmony Palace 98 Mott Street (just off Canal)

Large dinner: Ken's Asian Taste 40 Bowery (between Bayard and Canal)

Quick casual meal: 102 Noodle Town 102 Mott Street (recommended by celebrity chef Andrew Zimmern). Best wonton soup I've ever eaten.

For Big Wong and 102 Noodle Town, you could order a drink and a dish, and pay less than $10 for it. I've always ordered a soft drink and a dish, and just left $10 to cover the meal and tip.

Don't expect a high level of service. The attitude there is that you're there to enjoy the food, and to enjoy it quickly so you get out quickly and they can refill the table. Even so, tip as you would normally tip at another restaurant. In Chinatown, many workers literally work only for the tips, and they are pooled among everyone in the restaurant.

[moondogge]

Thanks, the first follow was completed 23 June 2013 - 12:11 PM and I just followed up on the second post. No, it doesn't matter location, anywhere in Manhattan works for us!

[thereuare]

Having eaten enough chinese food during my childhood to last a lifetime, i don't really eat it very much anymore.

With the above noted, in Chinatown Wo Hop is extremely popular and you should expect a bit of a line at most 'meal times'... i believe they have two locations, an upstairs and a downstairs, the downstairs one is the original and the one i would choose if given a choice.

Another place in Chinatown i like, if you don't mind it being a bit dirty and the possible communal dining (it's really a hole in the wall), is Wonton Garden on Mott Street. Here i would stick with the noodle soups, wontons, dumplings, etc (and stay away from the 'chicken and broccoli' type of dishes), which are all fresh and you can watch the men making more dumplings in the window as you wait for your food.

Both of the above are on Mott St, which is the main street in Chinatown.

[moondogge]

Thanks for the recommendations! Really looking forward to trying a couple of those.

[roykirk1]

Probably too late to help, but I agree with all the above recommendations.  I would also add:

 

Joe's Shanghai - a bit of a tourist trap now that guide books write about them.  But the soupy dumplings are still amazing.  If you can't get in (often the case for dinner) go down the block to Joe's Ginger.  Same owners, same menu and most importantly, same dumplings.  Less crowded.  Try the pork shank if you are OK with a heavier, fattier meal.  I also go for the chicken and shrimp with plum sauce dish.

 

Golden Unicorn - a tad out of the way, its on corner of Catherine and East Broadway.  You have to go up the elevator to get there.  More expensive than most places in Chinatown, but the dim sum (breakfast/brunch meal of small usually steamed dishes) is great and so is everything on the dinner menu (I have been there many times for banquets, parties, etc.)

 

Family Noodle Restaurant - one block down on Catherine, this place is a hole in the way...err... corner.  But EVERY chinese family in the neighborhood gets their takeout from here.  The congee is OK (I'd go to Great NY Noodletown for that, but I find congee is very subjective... one person's favorite is is average to others), but the cha siu (roast pork) is great and so is the roast duck.  As is the pan fried noodles, chow fun and fried rice (it won't be brown or yellow, like at the "fake" chinese restaurants).

 

Hop Shing on Chatham Square, around the corner from Mott - re-opened few years ago, they have the best baked cha sui bao (roast pork bun) in the world.  I have tried them from every city I have visited including Hong Kong, Tai Pei, Singapore, and maybe a dozen chinatowns around the world including SF, LA, Houston, Boston, Buenos Aires, London, Rome, Amsterdam, ...  Trust me, Hop Shing makes the best ones.  The filling is saucy, with bits of onion, the bread is decadently soft and sweet...  People drive in from around the tri state area and buy them by the box.  The coconut buns (long sweet buns with peanut/coconut filling) are delicious too.  The dim sum is also very good, among the best in Chinatown.  Warning:  if you just want to buy a bun on a weekend morning... be prepared to deal with tiny, surprisingly strong asian ladies who will push and shove you away from the to-go counter.  Just be patient and eventually you will be rewarded.  

 

Great NY Noodletown - I do love their congee.  But my mother in law will loudly dispute that (course, she prefers her own... lol.)  Everything else, I find, is overhyped.  The duck looks great but lacks flavor for some reason.  Same for the roast pork and other barbequed meats.  The food is only average for Chinatown if you ask me, but there is always a line out the door soothers would disagree.

 

OK, now I am starving.  Who wants to go meet up in Chinatown?

 

[bestenborstel]

Anybody ever went to the Main Noodle House?