Category Archives: Chinese

Excellent Dumpling House (23rd)

January 27, 2018 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

This joint was PACKED on a Friday evening when my wife and I came in for a quick bite. There’s another joint named Excellent Dumpling House in Chinatown. It has yet to be determined whether this is owned by the same folks.

Anyway, I was fighting off a cold, so I ordered a bowl of chicken dumpling noodle soup. It was pretty great, especially with some of their spicy chili oil.

I also tasted some of my wife’s soup dumplings, which were.. shall I say… excellent? Ha! Maybe. I mean they were constructed properly, cooked nicely… no ripping… But perhaps I haven’t had enough XLBs to really say what is excellent or just above average.

EXCELLENT DUMPLING HOUSE
165 W 23rd St
New York, NY 10011

Chinese, Press Reviews, Queens, Restaurant Reviews

Guan Fu Szechuan

November 22, 2017 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

I recently had the pleasure of dining with a bunch of food friends at this new Szechuan joint in Flushing called Guan Fu. They do an incredible job of showcasing the different kinds of spice that the cuisine is known for (numbing as well as heat), while also developing intense, robust flavors that you can actually taste. Contrast with many other Szechuan joints in NYC that just blow your mouth out with heat and numbness, leaving you unable to actually enjoy the food.

That’s not to say that the food here isn’t spicy. It sure as heck is! But the balance is so well done that it’s quite impressive. But let me get down to business, because we tried 17 different dishes here. There is a lot to discuss…

The first four dishes were cold preparations.

1. Thinly Sliced Pork Liver

This was nice. No mealy texture or gamey flavor. Good heat from the red chilis. Excellent citrus-flavored sauce.

2. Sweet Fried Pork Ribs

These were awesome. Great crispy texture, super tender, and with just a little bit of heat to gently contrast the sweet.

3. Razor Clams

These were served with Mexican green peppers (likely a poblano or hatch variety) as well as some red Thai chili peppers. Great preparation, and the clams were perfectly cooked.

4. Bean Jelly

This was one of my favorite dishes of the night. The bean jelly was reminiscent of a snappy, thick noodle. This was served with chili oil, peanuts, sesame seeds and scallions.

Okay now onto the warm food.

5. “Water Fish” Tilapia

This was both numbing and heat spicy. The fish was served in an over-seasoned broth so as to get all the flavors into the flesh of the Tilapia. In fact, the sauce/broth isn’t meant to be eaten, as is the case with many of the dishes we were served.

6. Dry Pot Frog

This was another favorite of the night. The frog was so tender on the inside and crispy on the outside. It was served with crisp, fried potatoes and lotus root in the mix too. That textural contrast really blew me away. Just be careful of the tiny bones in the frog meat!

7. Sliced Beef With Pickled Cherry Peppers

This was a really fun dish. The peppers were pickled, but the beef and cucumber cooked in the sauce were both fresh (meaning not pickled). Really nice.

8. Hot Pot

In addition to cabbage and mushrooms, this also contained slices of lamb meat and beef meatballs. Awesome flavors going on here when you mixed it all together, and a little bit of numbness from those famous Szechuan peppercorns.

9. Sweet & Crispy Corn

This was a nice way to knock back any heat that might be lingering in your mouth. These little nuggets were a perfect snack. Juicy inside, bursting with kernel corn flavor, but crispy and batter-fried on the outside.

10. Kung Pao Chicken

This is a famous dish, but done right and as close to authentic as you’re going to get. Lots of heat, really tender meat, and a great contrast of flavors and textures in the stir fry mix.

11. Ma Po Tofu

This is another famously spicy dish from the Szechuan region. The sauce here is a blast of heat and numbing spice, meant to be eaten with rice. I skipped the rice, though, and was just spooning the sauce into my mouth, gulp after gulp. It was great!

12. “Fishy Pork”

There is no actual fish in this dish, but it is made with the intent of giving the diner the essence or flavors of fish. The actual protein here is shredded pork, and it is delicious.

13. Hand Ripped Cabbage With Pork Belly

Bacon makes everything better, especially cabbage. This was a really nice way to get a veggie into the mix other than incorporating peppers and onions into a stir fry.

14. Double Pepper Chicken

Wow. Just when you thought Kung Pao was a kick in the balls, you discover double pepper chicken. The two peppers are green chilis (jalapeños) and red chilis (Thai chilis). But the sneaky spice here is the numbing Szechuan peppercorns that are also worked into the dish. Excellent.

15. Shrimp

These head-on giant shrimp were excellent. They even serve small shrimp where you can eat the shell as well.

16. Green Beans

I love how the veggie comes out last. These were simple and delicious though. A welcome addition to the meal.

17. Fried Sesame Cakes

I’ve had these babies before and I love them. These were filled with a squash mash or paste of some kind. I generally like the red bean or mung bean pastes better (they’re a little sweeter).

That about does it. I really want to come back here and try more stuff, or even just put down full portions of my favorite dishes from this trip, like the bean jelly and dry pot frog. Get your ass out here and try this stuff ASAP!

GUAN FU SZECHUAN
39-16 Prince St
G01
Flushing, NY 11354

Chinese, Midtown West, Restaurant Reviews

Chong Qing Xiao Mian Noodle House

August 27, 2017 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

The quest for great noodles never seems to end in NYC, but when a really great new joint lands in your lap, that quest seems to get shoved to the side while you explore everything the new place has to offer.

My wife and I were walking around one Sunday when we stumbled upon a brand new restaurant with a sign out front displaying an impressive and tasty selection of noodle dishes.

Chong Qing Xiao Mian is a mouth full for a westerner with no tonal linguistic skills, so I like the fact that they just call themselves “Noodle House” for short. I snapped that menu photo and made a mental note that we wanted to try it (we had just eaten).

A week later we went back and loved it. I ordered the homemade beef noodles, and I chose the “peel” style noodle, which is thicker and wider than “facet,” which is more like spaghetti.

Most dishes here are soups, not dry noodles. Generally I like dry better, but here the soups are king. The broth is much better than Tasty Hand Pulled Noodles or Xian Famous. It’s earthy, and muddy with rich spices that lend just the right amount of tingly heat to the dishes. Yet it isn’t dotted with thick, coarse, dry flakes of pepper or numbing peppercorns. It’s strained just enough.

The noodle quality is fantastic as well, easily rivaling Xian Famous. The only drawback for me was the protein itself; the beef. The menu said tenderloin, but it was more like oxtail. That’s fine, but there wasn’t a lot of it, and much of it was the gelatinous or tendon style of meat. Not what I expected when ordering tenderloin. A few other minor hits to mention: there is no parsley (as the menu says); it’s all cilantro, and a few other things you’ll want to ask about to make sure you know what you’re getting. I chalk these things up to translation errors. No big deal.

My wife got the duck noodles.

These were great too, but you need to be patient to pick through the chopped duck and work your way around the small bones.

Another cool thing about this place: 9% discount if you pay in cash.

On a second trip, we started with some fried dumplings. These were excellent.

Three noodle dishes went around this time. First was the Mala noodles (facet style), with ground pork:

Next was the vegetarian spicy dry noodles:

And last, the “Streaky Pork,” which is pork belly:

I think the way to go here is with one of these three dishes. The veggie dry noodles were absolutely delicious. Even without a meat element I was satisfied and full. The other two bowls were absolutely amazing, and it would be tough to choose a favorite between them.

I can’t wait to go back for round three of noodles and try some of the other side and app items, like the seasoned egg, duck wing and steamed buns.

I highly recommend that you go here before it gets too well known and overcrowded with lines out the door. It WILL happen.

CHONG QING XIAO MIAN NOODLE HOUSE
796 9th Ave
New York, NY 10019

Chinese, Press Reviews, Restaurant Reviews, West Village

The Rice Noodle

May 21, 2017 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

This shop serves up some pretty nice bowls of noodles and soup. I came in to take some Instagram photos and tried two.

Beef Noodle Soup:

Ultra-tender beef, nice fresh greens and herbs, and well cooked noodles. I don’t know what cut of beef this is, but it seems to be common among Chinese noodle shops.

When it’s cooked slow, stewed and sliced like this, it gets incredibly tender. That stuff that looks like fat or gristle is really soft and deliciously gelatinous.

Mrs. Tang’s Noodles:

This is not a soup style noodle dish. It had a nice spice level to it from the chili paste, and the ground pork was super flavorful. This was my favorite of the two.

Everything here is served to-go style, though there are some countertop seats available. Give this place a shot. I know I’ll be back to try some new menu items. And each item I had was under $10, so it’s a great bargain.

THE RICE NOODLE
190 Bleecker St
New York, NY 10012

Chinese, Midtown West, Press Reviews, Restaurant Reviews

Manting

April 28, 2017 Johnny Prime 3 Comments

My buddy Jeff from @foodmento organized a bunch of influencers to check this place out. I was instantly interested, since Jeff always seems to help me discover new and awesome places (like Pao de Queijo, among others).

Manting is a Chinese dry hot pot joint. What is that? Well, if you’re familiar with hot pot, then just remove the bubbling pot of broth and replace the cooking method with stir fry.

Hot pot is one of the most fun and delicious dining experiences, but hot broth doesn’t necessarily jive with the warmer weather. Dry hot pot is a nice solution to remove some of the temperature heat, if you can take the spice heat.

I can take the spice. Manting is known for having really spicy dry pot (obviously you can order it mild or without spice as well). They will likely caution you against ordering extra spicy or even medium spicy. And even if you manage to get them to give you spicy or medium, it may still be mild if you’re a spice freak like me. I think they’re worried about blowing people’s mouths up, because the word on the street is that this joint is too hot to handle.

The deliciousness of the food is unparalleled. Here’s how it works: you work your way down a row of veggies and fungi, telling the chef which items you want in your bowl and how much. Then you get to pick the meats and/or seafood. You pay by the pound, unlike some places which charge by ingredient.

I filled my bowl with string beans, bok choy, mushrooms, lotus root, tofu skin, okra and bean sprouts before hitting some lamb, beef and fish from the protein section. Here’s the finished product, topped with cilantro and spiced up to medium.

If the dry pot thing isn’t your bag, there is a full menu of other Chinese dishes available for you as well. Here’s a pair of shots of a really nice looking seafood soup:

I’ll definitely be back here again, especially since it’s so close to work.

MANTING
150 W 49th St
New York, NY 10019

Chinese, Queens, Restaurant Reviews

White Bear

February 26, 2017 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

My buddy and I stopped into White Bear after a Charcuterie event in Flushing to try some dumplings / wontons in hot chili oil. The funny part is that the woman working there just brought out the plate of dumplings before we even ordered.

But I guess it kind of makes sense: Every white person that was in before and after us within the 20 minute span of time we were there ordered the same thing. She knew.

For $6 you get an order of 12. They were very tasty and well made.

WHITE BEAR
135-02 Roosevelt Ave
Flushing, NY 11354

Chinese, Lower East Side/Chinatown, Restaurant Reviews

Sing Kee

November 21, 2016 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

NOTE: THIS PLACE IS CLOSED

A food friend of ours organized a massive 18-person, multi-course Chinese Thanksgiving meal on the weekend before turkey day as a way to celebrate our love of food.

We started with a house soup that contained dry winter melon and shredded pork.

These clams were served in a bean sauce that really popped. Super flavorful and clams were cooked perfectly.

These fried pork chops were incredibly tender and juicy. Definitely one of my favorite courses.

I’m not usually into full veggie dishes, but this mushroom platter was really incredible and satisfying. Those things at the bottom are little tofu skin crepes that are filled with a variety of mushrooms.

This whole fish (flounder, I believe) was another top dish of the day.

The meat was succulent and tender, and the veggies were a nice vehicle to deliver the sauce that they sponged up.

Fried and chopped lobster with some sort of Cheetos-like cheese coating. Incredibly unique for a Chinese joint. These were gobbled up almost instantly.

Beef! Yes! This was likely either flank or strip, but it came out on a sizzling skillet and was served in a really delicious brown sauce. Very tender.

Also a winning dish, this chicken was basically deconstructed and then re-assembled with the meat having been replaced by mixed-protein sticky rice. That rice was then coated and blanketed with extremely crisp chicken skin. So awesome, and so labor intensive.

Another hit dish was this dungeoness crab on a bef of flat, wide noodles (think chow fun style).

This was a very photogenic dish, and the crab meat was delicious.

The noodles could have used a bit more of a flavorful sauce, but otherwise this was really good.

On the side we enjoyed some stir fried and garlicky pea shoots.

And for dessert was a warm bowl of sweet bean porridge, of which I did not get a good shot.

All in, this meal only cost $45pp with tax and tip included. I definitely recommend giving this place a try. Especially for the chicken/sticky rice, fried pork chops and whole fish.

SING KEE
42 Bowery
New York, NY 10013

Chinese, Commentary, Midtown East, Midtown West, Press Reviews, Product Reviews, Restaurant Reviews, Thai, Upper West Side

Mahjong & Amazon Restaurants

November 14, 2016 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

Amazon recently launched a restaurant delivery service called Amazon Restaurants to compete with services like Seamless and GrubHub. They offered a few Instagram influencer friends and I some credit to try it out and post pics, give our thoughts, etc.

To make a whole night of it, we decided to order a whole bunch of Chinese food (and a little Thai) and make it game night as well with a Mahjong table and a deck of cards for Big Two.

Here’s a list of what we ordered, from three different restaurants.

Kung Fu Little Steamed Buns & Ramen: Pan Fried Pork Dumplings, Sticky Rice Shao Mai, Sliced Beef with Tripe in Chili Oil, House Special Ramen, and Sticky Rice Balls in Chinese Sweet Liqueur.

Spice: Maekong Aged Pork Chops and Emerald Vegetable Dumplings.

Hot Kitchen: Slow Grilled Lamb Ribs, Ma Po Tofu, Sliced Fish & Sour Cabbage Soup.

Since I’ve reviewed Kung Fu before, I will focus on the other items here. The big standout for me was the slow grilled spicy lamb from Hot Kitchen. The cumin and red pepper dry spice is just fantastic. I highly recommend it, especially because lamb ribs are a rarity on menus.

While the pork chops from Spice were pricey and a bit dry, they were super tender and had a nice aged flavor to them. Perhaps get these in the restaurant, rather than for delivery, to ensure they are cooked properly.

As for the delivery service, Amazon Restaurants was great. They have a good selection of restaurants stretching across the city, and the food arrived in a timely manner, still hot and fresh. A welcome addition to the food delivery service market.

KUNG FU LITTLE STEAMED BUNS & RAMEN
811 8th Ave
New York, NY 10019

SPICE
435 Amsterdam Ave
New York, NY 10024

HOT KITCHEN
251 E 53rd St
New York, NY 10022

Brooklyn, Chinese, Press Reviews, Restaurant Reviews

Yaso Tangbao

October 9, 2016 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

Soup dumplings are some of the most amazing things to eat. That burst of thick, viscous deliciousness is like nothing else in the food world. So when two friends of mine hosted an Instagram event at Yaso Tangbao, a dumpling and noodle joint in Brooklyn, I was psyched. First, I captured this footage of the guys making the dumplings. Check it out:

Then, of course, I gorged my face off on this shit. There were three varieties of soup dumpling, the best of which was the spicy (with red powder on top).

These are some of the best I’ve tried. The pouches never ripped or stuck to the paper beneath – and the flavors inside were always robust and packing great depth.

We also tried some other fun stuff:

Along with a shitload of noodle dishes. The one with the meatballs was amazing. Those meatballs are really soft and tender, made with pork.

As far as straight up meat goes, this place also slings some killer ribs.

And while this whole fish dish isn’t on the menu (staff caught it the day before and served it to us special), one awesome thing at this place is a water cooler filled with soy sauce. Yup.

YASO TANGBAO
148 Lawrence St
Brooklyn, NY 11201

Carcass Club/Beast Feast, Chinese, East Village, Non-Steakhouse Steaks, Other Cuts, Press Reviews, Restaurant Reviews

The Tang

October 8, 2016 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

The Tang is a great little noodle bar on 1st Avenue at 7th Street. I was invited here for a PR event showcasing some of their current and forthcoming dishes. Everything I tasted was really fucking good, and, in fact, the noodle quality is probably the best I’ve had in town so far. They’re strong, thick, have a really nice texture and snap to them, and they’re really nicely flavored in all the dishes I tried.

The meats in all of these noodle dishes are outstanding, by the way. One had braised pork belly, one had sliced beef, and the other had ground meats.

Some of the soup noodle bowls are excellent too.

But this place is more than just noodles. One standout item was the sliced beef short rib. These babies are packed with a ton of flavor, and cooked so perfectly. You don’t see short rib presented like this too often, like a real cut of steak on a plate, so I am featuring it here for my steak reviews as well. Short rib can be fatty, and that’s why it is usually either grilled hard with tons of sauce, or braised. But here, it was leaner and notably excellent at medium rare temps, because it was cooked sous vide style for 20 hours. 8/10.

This place is really my speed, especially given this large format pork knuckle/shank dish that will be rolling out on the menu soon. It’s super soft and tender.