Tag Archives: chinese food

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!

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

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

Sun Hing Lung

June 18, 2024 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

First, check out my Ride & Review HERE:

Sun Hing Lung is a little hole in the wall rice roll and dumpling spot on Henry Street in Chinatown. I walked by here once and made a mental note that I wanted to try it, but I was never able to find it again on all my walks and rides in the area. Fast Forward to last weekend, when my friend Peter suggested it as a spot to try for rice rolls. BOOM! It’s the spot I have been trying to re-find for almost two years!

After a skate park session, I rode over to pick some up. I took them home and devoured them all. Chinese sausage with mixed veggies, curry fish ball, and pork. All great. Hard to choose a favorite.

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

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, Lower East Side/Chinatown, Restaurant Reviews

Hakka Cuisine

October 18, 2023 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

First, check out my Ride & Review video HERE:

My wife and I just walked by this place a few weeks ago and we were wondering if it was any good. Then, a few days ago, some friends of ours organized a lunch here. We were psyched to go.

This place is really known for their “blossom chicken,” which is basically a chicken that has had all the meat removed, chopped up, and mixed with shrimp paste to form a sort of chicken-shrimp sausage. Then it’s stuffed back into the skin and cooked until that skin gets golden crisp. It’s amazing!

We also had a really tender, delicious and savory braised pork belly dish. Make sure you order some rice to soak up those amazing juices.

The stuffed tofu (stuffed with pork sausage, I think) was good, but it was my least favorite of the main dishes. It just didn’t have the powerful punch of flavor like the others.

This stir fried white fish or bait fish dish was really tasty. I think this would benefit from a pop of spice, but the ginger in it was really refreshing.

If you’re looking for a big shared appetizer, get the sliced conch on ice. It’s heavy on the wasabi, but if you’re like me, that’s a good thing!

Last, we had some pea shoots with fried baby shrimp on the side. This was more soupy than I expected, as opposed to stir fried. It was still delicious though.

I will definitely be back here to try more dishes. Our waiter showed us a few more items that they consider specialties as he was bringing them to other tables (egg custard with clams, and lobster fried rice).

HAKKA CUISINE
11 Division St.
New York, NY 10002

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, Midtown West, Restaurant Reviews

Cafe China

December 8, 2022 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

This place was really good! I forgot my light, and I didn’t take a lot of pics, but this Michelin starred Chinese joint really delivered the flavor! My favorite was the crispy fish filets (last pic), but over all everything was high quality. I would definitely go back for more.

CAFE CHINA
59 W 37th St
New York, NY 10018

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.