Manhattan Chinatown

While I'm aware that the better Asian restaurants in New York are in Queens, I'll be in New York on business for a few days next month and I'll just have time to make some quick trips to lower Manhattan's Chinatown (I'll be staying and working in midtown). Any recommendations? Thanks.

This place is amazing. I think it's also called #1 Dumpling. Seriously delicious. Not a sit-down place, but you won't care when you take the first bite of your dumpling or tuna (!!) sandwich.

I had a heck of a good meal at New Wonton Garden during my last visit (photo and brief description in this thread). It's a small diner-like restaurant with a pretty broad menu and plenty of good noodles, dumplings and dumpling soups.

New Wonton Garden
56 Mott St
New York
212-966-4886

Best,
Michael

My most recent and very good experience in Manhattan Chinatown: http://lthforum.com/bb/viewtopic.php?t=10730

My first Chinatown stop in NYC is New Green Bo. Yeah, the ambience isn't much and the service can be surly, but who cares-- the food is simply marvelous. Read about it here:
http://menupages.com/restaurantdetails.asp?areaid=0&restaurantid=2132&neighborhoodid=0&cuisineid=0

My favorite places in Chinatown:

Hong Kong Station - Hong Kong style noodle bar, cafeteria style. Everything is $1. So, if you pick a noodle, one meat and one vegetable, it will cost $3. They top everything off with broth (depends on the kind of meat you want). Toppings (cilantro, green onions, chili peppers) are free. The meats tend to be a bit more exotic, like tripe, pig's feet or beef tendon. You won't find BBQ or roast duck as a meat choice.

NY Noodletown (Bayard & Bowery) - More traditional noodle shop with roast meats. I prefer this place over New Wonton Garden.

Nice Restaurant (35 E. Broadway) - My favorite place for Peking Duck. Instead of thin pancakes, they serve the duck with a slighly sweet, steamed bread, which matches wonderfully with the crispiness of the duck skin. Best I've ever had.

Skyway Malaysian (Allen Street) - Wonderfully spiced (not hot spicy, but aromatic spicy) foods.

Oriental Garden (11 Elizabeth) - My favorite place for dim sum. They don't have rolling carts, they're slightly more expensive, and they don't have as much variety as some of the other places, but I've always been impressed with the freshness and the simplicity of their dim sum. They also have great big tanks filled with all types of fish and crustacean, which is always fun to look at.

Joe's Shanghai (Pell and Bowery)- Only for soup dumplings, the rest of their menu is kind of mediocre! Like nothing you've ever experienced.

Dumpling lady on Mosco Street - freshly made, 5 for $1, great as an appetizer while you're walking around Chinatown.

Beef Jerky King on Mulberry - Home made Chinese style beef jerky.

Let me know if you want an LTH outing in NY, and I'll see what I can do.

Good luck!

I lived in NYC until a few years ago. Since moving to Chicago I have relied on LTH and am glad to finally contribute - here's two suggestions plus one bonus:

1.) Big wing wong - it's on Mott street, just north of canal. Take the 6 to Canal Street and you'll be right there. They have a dish called something like "three delights" which is chicken, pork, and egg, which I really like. It's cheap, too.

2.) Congee Village - not exactly in chinatown (Allen & Delancey), but my all time favorite. One of the few places in town where you can order duck toungue. The fresh squid with ginger porrige is amazing, in fact you can't go wrong with any of the seafood dishes (or anything else, for that matter). take the F or JMZ to Delancey street - or, better yet, a cab.

Bonus - if you like Japanese food and want to try something different in midtown, head over to Ise on 49th St for the niboshi (anchovy) ramen. As far as I know its one of the few places where you can get it (it's not on the menu so ask for it by name)

Hello all, this is my first post! I figure this is a good way to start as I currently live in NYC Chinatown (can you hear the commotion outside my window as people clamor for the fishmonger's attention? In the summer you can not only hear it, but smell it too) I am in heaven...

Below are some faves in addition to ones pointed out in earlier posts (love the following dishes at Congee Village: sauna shrimp, razor clams with black bean sauce, fresh mixed mushrooms with fried tofu. Check out their menu in it's full glory: http://www.sunsungroup.com/congeevillage/)

Number 1 Dumping
118 Eldridge (just south of Broome)
Place your order while you watch the cooking crew work three giant woks to kick out the tastiest bargain dumplings in town (pork and chive potstickers are 5 for a $1.) Ditto on what geli said- the TUNA SALAD sandwich on their scallion/sesame pancake bread is a MUST TRY. If you're lucky enough to snag one of 5 barstools along the small counter in the back, be sure and peep the Chinese grandmas hand making the dumplings in the tiny back room.

Golden Unicorn (during the day for dim sum)
18 East Broadway (at Catherine)
A spectacle of a space with spectacular dim sum.

Shanghai Garden
14 Elizabeth (just South of Canal)
Dark, kinda dingy AND their SHUI MAI is phemomenal. Wherever you may do dim sum in Chinatown, but save room for an order of shui mai here- 8 big juicy pieces (FYI: it's a 10 minute walk away from Golden Unicorn)

J.M. Family Noodle
19 Henry St. (at Catherine)
Hong Kong style Chinese BBQ, seafood, noodle dishes, etc., etc. Our favorite neighborhood joint with a huge menu we are working our way through never disappoints. Fans of Sun Wah in Chicago will like this place (FYI: the Sun Wah in NYC Chinatown is a barber shop- no info on their haircuts as of yet)

Saigon Bahn Mi
138 Mott Street (just south of Grand)
Take-out Vietnamese sandwich counter in the back of a jewelry store. Incredible deal at $3.25. Crusty french bread, and the BBQ pork they use takes it over the top. Closed Monday.

Hope all this helps. And thanks to all the LTHers for pointing me in the direction of some new places I gotta try.

-Mark

I agree fully with the aforementiones soup dumplings at Joe's Shanghai. I wouldn't dream of going to NYC and not having an order of soup dumplings (or three). I like the pork ones better than the crab, but that's just a matter of personal taste.

I also never leave NYC without an order of duck with flowering chives at New York Noodletown (also previously mentioned).

While it's not exactly on point as it is neither Chinese or in Chinatown, I would definitely make a trip to Momofuku for their pork buns. I'm not a fan of their ramen, but the pork buns are absolutely amazing. Don't even consider splitting an order with anyone else. Momofuku is aroun 2nd Avenue and 10th Street. Best of luck.

I love Doyers Vietnamese Restaurant on Doyers Street (the little curvy road in the heart of Chinatown). It's a tired-looking place in the basement of a building, but boy is the food ever good there. Great steamed vegetable rolls and excellent pho there.

Here is a link to a blog that gives a good description of the place:

http://newyorkfood.blogspot.com/2005/01 ... urant.html

Hammer and I had two fine meals together in Chinatown last year. One at Congee Village (which she didn't mention) and the other at Skyway (which is Malaysian) which she does. Also I enjoyed Green Bo. I believe that I have previously posted on each of them.

[url=http://lthforum.com/bb/viewtopic.php?t=5931&highlight=congee+village[/url]Congee Village[/url]

[url=http://lthforum.com/bb/viewtopic.php?t=9235&highlight=skyway[/url]Skyway[/url]

[url=http://lthforum.com/bb/viewtopic.php?t=5376&highlight=green++chinatown[/url]Green Bo[/url]

Paul SL wrote:My first Chinatown stop in NYC is New Green Bo. Yeah, the ambience isn't much and the service can be surly, but who cares-- the food is simply marvelous. Read about it here:
http://menupages.com/restaurantdetails.asp?areaid=0&restaurantid=2132&neighborhoodid=0&cuisineid=0

Had dinner at New Green Bo last weekend. It was something of an unplanned stop and I was pretty under the weather but I'll try to remember as much as I can.

Pork Steamed Mini Buns (soup dumplings) - One of our companions didn't like seafood so we went with all pork. Good soup dumplings... not the best, not the worst.

Pork potsickers - decent pot sticker... se above

Crispy eels - Pretty much identical to KS seafood. Tiawnese french fries. Damn good.

Singapore spring rolls - What is is about being sick that makes me order greesy rolls of wrapper. That said, this was pretty much exactly what I needed. If a mouthful of greese doesn't slide out the sickness, nothing will!

Stuffed dofu and dofu puff soup with bean thread noodles soup - lovely light soup. Delacate but flavorful broth, fresh noodles and dofu.

Szechuan prok and cabbage rice cakes - tastey if a bit heavy starch. Would be great if one was very hungover.

Spicy chicken with peanuts - kung pow like dish ordered by a friend. Actually very good!

I know there was more but that is all I can remeber right now. All and all not a bad dinner but not one that I would rank with Peach Farm in Boston or LSC in Chicago but, then again, I haven't explored the menu much (or done much research prior to dining) and I was good and sick. I would certainly go again if the chance presented itself.

I’ve heard a lot of praise, here and elsewhere, for soup dumplings at Joe’s Shanghai xiao long bao. My only previous xiao long bao experience was the House of Fortune stop on a last summer’s tour. I liked them quite a bit, and since the bus from DC (which started at 8:00 am right in front of Zurer family favorite Full Kee, incidentally) dropped us off smack in the middle of NY Chinatown, I figured I ought to make a point of stopping at this bastion of bao to calibrate my experience.

The ones at Joe’s were better.

A lot better. I don’t have the breadth of experience to say these were excellent xiao long bao, but they were certainly excellent food. Full with broth, and a very good broth…deep and rich in flavor. The wrapper was plenty sturdy; in fact, perhaps too sturdy. They seemed thicker and a bit doughier than my imagined ideal. Still, they were very, very good.

Especially on an empty stomach on a cold rainy day in which I’d already visited, briefly, DC Chinatown and Philadelphia Chinatown (eating nothing), sat five hours on a very full, sometimes foul-smelling bus, working on a few hours sleep, mildly hungover, dropped in NY for the first time….yeah, those dumplings rocked.

(As the Hammer notes above, the other food was not so good. We ordered two other dishes, in addition to 16 dumplings, and neither were very good. A beef noodle dish and double-fried pork, or something. They were happily received by a guy who knocked on the window of our cab.)

My dumpling fix sated, NY pizza was on the menu for dinner.

Joe’s Shanghai Restaurant
9 Pell St.
New York, NY 10013 (Chinatown)
212-233-8888