Tag Archives: chinese

Chinese, Lower East Side/Chinatown, Restaurant Reviews

Chinatown Food Crawl

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First, check out my episode of Around the Hood in 8 Minutes HERE:

We hit a bunch of places, so let me just get down to business!

Sun Hing Lung

First was Sun Hing Lung, which I already covered in a previous Ride & Review HERE, so check that out!

This time I added an egg to the Chinese sausage and mixed veggies roll. It was divine! Noodles here are always a bit mushy, but you really can’t beat it for the price. Adding all of the sauces is the right move (peanut, soy, hoisin and hot sauce).

Chang Lai Fishballs Noodles

They ran out of rice rolls by time we arrived here, but the curry fish balls mixed with pork skin was the best bite of the day, by far. Make sure you try that!

Yin Ji Chang Fen

This is where we really got our rice roll fix. We tried five or six different rice rolls, but the clear favorites were the truffle and mushroom, the fried dough, and the special dried shrimp and scallion rolls.

New Kam Hing Coffee Shop

The sponge cake here is famous, so we had to give it a try. I have to say it was really unique and tasty. Not really my thing, in general, but I can see the appeal.

Dumpling Story

This new spot was really nice inside. We tried four different dumpling items: truffle pork soup dumplings, spicy crab meat with pork soup dumplings, chicken pot stickers and fried pork soup dumplings. Of those, the crab and fried pork were probably tied for the best. The fried beef udon noodles were excellent! Great texture and flavor.

SUN HING LUNG
58 Henry St.
New York, NY 10002

CHANG LAI FISHBALLS NOODLES
55 Bayard St.
Store B
New York, NY 10013

YIN JI CHANG FEN
91 Bayard St.
New York, NY 10013

NEW KAM HING COFFEE SHOP
118 Baxter St.
New York, NY 10013

DUMPLING STORY
250 Grand St.
New York, NY 10002

Chinese, Lower East Side/Chinatown, Restaurant Reviews, Vietnamese

Bo Ky

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Bo Ky is a mixed Vietnamese pho and Chinese restaurant in Chinatown that’s been around for a long ass time.

I went in last weekend with my wife, who hadn’t been there since college, and we tried some stuff.

I ordered the beef belly soup, which was really good with a hit of spice.

My wife ordered a Cambodian style hu teiu soup that had mixed seafood and pork in it. This was more like a consomme and had some sweetness to it.

We also shared a fried shrimp roll on the side. This reminded me of shrimp toast.

Nice spot! I would go back.

BO KY
80 Bayard St.
New York, NY 10013

Chinese, Lower East Side/Chinatown, Restaurant Reviews

Mission Chinese

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First, check out my Ride & Review video HERE:

This was easily one of the best Szechaun means I’ve ever had. I think my favorites were the thrice cooked bacon, lamb ribs, beef cheek, wings and the dry pot pastrami, but the mapo tofu was one for the ages. Wait… was that everything? I can’t wait to go back!

MISSION CHINESE
43 Mott St
New York, NY 10013

Chinese, Lower East Side/Chinatown, Restaurant Reviews

King’s Co. Imperial

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First, check out my Ride & Review video HERE:

My photos of this meal aren’t that great, because I forgot my light. My video is fine, however, because the built in video light for the phone is nice. Flash photos, not so much.

This place has a retro vibe, with a Polynesian, pu-pu platter and tiki drinks old school feel to it. The cocktails were great.

We started with crispy fried mushrooms, pork ribs and shrimp toast. All of these were good. I think the mushrooms were my favorite of the entire meal, actually.

Next up, short rib beef chow fun, dry fried string beans, and crispy Szechuan calamari. Of these, the string beans were best, with the calamari close behind. They just needed to be a bit more crispy.

There’s a lot that looked nice enough to try here, so we will most likely be back.

KINGS CO. IMPERIAL
168 1/2 Delancey St.
New York, NY 10002

Chinese, Lower East Side/Chinatown, Restaurant Reviews

Ye’s Apothecary

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Ye’s Apothecary is a cool downstairs spot in the Lower East Side that serves great cocktails and some tasty Szechuan food. The Szechuan old fashioned was a great way to start the meal. It IS spicy, so beware.

Our favorite dish was “husband and wife,” which was a chilled appetizer of beef tripe and tendon in a spicy chili oil.

The egg noodles with char siu pork was also a nice dish, but I wouldn’t get it on a second trip.

The crispy squid was excellent. Slightly salty, but I didn’t mind.

With everything being so spicy, the chairman’s pork belly was a great way to sneak in a bite of sweet every so often. Only downside here was the thick rubbery external skin that sometimes still seemed to have the texture of stubble/hair on it. Otherwise really tasty and tender.

The mushroom salad was a bit misleading, as it was a hot dish. Tasty though.

YE’S APOTHECARY
119 Orchard St.
New York, NY 10002

Chinese, East Village, Restaurant Reviews

The Dolar Shop

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First, check out my Ride & Review video HERE:

This is easily one of the better hot pot joints I’ve tried so far. I would definitely go back!

THE DOLAR SHOP
55 3rd Ave
New York, NY 10003

Chinese, Lower East Side/Chinatown, Restaurant Reviews

Ping

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I haven’t been to Ping in almost 20yrs. I was glad to see nothing has changed for the dim sum experience. Here’s a little Zooz bike “Ride & Review” video I put together:

If you like that bike, you can get $150 off with code JOHNNYPRIME at checkout, www.zoozbikes.com.

Also – here is a nasty little outtake from the video:

My favorite bite was the rice roll with crispy cruller inside.

Also worth getting: the pork wrapped in bean curd skin – top right on my plate here:

PING
22 Mott Street
New York, NY 10013

Chinese, Lower East Side/Chinatown, Restaurant Reviews

Wo Hop

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How have I never reviewed this place in all my years living here, and all my times eating here – especially from way back when I went to Law School and lived/worked nearby for years after?

Wo Hop is a NYC institution. They’ve been serving up excellent and affordable Chinese food in their iconic downstairs location since 1938! I have to say, the fried wontons are some of the best I’ve ever had.

On this visit, my wife and I had the sliced chicken with baby corn. I was expecting this to be much spicier, being printed in RED on the menu and under the spicy Szechaun section, but it was still delicious.

We also had the 4D chow fun, which has 4 different proteins (shrimp, beef, chicken and roast pork). This was the better dish.

They’re still keeping prices very low here, which is great. Even the t-shirt prices haven’t changed since I purchased one back in 2000 – $10!

If you’ve never been, you definitely should go at least once, even if it’s just to say that you’ve been there.

WO HOP
17 Mott St
New York, NY 10013

Chinese, Restaurant Reviews, Upper West Side

Jing Fong

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Jing Fong on the upper west side might be my new favorite place for dim sum. Yes, it’s a bit more expensive than the old, storied downtown haunts, but the food is markedly better. In addition, while the classic dim sum joint will have rolling carts of tasty goodness meandering throughout the floor of the restaurant (which is a big part of the fun), those carts often smell like sterno, chemical flame or leaking natural gas. That smell always ruins the experience for me.

This place brings everything out that you order, sans carts. No smell. I liked that change-up, though admittedly there was a little less fun and intrigue to the experience. But over all, I really loved this place. Some favorites below:

Peking Duck Dumplings – probably one of the best dumplings I’ve had.

I usually hate these pork buns. Always too “bready” and almost always too sweet. Not the case here.

Take a peek inside the vagina slit below. Great ratio of bun to meat, and the meat wasn’t too sweet. Perfect.

Always important to eat your veggies:

Especially when there’s minced pork inside.

Very nice steamed rice rolls (though I wish they offered the ones with fried crullers inside too).

This crispy fried chicken with roasted garlic (entree dish, not dim sum obviously) was really nice too.

I’ll definitely be back here again.

JING FONG
380 Amsterdam Ave
New York, NY 10024

Carcass Club/Beast Feast, Chinese, Lower East Side/Chinatown, Restaurant Reviews

Green Garden Village

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I recently went to Green Garden Village with a group of 12 people for a massive “Friendsgiving” dinner. This was a big meal so I’ll get right down to what we tried.

1) Whole Suckling Pig

This needs to be ordered in advance, so make sure you call ahead. It was delicious. They serve the crispy skin with the meat still attached in about 15 bao buns, and then a platter is filled of the rest of the pork.

I’d say if you just ordered this with a veggie and a noodle or rice dish, you’d be good for 4 or 5 people.

2) Grouper Three Ways

These were all light but really flavorful:

A) We had the fish filleted and steamed with scallions and ginger near the end of dinner.

B) The head and bones were used to make a milky-white fish broth that was served at the beginning of dinner (I didn’t take a photo of it).

C) This plate of grouper and cabbage is what was used in the soup (aside from the fish head and bones), along with tofu and Chinese mustard greens. They just strained it and served it on the side with the soup.

3) Alaskan King Crab Three Ways

These massive crabs are pricey, but they will serve it a few ways for you if you so choose:

A) Steamed w/ Garlic Over Ho Fun:

This was my favorite preparation. The ho fun noodles were awesome, and the garlic was just the right kind.of flavor to really make you appreciate the sweetness of the crab.

B) Fried Crab w/ Salted Duck Yolks:

Not sure why the shells get battered and fried, but I’ve certainly seen this before. The salted duck yolk was nice though.

C) Crab Brain Fried Rice:

This rice was delicious. Anything that isn’t large crab meat gets fried up and mixed into it.

4) Stir-Fried Fresh Eel

I’m not a huge fan of eel but this was nice.

5) House Special Stir Fry (mixed seafood with sugar snap peas)

This dish contained a lot of interesting stuff in it.

6) Mixed Mushrooms w/ Japanese Tofu

Whatever Japanese tofu is, I love it. Crispy outside and creamy custard-like interior. Awesome mix of mushrooms too. Wow. I liked the fucking tofu dish.

7) Peking Pork Chops

I wasn’t crazy about this one. Not the best chops, dogged up breading and the sauce was too sweet.

8) Sauteed Snow Pea Sprouts

Mandatory greens. These could’ve used a bit more pan heat and some more garlic flavor (no photo).

9) Crispy Garlic Chicken (half order)

This was delicious. I also appreciated that it wasn’t hacked into shitty, difficult-to-eat, bone-in bits and pieces, as often happens with Chinese poultry preparations.

10) Rack of Lamb (double order)

These were deliciously spicy, super tender and perfectly cooked inside. I was very happy with these.

Definitely give this place a shot. I think I like this a little place better than Wu’s Wonton King [link].

GREEN GARDEN VILLAGE
216 Grand Street
New York, NY 10013