Bamboo House still has the sign of the previous business on the outside of the building.
There are many, many small hole in the wall Chinese restaurants that dot the streets and avenues of Manhattan, and they are not hard to miss. Bamboo House Chinese Restaurant is another little take-out place from the outside but when you venture inside, you will find a nice place to sit down and eat. The food the two times I have eaten there were very good, the food extremely reasonable and the portion sizes very generous.
The first time I ate there was on a whim as it is a few blocks from the Museum of the City of New York, and I was looking for a place for dinner and this was on my way to the museum. I was craving for Roast Pork Lo Mein, and they have their $10.00 Combination platters every night. You can either have your entree and pork fried rice with a soda or an egg roll. I like to order both even if it is a bit more, you still have to try their egg rolls. They are very good.
The Roast Pork Lo Mein with Pork Fried Rice and a homemade egg roll
The Roast Pork Lo Mein they make is excellent. They load it up with chopped roast pork and seasoned vegetables and the portion size is very generous. During the lunch hour, this meal would serve as lunch and dinner.
The portion sizes at Bamboo House are more than generous.
The second evening I dined there when I was in the area, I tried their Chicken with Broccoli Combination Platter ($10.00), which comes with either an egg roll or a soda. I chose both and it was a wonderful meal.
The Chicken and Broccoli with brown sauce.
The chicken was really tender and what was nice about the dish is that the broccoli was perfectly cooked. Sometimes at a lot of these small restaurants the broccoli is raw. The meal was perfectly cooked and the sauce was flavorful.
The egg roll here are really good. They are filled with the perfect combination of shredded cabbage and roast pork.
The egg rolls are really good here.
The one nice aspect of this small take out place is that is has a nice place to sit down and eat. It isn’t the fanciest place but is a nice place to sit down and have a relaxing meal.
The inside of the dining area of Bamboo House is very nice for a takeout establishment.
This small gem by the Lexington Houses is very good and I look forward to dining here in the future. They have a very nice selection of meals for a reasonable price.
The front of Bardolino Pizza at 1505 Lexington Avenue
I was up at the Museum of the City of New York one night for a special event and I stopped in for a quick dinner. They advertised outside for a special for two slices of cheese with a soda for $6.00 and I was so happy for a reasonable meal.
The delicious Pizza Dinner Special for $6.00
It always amazes me when I try a small pizzeria and the food is just mind-blowingly good. Not only were the slices over-sized and loaded with gooey cheese that strung when it is pulled but the red sauce that the foundation for the pizzeria’s dishes is excellent.
I could tell by the tiny chunks of tomato that the sauce was made fresh and you could tell in the consistency and flavor of the pizza. It is far better than the many places I have pizza in New York City.
The interesting pizza selections at Bardolino’s Pizza.
I was so taken by the pizza that the next night I was visiting the Metropolitan Museum of Art and walked an extra ten blocks to try a Meatball Parmesan hero ($10.00) for dinner. It was also excellent.
The excellent Meatball hero loaded with their delicious red sauce.
Yum!
A fresh chewy hero roll lightly toasted with a large portion of freshly made meatballs sliced inside the roll and topped with more of their delicious sauce and loaded with lots of mozzarella melted on top. The sandwich was out of this world and made such a nice dinner on a cool night.
Their menu has very fair prices.
The menu has many items under the ten dollar range and being so close to the projects a block up the road (the restaurant is on the northern border of the Upper East Side and East Harlem), that they have to keep the prices at a certain level to cater to the mixture of customers that they have to cater to.
The lunch and dinner specials that they offer.
There is something for everyone here and it attracts people at all hours. I was amazed how many people were coming in for complete meals as they were getting off work at 10:00pm.
It is a great little pizzeria and very underrated.
I came across this wonderful little Vietnamese restaurant when I was walking the Turtle Bay neighborhood for my blog, “MywalkinManhattan.com” and was looking for a reasonable meal that evening. I was pleasantly surprised. The food and service were very good and the I had a nice time talking to other guests.
The space for the restaurant is quite tight and it is a long narrow space done in all woods along the walls and in the seating. The kitchen is in the front as you walk in but you can’t see where the cooking is being done. As I walked in at 5:00pm, I must have thrown the staff off as they were eating their lunch when I walked through the door. It was funny because not even five minutes later two other parties followed me into the restaurant.
The inside of Pho 6 at 222 East 51st Street
The service was very pleasant and the food came out in a timely basis. I started the meal with the pork filled Spring Rolls ($6.00) which were filled with well spiced ground pork and fresh vegetables and cooked to a golden brown. They had a nice crunch with every bite and with the accompanying sauce plus some hot sauce really brought out the flavor of the pork. A little different from their Chinese counterparts.
The Pho 6 Spring Rolls a very crisp and golden brown
For the main meal, I had the Vermicelli Noodles with Grilled Shrimp ($10.00). Most of the time I avoid grilled anything in restaurants because it always tastes dry. Not here as the shrimp was grilled to perfection. The outside was nicely marked but the inside was moist and sweet. The noodles were smooth and cooked to tenderness that were topped with fresh greens and carrots which made the dish sweet and crunchy with the ginger sauce that was served on the side.
Their Vermicelli Noodle dishes are delicious
The menu also contains lots of different items from Banh Mi sandwiches ($7.50) to Rice Dishes ($10.00), Vietnamese Tacos ($8.00) and Pho Noodle Soups ($11.00) so there is a lot to choose from.
The whole meal was enjoyable from the food to the service to the ladies and their little baby sitting next to me that I talked to through my meal. It is a very engaging restaurant with good quality food, nice size portions, friendly service and very fair prices.
It is nice to discover these little neighborhood gems.
*Author’s Note: the restaurant closed during the COVID-19 pandemic but Pho 5 is in Murray Hill and Pho 4 is in the Garment District to enjoy.
The Pho 2:
Pho 2 at 273 Eighth Avenue
I really miss the Pho 6 but recently discovered that there is a branch of the restaurant around the corner from where I work on Eighth Avenue and I decided to try it for lunch. I was very impressed by this branch as well.
The Classic Banh Mi Special Sandwich
I had a Banh Mi Special sandwich, which is ham, sliced pork, pate, cilantro, carrots, daikon, and lettuce on a toasted baguette. The sandwich was excellent. All the meats were so fresh and the vegetables were so crispy.
The Banh Mi Special sandwich was delicious
The baguette was toasted perfectly and the sandwich was nicely accompanied by both Plum Sauce and Hot Sauce that you could add on top from the bottles on the table. The sandwich was really reasonable at $9.00.
The Classic Banh Mi sandwich is excellent at Pho 2
The service was quick and very pleasant. The food came out quickly. The quality of the food is excellent.
The inside of the restaurant is bright and cheery.
The next time K ate at the Chelsea branch, I wanted to try a different sandwich and choose the Grilled Chicken and it was delicious. Thinly sliced pieces of grilled chicken marinated and perfectly grilled with lots of fresh vegetables on top on a chewy role is excellent.
Lin’s Gourmet Chinese Restaurant at 1097 Second Avenue
While I was walking around the Sutton East neighborhood on the border of Sutton Place and Turtle Bay, I came across Lin’s Gourmet Chinese Restaurant at 1097 Second Avenue. What looks like another run of the mill hole in the wall Chinese takeout place is anything but when it comes to the taste of their food and quality of the dishes.
The inside of Lin’s Gourmet Chinese Cuisine
What is nice is that they have a good lunch combination menu with a wide selection of dishes to choose from all in the $8.00 to $8.50 price range. Each of the lunch selections comes with a side of either pork fried, brown or white rice and a choice of soup or an eggroll. The portion sizes are quite large, and it is more of a dinner meal than a lunch.
Their Wonton Soup is excellent
On my first trip to the restaurant, I had the Beef and Broccoli with pork fried rice and an eggroll ($8.25). The beef was stir-fried with a combination soy and Hunan sauce that gave it a nice deep tangy flavor and the beef could not have been more tender. The broccoli which most restaurants barely cook was firm but tender and it did not compensate for the beef in the dish. It was the perfect balance of meat and vegetable. The pork fried rice had small pieces of pork in it and a small combination of vegetables.
The delicious Beef & Broccoli
On my second trip to the restaurant, I had the Shredded Beef & Hot Spicy Sauce with pork fried rice and a bowl of hot & sour soup ($8.25). They served you a nice sized portion of small slivers of beef with shredded celery, carrots and onions in a fiery chili sauce that on a hot day actually cooled me down. The chilies gave the beef a nice flavor and the dish had a light sauce to it. Again the pork fried rice was one of the better ones I have had in the City.
Lin’s Egg rolls are really good.
The second time I had the Spicy Shredded Beef it was still delicious and just as flavorful and fiery as before, but it was over-loaded with sliced onion which I had to pick out. I picked out about half the dish there were so many onions. After that I could enjoy the dish with the pork fried rice. The egg roll was not bad, but it was smaller than I remembered.
The Spicy Shredded Beef
Their hot & sour soup is the perfect cold remedy. It was full of shredded vegetables and tofu and has enough chilies in it to feel the true punch of the soup. It will open you up.
The Wonton Soup was good but a little salty. The wontons though had a hint of ginger in them and were quite good.
The Wonton Soup
Both times I have found the service to be very friendly and welcoming especially as busy as the place is in the afternoon. The times I have visited Lin’s the phone did not stop ringing with takeout orders. What is also nice is that there is plenty of comfortable seating that overlooks Second Avenue, and it is fun to people watch during lunch.
*Bloggers note: The prices have risen at Eclair Bakery by about $1.50-$1..75 per item since COVID.
I came across the Éclair Bakery when I was walking the Sutton Place neighborhood for my walking project, “MywalkinManhattan.com”. The bakery is on the side street of East 53rd Street close to Second Avenue on the border of the Sutton Place and Turtle Bay neighborhoods in an area some people in the neighborhood call “Sutton East”.
For all the confusion of what neighborhood it is in, Éclair Bakery is a rather large and narrow restaurant with seating in the front and back and the counter with all the baked goods in the middle. All the products here are lined up like colorful jewels in the display case.
The bakery selection
The bakery is the brainchild of Stephane Pourrez, a French Pastry chef from Paris. He was trained at Ferrandi and the French School of the Culinary Arts. After working under several chefs in Paris, he came to New York and worked for another bakery in the City until 2013 when he opened his first shop (website).
Chef Pourrez
This well lit and designed bakery treats the product the same way it does the customer, with care and respect and showcases them both. The walls are painted with colorful scenes of Paris and the design is almost like an open air bakery in the famous French city. I felt like I was transported to a trendy neighborhood in that City.
There are all sorts of sweets and savories in the cases. The are tiny quiches with bacon and cheese and spinach. They have chicken salad and small ham and cheese sandwiches and a ham and cheese croissant.
The Eclairs the bakery is known for in the neighborhood.
I also tried to decide between the mini French Doughnuts that were filled with Nutella and fresh strawberry jelly ($2.25). Both were about four bites and are well worth the price tag. Since I could not decide I ordered them both.
The Nutella and Strawberry Mini Doughnuts.
They really are tiny.
The Strawberry Jelly is sweet and tart at the same time and combines nicely with the sugary top.
The Mini Strawberry doughnut
The homemade Strawberry jam was delicious.
The other is filled with Chocolate Nutella spread and has a nice hazelnut and chocolate sweetness to it. The doughnuts themselves have a pillowy consistency and a sugary sweetness on the outside.
The Nutella doughnut was rich and nutty in taste.
The doughnut oozed with delicious Nutella
To complete dessert I ordered a green tea ice tea ($2.75), which hit the spot on a warm day. There was just the right amount of simple syrup in it that it did not need sugar.
I was so impressed by the food and service at Éclair Bakery that I went back for lunch a week later. This time I tried their buttery Broccoli and Cheddar Quiche ($8.25) which was loaded with freshly cooked broccoli and sharp cheddar cheese. The soft inside was perfectly cooked and heated up for me and the buttery flaky exterior crust made every bit a nice combination of flavors and textures. You could really taste the butter in the crust.
One late Friday night I was walking home from the Met and was in need of a snack and to tell you how much I like this place I walked from Fifth Avenue and East 80th Street down to West 53rd and Second Avenue to have one of his Ham and Cheese Croissants ($6.50). God was it worth it! The outside croissant dough was flaky and buttery and crisp with every bite and the inside was loaded with a thin honey ham and Gruyere cheese for a slightly sharper taste. It made the perfect quick meal.
The decadent sandwiches at Eclair Bakery. Ham & Cheese, Quiche Lorraine and Spinach Quiche and Chicken and Tuna Sandwiches.
After the museum one early evening, I stopped in and had the Turkey, Swiss, Lettuce and Tomato on the Baguette with a touch of mayo and it was delicious. It was so fresh and the bread tasted like it had a bit of dill in it. The mayo gave it that extra zig.
The Turkey and Swiss on the baguette made a great dinner.
I had the black tea ice tea ($2.75) but this time around you needed to add sugar. Stick to the Green Tea with simple syrup. For dessert I tried a Tiger Nutella ($4.00), which was a type of chocolate chip cookie in a mold with a dab of Nutella in the cup in the middle of the top. It is rich and decadent at the same time.
When I was completing my tour of Sutton Place and getting ready to enter Turtle Bay, I made a special trip in between movies at the MoMA to go to Éclair once again and had one of their decadent Blondies ($4.75), a dense chewy dessert similar to a brownie in consistency. There Blondies had a heavier and sweeter caramelized flavor and the dessert was loaded with butter which you could taste in every bite.
Their Chocolate Chip cookie ($4.50) is similar and size and has the same rich buttery taste to it. It is loaded with big chocolate chunks. Another dessert that was a stand out was Pain Aux Raisins ($5.25), a Danish with a cream rolled into the pastry and studded with plump raisins. It was sweet pastry loaded with equally sweet raisins in every bite. Their Brownie’s ($4.75) are sweet, dense, rich with chocolate and have a nice chewy consistency.
The dense Lemon Cake with the light icing ($5.25) served as my birthday cake in October. Its light sweetness and taste of fresh lemon made my birthday quite festive as I walked down Second Avenue on Day One Hundred and Forty Six of MywalkinManhattan.com.
The Lemon Cake is light and sweet.
It was moist and dense to cut into.
I was in the mood for something sweet after a long walk around the Upper East Side to visit businesses since COVID came out and I needed some cheering up. I had one of their Portuguese Egg Custards ($2.50) and was it delicious. The top was caramelized to deep golden brown with a rich eggy center sweetened by sugar and a flaky buttery crust.
The service is very friendly and welcoming and they are good at making recommendations.
This amazing little hole in the wall restaurant is a the perfect retreat when visiting the Upper East Side shopping district or fighting the crowds at Bloomingdale’s. Like most of the non-descript Chinese restaurants that line the streets and avenues of Manhattan, Asian 59 stands out for its very friendly service, reasonable prices and excellent food.
When I was finishing my blog on walking the Upper East Side for my other blog, “MywalkinManhattan”, I had passed this restaurant several times and saw that it was very busy at lunch time and thought that last day in the neighborhood I would try it. I was very happy with the whole experience.
The first time I ate at Asian 59 was for lunch. Their lunch specials are extremely reasonable and offers a nice selection. Most of the regular traditional Cantonese type dishes start around $7.50 and come with a choice of soup, either Egg Drop, Wonton or Hot & Sour or an egg roll or spring roll and then a choice of white, brown or egg fried rice. You are served a very decent amount of food.
The delicious Wonton Soup
I had a General Tso Chicken combination plate with an egg roll and egg fried rice that was not only delicious but the portion size was very generous. The pieces of chicken were perfectly cooked and the the sauce had a nice tangy flavor to it. The dish had some kick to it because of the hot chili peppers. The egg rice fried rice had a nice flavor to it studded with pieces of egg, pork and vegetables.
The egg roll was filled with cabbage and pork and cooked to a greasy perfection with a nice crisp outside and a flavorful interior accented with the sweet sauce that comes with it.
General Tso’s Chicken
The most recent time I ate at the restaurant, I was fighting a cold and enjoyed a Cantonese Wonton Soup with Roast Pork, Wontons and Bok Choy. This large, simmering bowl of steaming soup came to the table loaded with egg noodles, roast pork and several plump wontons ($8.95) and truly hit the spot. The broth was rich and deep and with every bite set out to conquer my cold. The wontons were well cooked but there were only three and I would have thought would have come with more. The roast pork had its usual fatty richness to it.
Cantonese Wonton Soup
On my first trip there in almost a year, I stopped in for lunch on a trip uptown. I had the Shrimp with String Beans with Fried Rice and a bowl of Hot & Sour Soup lunch special ($7.95) and everything was excellent.
The Shrimp with String Beans came in a spicy garlic sauce and the string beans were cooked perfectly. On a cool afternoon, the spiciness of the dish warmed me up. The Hot & Sour Soup could have been a bit warmer but it also warmed me up on this cool day.
The service is always very nice and the staff is very quick with requests. I have always found them to be very friendly. With the location across the street from Bloomingdale’s, you would think that the restaurant would be busier.
New Dynasty Chinese Restaurant at 393 Eighth Avenue
This surprisingly good Chinese takeout hole in the wall restaurant on 8th Avenue has some of the best Chinese food in Midtown Manhattan. In what still advertises video tapes, New Dynasty Inc. is a real find for customers who want a reasonable lunch or dinner that is large in portions and low in prices. Their lunch specials run between $6.60 to $7.20 for a combination platter that could easily feed two people.
The first trip to the restaurant I had the Orange Chicken with fried rice and an egg roll with a Coke. When the food arrived, I had a steaming plate of sweet and savory pieces of chicken in a rich sauce that had an accented orange flavor with little pieces of orange rind in it. The fried rice is pretty standard with small pieces of egg and bean sprouts in them. Still, it is flavorful with a nice portion size under the meat which mixes nicely with the sauce. I had the same lunch for a second time, and it is still the best. They give you such a generous portion of chicken that you can barely finish it.
The egg rolls here are very good. They are nicely deep fried and loaded with roast pork, a little shrimp and lots of shredded cabbage. The flavors combine nicely, and they are perfectly cooked and nicely sized.
The egg rolls are terrific
The second trip I took to the restaurant I had the General Tso’s Chicken combination platter with Fried Rice and a Coke. The chicken pieces were the same as the Orange Chicken just with a different sauce. Still, they were perfectly cooked and nicely sized with a large portion of Fried Rice. The sauce had a rich and sweet soy taste to it and was a bit hot due to the chilies it was cooked. The fiery taste of the sauce came out as I was finishing the meal. They do know how to spice properly here. The portion size was huge and was more than enough for lunch and dinner.
The General Tso’s Chicken with Fried Rice
The third trip I made to the restaurant, I ordered the Chicken with String Beans and Pork Fried Rice which was amazing. The portion size was made for two people. I had almost a pound of freshly cooked string beans and the dish contained large slivers of chicken breast cooked to perfection with a rich garlic sauce. The pork fried rice was studded with small pieces of roast pork and vegetables. It was a lot to finish.
The Chicken with String Beans and Fried Rice
On a recent trip to New Dynasty, I tried the Roast Pork Lo Mein with a side of Roast Pork Fried Rice and an egg roll, and everything was delicious. All the main components of the meal were studded with Roast Pork and the Lo Mein was loaded with strips of Roast Pork. Everything was so well-prepared and well spiced, and the portion size was really large for lunch. With a Coke (and $1.00 tip), the whole meal was $10.40. It was a steal for the quality of the food and the portion size.
The Roast Pork Lo Mein is excellent!
The lunch and dinner combination plates are your standard dishes that include meats with string beans and broccoli, roast pork and chicken dishes, spare rib dishes and several shredded beef dishes with a small selection of lo mien and tofu dishes.
The nice part of New Dynasty Inc. is that when you want to order the combination platter after 4:00pm, it is only fifty cents extra. A very fair price for this part of Manhattan. Everything here is freshly cooked and comes out steaming hot. For a small hole in the wall restaurant around the corner from Madison Square Garden, it attracts some crowd at lunch. Eating in the restaurant is not the most glamorous but it is an experience if you can snag a seat and people watch as the customers walk in. It’s a mix of the whole City.
For a good quality meal at a very fair price in the middle of Midtown Manhattan when you are starved, New Dynasty Inc. is a place to visit.
Corrado Bread & Pastry Cafe at 960 Lexington Avenue
I came across Corrado Bread & Pastry shop when I was walking around the Upper East Side for my blog, “MywalkinManhattan.com” and looked in the window to see a large display of pastries and sandwiches and decided I needed a dessert and walked in. What a delicious variety of foods so beautifully displayed and so colorfully placed like jewels in a case. The best part is that everything I tried was delicious and their prices are very fair for the neighborhood.
Sitting outside on a nice day is fun
This indoor/outdoor cafe is a block from the main campus of Hunter College and caters to everyone from the college students up for coffee and pastries between classes to the Upper East Side socialite with her little dog eating away at small sandwiches and turnovers.
The display cases are stacked with all sorts of small sandwiches ranging form Italian cold cuts and lettuce and tomato on a baguette ($6.25) to sandwiches on cheese puffs ($3.50) with tuna salad or ham that only require a few bites. All along the top part of the case are assorted cookies, small danishes and muffins (various prices) with specialty desserts on the bottom of the case lines ($7.00). The display makes you want to taste everything.
The baked goods here are amazing
I have eaten here a few times and stopped in for dessert after a meal at another restaurant in the neighborhood and every time I have eaten here the service has been casual and friendly, totally opposite of what I thought it would be. When entering the store, you are hit by the friendliness of the staff who are there to greet you with a smile on their face and are happy to help you with your selection. Everyone is very polite and seems happy to have you eat there.
The food is wonderful and very reasonable for anything from a full meal to a small snack. The first time I went in I needed a dessert after a big Chinese meal I ate at Shanghai Chinese Restaurant (1388 2nd Avenue, NYC, NY-also reviewed on DiningonaShoeStringinNYC@Wordpress.com) and had one of the Harley & Sons Raspberry Iced Teas ($3.50), which are locally brewed in Hudson, NY in Upstate New York and a Chocolate Porcupine ($7.00), a combination of chocolate mousse, chocolate cake topped with a chocolate ganache with nuts and a little icing to create the porcupine’s smiling face. This whimsical little dessert is rich and filling and each bite accents the combination of chocolate layers.
The Harley & Sons teas are light and refreshing with a hint of the natural fruit flavor mixed in with the perfectly brewed tea.
The next time I visited, I needed dessert again and had one of their Apple Turnovers ($4.00), with a golden pastry outside and filled with fresh apples on the inside, a nice combination of cinnamon and sweet/tart apples. I also treated myself to a Cheese Puff ($1.50), a cross between a popover and cheese muffin. This little puff tasted of the sharp cheddar baked into the layers of dough and a chewy little delight to rip through. I also had another one of the Cranberry Harley & Sons teas ($3.50), which cut the richness of the desserts.
I recently had dessert at Corrado’s and tried what appeared to be a type of croquembouche, a cream puff that was surrounded by hard caramel and layered with chocolate mousse and then topped with whipped cream and fresh fruit ($8.25). It was heaven in every bite. The mousse was not as sweet as most are and had a dense dark chocolate flavor to it. It crackles when you cut into it and the flavors combine as your crunch on the exterior of the dessert.
On a recent trip to Corrado’s, I just needed a snack after a big lunch elsewhere and had two small items, a Cinnamon Bun Bite ($1.50) and the Lemon Cake Bite ($1.50) which were just enough. They were both about two bites and made the perfect after lunch snack. The Lemon Cake was small lemon cake with a yellow frosting covering and the Cinnamon bun was loaded with glaze on the top. Both were sweet and moist as they must have just been baked that afternoon. It is the perfect snack if you just want a little something to tide you over.
Another small item I recently tried is their Jelly Linzer Tart ($1.75), that was delicious. Two soft sweet cookies filled with a fresh raspberry jam. It was a little expensive for such a small item but when you need just a small snack, this was perfect.
Honestly speaking, if anyone were to imagine in any other part of the world, what sitting in New York to eat a meal was like, they would sit in one of the outdoor tables of Corrado Bread & Pastry and would watch the Upper East Side just play itself out in front of you.
While I was walking for my project, ‘MywalkinManhattan.com”, I came across the Shanghai Chinese Restaurant at 1388 2nd Avenue. It is a non-descriptive restaurant that sits behind some fencing on the road (they are fixing this part of 2nd Avenue) and when you walk in, there is a counter and three small tables to sit and enjoy your lunch.
The place is no different from the dozens of other Chinese takeout places all over the City. In fact, I almost bypassed it for another restaurant, but it always seemed so busy with the hospital around the corner. So, I decided to try it (See reviews on TripAdvisor).
The egg rolls here are really good.
The food and service are both wonderful. I could not believe the portion sizes as well. They were huge! I could not believe how large the lunch specials are and the nice part is that they serve as a lunch/dinner for me. After that large of a lunch, you will not need dinner.
Their Hot & Sour Soup has some kick to it.
The weekly lunch special runs daily from 11:00am-4:30pm, a very fair amount of time to enjoy your lunch and there is a selection of 40 specials to choose from at the price of $8.85. That includes a choice of three different kinds of rice with your meal and for an additional $.90, the choice of Hot & Sour, Egg Drop soups or an egg roll. Everything comes promptly and steaming hot!
Their Wonton Soup is delicious
The first time I ate there, I had the Orange Chicken with pork fried rice and an egg roll and I just about finished the meal. I asked myself when lunch came, can I finish this whole thing?
The Orange Chicken combination meal is excellent and can feed two people easily.
The Orange Chicken was perfectly cooked with a sweet pungent sauce with a hint of Orange, Soy and Hunan sauces combined. The pieces were rather large than the normal but nothing that could not be cut up. It was accompanied by a large portion of pork fried rice that actually had pork in it (a first for these takey-outy places) and some steamed broccoli.
The Orange Chicken here is delicious.
The egg roll was large and was a combination of shredded cabbage and chopped roast pork. This was another first as I had not seen this much roast pork in an egg roll in a long time. They are crisp, plump and well fried out and have a nice flavor with the combination of ingredients.
The egg rolls are small but packed with flavor.
The food was served with a smile on their faces and the ladies that work the front counter seem to enjoy their jobs. They take a lot of pride in not just serving the food but how it is presented on the plate as well.
The second time I at Shanghai, I had the General Tso’s Chicken (another variation of the Orange Chicken) except that the General Tso’s Chicken uses a combination of Soy, Peking and Szechuan sauces to achieve its flavor. Again the portion size was large and accompanied by roast pork fried rice that was studded with roast pork. The taste and consistency of the egg roll was the same and it was delicious.
The General Tso’s Chicken is delicious too!
Now that the COVID ban has been lifted and you can eat inside the restaurant again, I ate there for the first time in over a year and a half in June of 2021 and the food is still as wonderful as usual.
I had the Shrimp with Broccoli lunch special with Pork Fried Rice and an Egg Roll and everything was wonderful. There was a nice amount of shrimp in the dish and the broccoli was cooked to a crisp perfection. The pork fried rice was filled with lots of ingredients. Everything had the nice flavor of a Hunan Sauce.
The Shrimp and Broccoli is delicious here.
I visited after a Met private members night and did not want to eat at the museum so I stopped here for my dinner. I had the Szechuan Shrimp with Vegetables and Pork Fried Rice with a side of Hot & Sour Soup ($11.95) combination. It was enough food for two people.
The Shrimp and Broccoli combination meal.
The Hot & Sour Soup had some kick to it and had lots of vegetables in it. I could have used more pork though. The Szechuan Shrimp was delicious and was really spicy too with large Shrimp and crisp vegetables cooked with a spicy Szechuan sauce with chili peppers. The shrimp was well cooked but the selection of vegetables was not to my liking. The dish even though it tasted really good was loaded with onions and baby corns which are not my favorites. The Fried Rice with Roast Pork made up for it and it was loaded with chopped roast pork.
When I ate in the restaurant in 2021, (but by 2023 it was back to normal) you still had to show your vaccination card, but it is well worth it to eat there. I order the Boneless Spareribs with a side of Pork Fried Rice and an Egg Roll and a Coke. Even in the middle of a pandemic the food and the service have not changed and are consistently excellent. No need to go to Chinatown with this restaurant.
The inside of Shanghai Chinese Restaurant
The pork was chopped into nice sized pieces and was lacquered a rich red from the soy sauce and chili sauce. It had a rich smoky flavor from the marinade and roasting. The Pork Fried rice was studded with roast pork and vegetables as well as the egg roll with more roast pork and shredded cabbage. The whole meal was so flavorful.
The Boneless Spareribs were wonderful.
The days I have eaten there, the customer traffic was consistent as hospital employees and local residents flooded the place with foot traffic (always a good sign) and they seemed to know who their loyal customers were when they walked in. The restaurant is clean and is not a bad place to eat your lunch (as many of us did and some even changed their mind with their takeout orders and ate them at the table).
The restaurant on a recent evening.
The service was quick, efficient and the women working the counter were very friendly. The food came out fast but the quality, plate presentation and consistency were there as well.
On their extensive a la carte menu, the prices are very fair. Most of the entrees in pint form are under $10.00 and with most of the soups and entrees it is not much more expensive, so you can stay within budget here.
For a quick, reasonable lunch with a nice portion size and good service, Shanghai Chinese Restaurant is a very nice deal. The food is not traditional Chinese food, more a better scale of Chinese-American cooking but they do it with a flare and a lot of pride.
I had passed Burger One a few times when visiting the Upper East Side and this little ‘hole in the wall’ restaurant was very busy feeding the locals who came in for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Their prices are amazing reasonable for all items (especially in a place like the Upper East Side) and they have a nice selection of items for all meals.
Burger One Menu
The first time I went to Burger One was the first day of walking the Avenues of the Upper East Side (See review on TripAdvisor). The place was humming along with people ordering their lunches and dinners and their delivery guy dashing in and out of the place.
The restaurant is a small but lively environment
I ordered a Cheeseburger Deluxe (which is a 8 ounce freshly scooped burger) which came with freshly cooked French Fries, lettuce, tomato and a pickle ($8.00). I ordered the burger medium-well and the burger was cooked to order perfectly, caramelized on the outside with a nice sear and juicy and fully cooked on the inside, which is the best way to achieve a well-done burger I have found out. Each bite was perfect with a nice feel of seared meat and cool vegetables. I ordered a Mandarin Jarritos Mexican soda, which is a specialty of Mexico, a perfect accompaniment for the meal.
Their burgers are really juicy
Jarritos Mexican Sodas are a real treat as these specialty sodas are found in most establishments catering to Spanish speaking clients. They come in what we would call the ‘exotic flavors’, made with full fruit flavors with real sugar cane. Thank God the makers understand this is the way to make soda. That’s why Mexican Coke is still the best bottled Coke on the market. They use real sugar and it has a refreshing sweetness to all their flavors of soda.
The second time I visited the restaurant, the place was mobbed around late lunch early dinner and almost all the seats in the 8 seat restaurant were full. It’s all bar seating around the grill. I had a Triple Decker Sandwich ($9.50), which came with a side of freshly cooked French fries and a pickle. This nicely made sandwich was on toasted wheat bread (there are three choices of bread) and the sandwich is loaded with freshly made turkey breast, crisp bacon, lettuce and tomato and mayo. Each bite you could hear the sound of crispness and the flavors just married one another. I ordered it with a Grapefruit Jarritos Mexican soda, which was refreshing and crisp after a long walk on a hot day.
The Club Sandwich was huge
The guy who works the grill never misses a beat and it is like watching an artist work. He does all the cooking himself and is so organized as he handles all orders with such style. Everything is cooked with such care and perfection and everyone is so happy to see him and his (I assume) wife who works the register. On top of all the orders he has to cook, one by one, he manages to be able to greet people, smile and even do some conversing when it slows a bit. That is real magic.
The service is very welcoming in both English and Spanish and the environment is lively, very engaging and welcoming. You really feel like part of the neighborhood when eating here and I even got the impression the woman remembered me from eating there just two days earlier (with the look on her face when I returned). I am just impressed that such a small place with such good food and reasonable prices still existed on the Upper East Side.
This is a great place to go for lunch after a full day of museum hopping or just visiting Central Park.
Dining on a Shoestring in the New York City area and beyond. 