Da Tong Shui

Let me start out by saying that I was quite disturbed by my experience at Da Tong Shui. The place isn’t very clean (reminded me of someone’s dirty living room), I’m not sure that the towels and covers are changed between clients and it’s quite the awkward setup. The walls are very thin, you can hear the people next door, etc. The manager lady appeared to be having some sort of argument with her lover/​boyfriend and I overheard their disagreement throughout the majority of the massage.
I requested a FEMALE masseuse when I called before my massage and ended up with a male excuse instead as the manager insisted that he do the job as he was an excellent masseuse. His hands were very rough and he also spent an inappropriate amount of time massaging my buttocks. He did some of the regular kneading and massaging on my shoulders and back and then spent the rest of the time on my buttocks and this made me extremely uncomfortable.
I went for a half hour massage and ended up paying $ 25. I normally linger after a massage and really take my time to get up, get dressed and leave, but I could not have left fast enough once my massage was done. Their massages are cheap, but I won’t ever come back here as I was NOT comfortable with the massage I received. Unless it’s Dr. Nicolai (from Wall Street Chiropractic), I am NEVER again agreeing to another male masseuse.

This place was pretty far from central Chinatown, and in a slightly more sketchy location that the other massage places I’ve been to. You go to 6 Allen St and walk up to this ragged building with one very slow elevator (honestly, just walk up those stairs, you’re getting a massage soon anyways…)
The atmosphere was pretty nice– I was impressed with the 2 massage rooms and 4 foot massage chairs. Everything was in fairly relaxing, dark colors, though there was unfortunately a slightly smokey smell to the room. They even have a fish tank to stare at while zonked out in massage heaven.
And it really was massage heaven. The old man (I forgot to get his name unfortunately), was a wonderful masseuse. We joked a little (I speak Mandarin) and he was very willing to minimize the pressure because I would probably scream like a bleeding pig if he didn’t. They workers were all very friendly and I chatted with the female manager a bit (in Mandarin once again).
I have to say though, that I liked the foot massage a lot more than the back massage. This might have been due to the fact that the foot massage lent itself more to a shorter period (I did 30 minutes of each). I will probably go back one more time just to see if I change my opinion after getting a full-​on hour long back massage.
However, I think the masseuse makes a big difference. My friend that I dragged along got the younger male masseuse and he said that the experience was very painful and not in the good way where you feel much better after the pain fades.
One thing that I found strange was that they charged me quite a bit more than other people seem to report. Perhaps I just looked more gullible, or perhaps it was because I didn’t solidify the pricing beforehand (I has assumed it would be $ 35 like everyone reported…). However, for my back/​feet massage, I was charged $ 43 for the hour and my friend’s back massage was $ 40 /​hr. I was going to give them $ 90 for both massages but the lady looked at me weirdly and asked if the $ 7 was tip for both massages in a way that suggested it was too little. So I ended up paying $ 100 for the two massages, not too bad, but definitely not as cheap as I had originally hoped for.
I’m still a little ambivalent about this place, hopefully, next time, I will be able to figure out the pricing and get a better back massage.

Let me just predicate this by saying that I’ve been getting massages ever since I’ve been a child. I’ve been in NYC for 5 years and have experimented with a LOT of places — from hole-​in-​the-​wall places in Chinatown, to very nice spas in midtown. I’ve gotten terrible massages (no attention to detail, no pressure points, no knowledge of how to give a massage, basically a guy from the street that had to get a job, and picked up a couple of things from someone else) to great massages (ones where you want to melt into the bed, ones that have you so relaxed you feel an endorphin rush when it’s done). This place is the latter.
I’ve been coming to this place for about a year now for back massages. Having been to numerous crappy places in Chinatown that have NO idea what they’re doing and touristy clients who don’t review the places on Unilocal and or don’t know the art of massage therapy enough to comment on them, this is the place I come to most often. There’s a man there named William who does an INCREDIBLE JOB. He doesn’t speak much English (I speak Mandarin to him) but his knowledge base is absolutely incredible. He was trained at an university in China and then received his certification here in the states. He also knows his acupuncture very well. He’s actually taught me several techniques and pressure points.
I’ve brought several of my coworkers (who work for Fortune 500 companies) and friends to this place and they’ve all had incredible experiences. It’s nice to come to a place where ppl know what they’re doing, it just sucks that they don’t speak English fluently and can’t get their business to the height it should be. With so many massage parlors springing up all over Chinatown, I would without a doubt rate this place as the best budget-​friendly massage parlor in all of Chinatown.
Call their number 212−925−7878 and schedule something with the boss lady (she’s super friendly and does speak English). You’d be glad you did. They are on the 6^th floor in an elevator building.
UPDATE — William no longer works there as he works in New Jersey now. So I no longer highly recommend this place.