Yo! NYC

Tasty Dumpling
54 Mulberry Street

Perfectly crispy bottom, well cooked pork inside, steaming hot, and amazingly cheap 5 for $1.25(they recently raised their prices) fried dumplings aka potstickers at Tasty Dumpling. Their name says it all, they have a small menu of items from noodles, tofu salads, scallion pancakes all OK, but the star is the DUMPLINGS! Don’t expect service, seating are limited about 10 people max, but hey what do expect its Chinatown. Make sure you properly season your dumplings with the provided dumpling sauce and sriracha hot sauce on the table, to gives it that extra little kick. If the weather permits, take it to go and enjoy people watching at the park right across.

Above: Pork and chive dumpling, so fresh it melted the styrofoam package.

(screen shot from the Andy Milonakis Show)

Yummy Noodles
48 Bowery, New York 10013
Btwn Bayard & Canal St
212-374-1327

Yummy Noodles are well known for their clay pot casseroles, roast ducks, and other Hong Kong style favorites on their menu. Cheap is the key, an average dish is around 4-6 dollars, but the menu might be a bit overwhelming for some. There are over a 100 items fit on to a single 8 1/2 x 11 size menu. My latest visit to that Yummy Noodles the service was really lacking.

Yummy’s logo and Rolex logo

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Recently renovated for a more contemporary feel, the Thailand Restaurant offers a great taste of traditional Thailand food with a modern touch. Having been to many crappy looking restaurants around Chinatown, it was nice to see the new upgrade. The all glass window side brings in ambient lighting which warm the look of the inside. It was especially nice the day I went when the sun was out.

The owners and people who work here consistently make excellent food. Every single dish is well done. The wait staff is friendly and attentive. The ambiance may be somewhat lacking but the place is very clean and not at all unattractive. Prices are reasonable. It’s all about the quality of the food and the cooking. This place is great if you’re looking for a Thai food experience!

Pongsri Thai Restaurant
106 Bayard St
(Cross Street: Baxter Street.)
New York, NY 10013
(212) 349-3132

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Nam Son offers authentic Vietnamese cuisine, with a full menu of the classics like Pho (Vermicelli in beef broth), spring rolls, pork chop with rice and crepes. Looking around you’ll notice this place is crowded even on a Thursday evening. The interior has a décor not unlike many of the other local Chinatown Vietnamese restaurants, however the food is what stands out.

A word of warning, walk carefully around the place, the floor is incredibly slippery. It feels like an oil slick.

The Food: “Pho”, Vermicelli (Bún in Vietnamese) rice noodle in beef broth is a big bowl of thin, almost transparent rice noodles in a hearty broth topped with thinly slice beef round, brisket, tendon and beef balls. The dish also comes with basil, bean sprouts, and a lime wedge. Be sure to add the veggies while the broth is hot so it gets nice and tender. Black Hoisin Sauce and sriracha added right in to the soup gives it an extra kick and another dimension that just isn’t the same without them.

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MOSCO PIZZA
105 MOSCO ST
11AM-10PM

After treating my family to lunch, Arson was telling me of a place in Chinatown that was actually a pizzeria. What? A pizzeria in Chinatown when Little Italy is merely on the other side of Canal? Would it actually taste like pizza? Well, Arson and I checked it out. It only opened three months ago. It’s right across the street from the other well-known dumpling place by Columbus Park. Rather small — it would be easy to miss it — with a quaint flag billowing in the wind with the words mosco pizza written on it.

Arson ordered the student special — $2.00 for a can of soda and a slice. The slice was fairly large and crunchy. The slice wasn’t truly anything special (it needed some more sauce), but it was edible. If you don’t want greasy, fried dumplings, then why not eat here? (It’s cheaper than Little Italy, I’ll tell you that much …) There’s a cute balcony with a view of, well, the side of the Transfiguration Church, but still, it’s nice decor. The place is small which makes it rather homely.

Considering that this is Chinatown, we say thumbs up for a pizzeria in Chinatown with a Chinese guy making this. If you feel like you just want a slice, and you can’t bring yourself to cross the wide dangerous street of Canal, then your best bet is here.

::edit::  5/08

i’ve been walking around there for the past few weeks, and it seems as though this pizzeria will be closed down indefinitely. Shame, no more pizza in Chinatown.

          -R.sin

Do not be deceived by its dirty looks

Well first off, this is my usual breakfast on Sunday mornings; this stuff never gets old. Right on Allen St off of East Broadway lies this street vendor. This balding old man works every morning in the same spot till a little past noon. There’s usually a long line of people waiting for the cheap delicious taste of Hong Kong. The fishballs of course are probable his best work, each one is filled with flavor. Also the amount of sauce that he gives is plentiful, which is rather rare for street vendors selling rice noodle rolls with fishballs. Although the location is quite far, I always make the walk back towards Mott St, because they are completely worth it, top it off with a nice 99 cents Arizona ice tea and I am pretty sure you won’t be hungry for a while.

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5 EAST BROADWAY
NY, NY 10038
10AM-11PM

To be fairly honest, I rarely venture to the other side of Bowery by Chatham Square, but as I was walking back to my place after eating with the family, I saw a rather interesting restaurant. First, the discrepency in that area was obvious: clean with an Asian minimalist look. Second, 24-HOUR DIMSUM??? (Well, for as long as they were open, actually.) After my doubletake, I thought to myself, this must be my potential heaven. This is what God would say to me: Behold my child, eat all the dimsum you possibly can and not get fat. (Although that does sound more like gluttony, doesn’t it…) Third, it seemed to cater mostly to foreigners.

So, one night I went with two of my friends at around 930-10pm, excited and rambling about the food I was going to order to stuff my face (I heard “fatass” thrown around a couple of times). We entered the place, and it was designed very simply; white walls adorned with mirrors and splashes of festive red throughout the place. Albeit small, it was rather homely. It was different from the other exuberant dimsum places where you have to yell for the person sitting next to you to hear what you’re saying. We sit, and there is a small piece of paper with a pencil next to it. Exciting, is it not? Revolutionizing the way dimsum is ordered! Instead of old women pushing the carts, yelling out what they’re coming around with, now all you need to know is how to read what you want to eat, and then: check it off, waiter takes it, food comes. Bing, bang, boom. Ah, the potential of education in China. Ah, China — efficiency at whatever cost, including food. The only problem I had, I shared with my father when we first saw this concept in beautiful, hot, shop-glorious Shenzhen: while my father couldn’t read the menu because he had contacts on and the characters were too small, I just can’t read at all, and I have no idea what the Chinese dishes are called in English.

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Jumbo Hot Dogs
139 Canal Street
Chinatown, NY

What better way to welcome a visitor to NYC than with a jumbo size hot dog. Next to the Fung Wah Bus station where daily commuters from Boston to New York gets dropped off, this small window front shop offers quick snack for riders. With a self proclaim sign of “the BEST in New York” (so they claim on their sign), I was eager to try.

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If you’re looking for a cheap, fast, and tasty snack, “Fried Dumpling” on Mosco Street across from Columbus Park is the place to go. Service is not grade A but you expect that in a small mom and pop joint. The menu is very basic, I don’t think the prices have changed ever since it opened a number of years ago. For $1.75 you get you 5 pieces of dumplings and a soy bean drink to wash it down. Seating is limited to 4 stools but it’s best to just take your food and sit at the park. Don’t forget the dumpling sauce and the hot sauce, I suspect they watered down the dumpling sauce (vinegar) but I guess they need to cut back on something.

Today I eat with my friend at Joe’s Shanghai on 9 Pell Street, across the street from Confucius Plaza. We started off with a pork wonton soup which a friend recommended. Definitely not my taste, the texture was very dry, taste like cardboard and the soup was nothing special. The next dish was the famous Joe’s Shanghai dumplings(pork) which every shanghai restaurant has. The dish was steaming hot as the waiter placed it to our table. I haven’t had this for a while but it tasted just like I expected. The hot inner soup and the soft pork meat were hmmm yummy. We wind up ordering another dish right after. I ordered for myself the Singapore noodles, which was OK I was really hungry plus it was few dishes that was under $10 bucks.

It was a good Saturday crowd, the waiting was out the door when I left.Overall I rate this place 3 out of 5.

Joe’s Shanghai
9 Pell St.
212-233-8888