Tag Archives: chinese

Chinese, Fusion, Japanese, Korean, Midtown West, Restaurant Reviews, Thai, Vietnamese

SEA by Jungsik

January 4, 2026 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

This place is a sister restaurant to the Michelin-starred Jungsik restaurant. We went big here, so I’m going to make it quick. Check this out:

First off, the oysters here are probably the best I’ve ever had. I think that has to do with the jalapeno and cilantro granita (ice), and their version of a mignonette.

I also really enjoyed their steak tartare.

The prawn rolls, sticky rice sausage, and fried eggs were great too, but my focus on a re-visit might be on the other stuff above.

The stars of the show were the short rib special and the crispy pork belly.

I would get these every time I visit. The pork belly was the best version of this dish I’ve ever had. The fat was completely rendered and soft, the meat extremely tender (no stringy bits), and the skin was nice and crisp without being too hard and hurting your teeth/mouth.

The crab fried rice was a bit fishy, but beautiful nonetheless. It went nicely with the curry, actually.

The soft serve dessert sundae was a great way to end the meal.

I will definitely be back here again. I highly recommend it.

SEA BY JUNGSIK
151 W 30th Street
New York, NY 10001

Chinese, Lower East Side/Chinatown, Restaurant Reviews

Chinatown Food Crawl

September 6, 2024 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

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

August 18, 2024 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

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

July 29, 2024 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

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

March 25, 2024 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

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

March 18, 2024 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

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

June 20, 2023 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

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

January 8, 2023 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

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

May 4, 2021 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

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

January 25, 2020 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

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.