A-Pou’s Taste

Oh man, this cart is the bizzomb… Like food in an ethnic Chinese neighborhood. Potstickers just great, corn chowder is delicious.
Why aren’t there more Chinese food carts?

Had pork potstickers and fried noodles. The only thing this place has going for it is the price. This is as bad as unauthentic Chinese food gets… The potstickers are not even actual potstickers, and the fried noodles have no flavor (just overdose of oil and MSG).

Got a trio of the meat dumplings. The beef, chicken and pork all seemed indistinguishable. I guess that is ok, it’s all ground up meat anyway. My potstickers came from a metal container rather than fresh off the griddle. This made the texture contrast soft on the boiled side versus chewy soft on the fried side. I wish he made them to order so that the seared portion would be crispy. The $ 9 for 15 potstickers seemed like a lot of food, if you care about that kind of thing.

CASH ONLY. After eating at Gray’s Papaya B. saw this food cart for Taiwanese-​style potstickers. We were full, but we still crammed them into our guts.
Small order of Taiwanese Special (pork) small was $ 3.50. It was pretty tasty.
We paid Cash.

3.5 stars. I have only had the potstickers from here once, and they were decent but pretty greasy. They’re priced alright for what they are, but if you were anywhere near Chinatown you’d be feeling super ripped off. It’s the UWS, though, so you take what you can get.
Same goes for their bubble tea-it’s the only place within 2 miles in any direction that has bubble tea, or at least decent bubble tea. I get cravings for this stuff, so I have learned where these places are. I was skeptical when I saw they didn’t have green tea (I love lychee green tea!), so I asked about their milk methods for the milk tea as I have learned that some places use milk I can digest (powdered) and some I can’t (real milk).
The guy showed me the powders they use and assured me they were non-​dairy, and to his credit, I have not gotten sick yet! The issue I have is how they make it. They don’t have a lot of space, obviously, so they have a hot-​water spigot they use to dissolve the taro powder and milk powders, then they pour that on top of the bubbles and add ice.
It’s pretty cheap at less than 3 bucks, but it doesn’t taste great until you wait TEN FULL MINUTES for the ice to dissolve and make it colder and mellow the taste a bit. The bubble tea here is very sweet (which I generally like), but it only tastes good once you let the ice melt. DO NOT ASK FOR LESS ICE, or it will taste bad. And it won’t be cold at all, and room-​temperature bubble tea is not tasty.
If you’re on the UWS and craving bubble tea, seek out this cart right in front of Trader Joe’s and indulge-​just remember to be patient and wait for the ice to melt a bit, or you won’t enjoy it!

All I wanted and ordered was coconut milk tea with boba, but I was not completely satisfied.
Price wise, $ 2.50 is not bad for milk tea in this city, and they only charged me $ 2 as they didn’t have any boba.
1) They were out of boba, so I didn’t really get to judge the softness of the boba.
2) I asked to go «light on ice», and the cup was so hot I felt like I needed gloves to hold it.
3) The coconut milk tea was somehow missing the tea component. I am used to being able to taste and actually see a brownish color to my coconut milk TEA. I think perhaps they forgot?
4) The consistency of the coconut milk tea was extremely gritty, and I wished that it could have reach a smoother consistency, even after I tested it every 10 minutes to see if maybe it just needed to dissolve.

I delighted to find this food cart among a sea of typical Halal carts (not that I don’t love a good Halal cart). Before I dove head first, I checked out this place here on Unilocal to make sure I wasn’t about the get food poisoning. The reviews seemed positive enough so I decided to give it a try.
I had the veggie pot stickers and the pork pot stickers. Both quite good. Not the most amazing I’ve ever had, but pretty great for a food cart.
I also had the original bubble tea. I wouldn’t recommend this. It was really artificial tasting, too sweet, and not creamy enough.
Over all, yummy potstickers, not so yummy tea.

I usually pass this truck at Astor Place, so I was pleasantly surprised to see one at Verdi Square.
Their Taiwanese pork dumplings ($ 5; cash only as far as I can tell) are worth a try, long creations filled with tender meat, prepped in a flash. The sauce is their highlight, a vinegary, savory sauce that made me wish I had ten more dumplings.
I’ll be back for A-Pou’s Korean-​styled dumplings.

There was a line when I was there, waited for 8 mins to place my order for the small box (2 chicken & 3 veg dumplings) and the bubble milk tea, all for $ 6!
They tasted so good & crispy as they were freshly steamed and pan-​fried. I prefer the veg over then chicken dumplings since I am not a meat fan but I do try to get my share of protein. The bubble tea was equally yummy too, however I think it was slightly sweeter but not overly crazy and I personally don’t have a sweet tooth.
The lady at the store was very nice, due to the long wait, she gave out free dumplings to a kid who was in line with her mummy, how attentive!
After my long shopping (around 6pm), I ended up going back to get more and by then they were only left with veg and beef dumplings. It worked out fine for me since i was going for a small box of veg dumplings anyway.
Looking to go back again!

We happened upon this Taiwanese dumpling cart immediately after an unsatisfying brunch at a nearby over-​hyped restaurant and I must say this food cart was redemption. The sautéed beef dumplings themselves were subtly flavored, with the hot sauce and soy sauce rounding them out well. What a lucky find.

Food trucks seem to be the new thing right now. We found this one on Astor Place and I thought I would give it a try. I haven’t seen a potsticker one yet so I figured why not. The pork ones are definitely better than the beef ones. Eat it with the spicy sauce and a little bit of the soy sauce but be careful too much and it will be too salty. I think they would probably be better if they were fresh and crisp. They aren’t bad but I would not wait in line for them.

i feel like it’s natural that having lived in taiwan for half my life and knowing what taiwanese pot stickers are supposed to look/​taste like, i can’t just give five stars to these pot stickers just because the taiwanese make my favorite pot stickers in the world. having such a truck does make me miss all forms of taiwanese food, though.
these potstickers were very inconsistent, like another reviewer said. i ordered 10 pork pot stickers (i mean really, why would you go to a newly emerged taiwanese food truck and order ‘japanese’ or ‘korean’ pot stickers?! on another note. i’m tired of typing out pot stickers so i’m going to abbreviate: ps!). while the skin was nice on the first few ps’, i found a couple of others to have rubbery texture. it’s nice that the skin is so thin, but maybe a little too thin in this case. the filling was definitely trying to be like a traditional taiwanese ps filling, though a bit off. the amount of peppers they added gave way to a sort of pepperoni taste to the meat. that being said, i think it’s unfair to say that they’re skimping on the filling. i mean have you been to vanessas?!
the soy sauce is actually not just ordinary soy sauce; it’s sweet soy sauce (not really sure what the translation is) with minced garlic. the chili sauce is one type of i guess what you would call sambal. i think they made those pretty well, if not a little too much garlic in the soy sauce.
service is EXTREMELY slow. it took me 10 min to get my order, and there were only two people in front of me. the guy was trying to provide good service by asking customers’ preferences, but it was very inefficient considering this was a food truck and a long line was beginning to form behind me. i think he said he’d run out of the vegetable ps’ as well. he was trying to be nice, but i think a food truck should have a sense of urgency when delivering the food.

Okay, now that I’ve actually been able to EAT their dumplings, I can comment on the actual food, rather than just rant about my miserable mishap.
Your experience will heavily depend on when you get there in relation to how recently the dumplings had been cooked. Show up when they’re fresh, and you’ll have a nice, crisp pot sticker with decent (albeit meagre) fillings. Arrive after they’ve been sitting around for too long and they’ll feel stale (although still warm) with your first bite.
They aren’t quite Chinatown prices ($ 6 lunch/​dinner special for 10 dumpings, $ 9 for 15), and you don’t even get the consistency in quality that even a bargain like Prosperity Dumplings can offer. But for some reason I still crave them.
Maybe they do bear some resemblance to the Taiwanese dumpings they claim name to, although my folks would have never skimped on the fillings nor served me dumplings with rubbery skins. And despite that, you’ll probably find me lining up outside their cart once again. Dang, nostalgia makes you do funny things.

wow — disregard the pathetic comment left by mr. dan t.
these pot stickers are absolutely delicious — hot, juicy, flavorful, crispy, and topped with the option of soy sauce and spicy chili sauce. my mom is from taiwan and a-pou’s pot stickers taste almost EXACTLY like the ones my makes. i’ve been here about a dozen times since they opened and have never once left without a steaming order of pot stickers.
granted, there is sometimes a 5 — 10 minute wait but it is WELL WORTH THE WAIT. go into any chinese restaurant and they will tell you it takes at least 15 minutes to order pot stickers, and a-pou’s are far superior than any i’ve had in new york thus far.
also, the guy who runs the stand is great — really friendly and hard-​working. and sometimes he throws in an extra pot sticker!
above all, there is absolutely no better deal in new york.
$ 3.50 for 5 pot stickers
$ 6 for 10 pot stickers OR 5 pot stickers+chinese spaghetti
$ 9 for 15 pot stickers
[also: a-pou’s was nominated for the best rookie cart in the vendy’s this year]