Updated May 30, 2022
This is an updated entry to Dun Huang. The original East Village location is closed, but they opened another location out in Long Island City. They have several locations spread throughout the city. Dun Huang advertises itself as authentic Northwestern Chinese food. The menu at this location pales in comparison to what we got in the East Village location, so I’ll still share the differences for reference. Ambiance The decor at the Long Island City location is pretty no frills.
January 22, 2020
A friend was in town, and I saw that Tim Ho was near their hotel. This place was always on my list to try given that it had received Michelin recognition at its Hong Kong location. Given I’ve eaten at numerous dim sum places already, they tout themselves as the dim sum specialists, so I already have high expectations. I don’t remember the drink on the left, but the right was some type of mango cococnut slush.
November 2, 2019
We were around Central Park near the southern side, and this was on my list of restaurants to try. This new-ish Chinese (Shanghainese) restaurant is located where Joe’s Shanghai used to be in Midtown. It’s not too far from the Apple flagship store. The stir fry snow pea leaf was mighty tasty. You can taste the subtleness of that wine, and the vegetable itself was tender and delicious. The yang chow fried rice was very uplifting and fresh too.
October 4, 2019
It’s the evening and where could be a good place to get fairly traditional Cantonese style Chinese food? Dim Sum Palace! The pork ribs (páigǔ; 排骨) is pretty decent. It came out piping hot with a lump of black bean that probably was suppose to be mixed in the sauce. It’s a little different than other dim sum places, but still pretty good. The salted pepper prawns were really good.
September 6, 2019
This little spot closed to the edge of Flatiron is a decent place if you’re into Shanghainese food and are not close to Chinatown. The passion fruit lemonade was good. You can taste the passion fruit, and it mixed well with the lemonade. The chilled marinated cucumbers were also good too although I felt the cucumbers were not marinated long enough. They were crunchy with an OK kick to them.
August 30, 2019
This seems to be a new upscaled Chinese restaurant that we accidentally stumbled into. The decor is very modern and has a slight pretentious feel to it. I learned that the restaurant likes to advertise it hand makes basically all the dough. They gave this waffle like starter. It is similar to those red bean cakes but without the red bean. The dumpling sampler had 4 dumplings. This was a special, so I’ll try my best to remember (top left clockwise): some soup dumpling, some squid ink dumpling with gold flakes, another soup dumpling variant, and shu mai with (crab?
May 20, 2019
Astoria is not really a place known for having typical Shanghainese food. I always think of it as having more latin and mediterranean influences to those respective demographics in the area. This restaurant though was surprisingly pretty decent for this area. The drunken chicken I normally don’t find in many restsaurants. Here, it’s not as good as my cousin’s or my mother’s version as it’s WAY too salty, chicken pieces don’t appear cut right, and it doesn’t seem like it was marinated well.
April 19, 2019
I’ve been to this restaurant multiple times in various neighborhoods, but I haven’t documented it till now. I usually get the spicy tingly beef. It’s pretty good, but to be honest I do like Very Fresh Noodles in the Chelsea Market more. However this place was next to me, so the convenience is much appreciated. The spicy and sour spinach dumplings are also really good too. I love the vinegary taste wih everything.
Updated February 23, 2019
This place is in Chinatown off of Hester St. We were looking for Cantonese style cuisine, and honestly there was nothing spectacular or bad. The pea shoots with garlic had a taste of wine flavor to it, and was good. The pepper salted pork chops was good as well. It would have been nice if they added more peppers and scallions. The pepper salted shrimp was just ok for me.
Updated February 17, 2019
It’s a bit of a trek, but it’s a much cheaper place for Peking Duck. The whole peking duck was actually pretty good and reasonably price. The skin was a nice crisp, and the duck was pleasantly fat. The fried shrimp was mistakenly ordered. We thought it was going to be the whole pepper salted shrimp with head. Even then, it was also decent. The other dishes, pea sprouts and yang chow fried rice, were not much different than other Chinese places.