China Fun

closed

CLOSED DOWN —
China Fun, a Chinese restaurant on Columbus Avenue between 71^st and 72^nd streets, closed its doors this week

Went here last night with a small group for a friend’s birthday. The friend doesn’t usually want to do much beyond Chinese, so this was what we had to work with.
There were 5 of us in the group. The birthday boy ordered crystal wonton soup and received regular, but he liked it so much he didn’t complain. We ordered two platters of assorted meat (duck, chicken and pork) and had a fat feast. That was tasty.
Someone ordered a plate of vegetable dumplings and said they were good. The birthday boy ordered a plate of pork sausage fried rice to go with his meat coma, and one person ordered miso soup and more dumplings.
Everyone was satisfied, service was good, but nothing about the food was remarkable.

Their food is OKAY, nothing special. I do not recommend their sushi. If you want real sushi go to Amber one block away, it is awesome!!!

Solid 2 stars. Was gonna be 2.5 because they only clutter up your mailbox with menus rather than your hallway/​vestibule and they do offer «dim sum» on the UWS, but there were more than a few incongruencies so I rounded down. I’ve been avoiding this place for like eight years due to their «chain» type appearance even though they’re just two blocks away, but a few nights ago I wanted dim sum and there they were.
When you call for pick up, they ARE very nice over the phone. I checked out the interior while waiting for my pick up and it’s very modern, clean looking and attractive. The wait staff all seem very polite and attentive too.
The «dim sum», while being alright (read existent) for the UWS, was a bit lackluster. Large chicken bun was large, but bland. Minus ½ star. Scallion pancake — $ 5.75! What?! Outrageous! I skipped it. Minus 1 star. Egg roll — average. Way not one of the UWS’s best.
Sticky rice in lotus leaf with pork? Minuscule! About as big as both my thumbs put together! And… they used banana leaf rather than lotus! WTF?! Minus 1.5 star! The little bit of sticky rice & pork was flavorful, but not lotus flavorful. What saved the meal besides the great service however, were the Shanghai Pork & Chive Fried Dumplings. These tasted great and were fried just right. Plus 1 star.
Bad thing though, no fork, chop sticks, mustard, soy, cookie or even napkin in my bag! Also, for close to the $ 20 I spent, I could have gotten an incredible, filling meal from up the street at Dinastia:
, still had money left over and another meal for the next day with what I couldn’t finish too. I think I’ll opt for Dinastia next time no matter how much I’m craving dim sum. For the bag packings and price — minus ½ star.
They blast «A» Health Department placards all over their website even though they only earned a «C» (prominently displayed by their front door [see my pix]). I don’t pay attention to those stupid ratings so that doesn’t really bug me (no pun intended) but less than mediocre tasting grub does so, a desperate 2 stars.

to preface, im a massive chicken and broccoli fan. i grew up on it, and still its my go to «holy shlt feed me right now» food. not the healthiest option, but does the trick every time.
i used to have great food at the location on the UES, but since moving to this area, its a great seamless option.
however, is it? 15.95 for chicken and broccoli (i always add waterchestnuts and baby corn. sometimes they charge me sometimes they dont). plus 1.95 for white meat? i think thats a standard now and relatively atrocious that its a supplement. some of the chicken wasnt that great. you know when parts of it are chewy and you question whats in your mouth? yuck.
all in all with tax, if you seamless one dish, it could be 20 bucks. go to shun lee if youre gonna spend that kind of cash. ive done amcook (formerly ivys) and its better.

Came here on a Sunday afternoon. I wasn’t sure what to order, as I wasn’t too familiar with the menu, so I left it all up to my friends. who are the «experts». Good thing I did, because everything was decent. Had the Peking Duck pancakes, which were my favorite — I could have had it all to myself, if it wasn’t for the fact that we had to share (although they seemed to get annoyed when we asked for more pancakes to finish our duck). The beef pan noodles were decent, but not something I would really crave again. I don’t think it was the dish, just my own taste. We also tried the soup dumplings, but they were so flimsy. i would find these annoying to eat if I was alone.
Overall, a decent experience, wouild I come again? yes, if I’m in the area.

Yummy Chinese food option on the Upper West Side. Service is quick and food is tasty. They don’t have many of the usual dim sum options and their steamed roast pork bun is grossly overpriced ($ 2.95 for what is $ 0.90 in Chinatown), but their main courses are good. The Peking Duck is perfectly cooked and the skin is super crispy as it should be. The beef pan fried noodles are also prepared quite nicely and the dish is full of flavor. Both the duck and the noodles are must trys. Skip the soup dumplings though, they fall apart quite easily. Not a bad option though if you are craving some traditional Chinese dishes and not the usual take out on the Upper West Side.

Standard and generic American Chinese food. Satisfies odd cravings and gets the job done without a significant reduction in net worth. Has dishes made using «Chinese sausage» (can be difficult to find at other restaurants).
Décor is bare. Service is also bare but efficient.

Nothin special here. Came to order take out and was given my ticket to wait, which I promptly deposited in the trash on the corner while I took a walk. Although I returned but 8 minutes later, they still insisted on the receipt they’d given me and looked at me quizzically as if they’d never seen me before. Moderately priced — got sauteed spinach ($ 12 — whoa!) and a side of white rice, plus shrimp lo mein ($ 10) and egg drop soup (tasty!). Easy take out place but will call from home next time.

It’s been interesting seeing all of the very negative reviews of this place. A friend and I tonight were hungry and she had a wonderful idea to go to this place, so we went since she had mentioned that nearby Empire Szechuan had raised its prices. The food was good for a New York Chinese restaurant. The interior of the place is nice and the place seems family owned. Our waitress seemed very nervous and anxious to take our orders as she kept looking at our table as we were picking apart the menu but food came quickly. Just as a side note, restaurants need to hire waitstaff that speak English. Just saying. A good place, I’d come back.

Decent Chinese food… not the best.

Rude waiters.
Bad service.
Food slow to arrive at table, cold, and served in such a way that it actually fell out of the plate and waiter picked it up with their bare hand and put back in plate!!!
DO NOT eat here!
On a positive note, nice décor & funny listening to other customers complain to themselves.

NO! Avoid China Fun … while their food does rate a solid 3-​stars, the overall experience is only 1.5 to 2-​stars.
We ordered the roasted duck noodle soup and all the duck meat was very fatty, barely anything that was actually edible. I was pretty famished by the time I arrived so a lot of food would’ve tasted wonderful to me. I think the broth & noodles were good, but that was basically it. Chinatown has MUCH better noodle soup for half the price.
There is a waitress (with streaks of blonde hair) who is very nasty and doesn’t hesitate to give the customers attitude. She pushed through the crowd of waiting customers shouting «move! Move! Move» and then glares at you if she doesn’t see you add tip when playing credit card (her eyes stopped darting when she saw us leave a cash tip on the table).
Bring your money elsewhere — there are so many other dining options in the area.

I ate here with my wife this past Saturday night only because it was late, we were both very hungry and in the mood for Chinese food.
We sat at our table and picked up the menus. About 30 seconds later (no exaggeration) a waitress descended on us and asked us what we wanted. We both said that we just sat down and needed time to look at the menu. Instead of stepping away for a couple of minutes the waitress hovered over us and glared at us. She was so close that she touched my wife’s back.
It was very awkward and we should have left at that point.
I’m not sure why she was in such a rush to serve us, as the restaurant was not particularly busy and there were many empty tables.
After we placed our order we waited for our appetizers… and waited… and waited…
I asked the waitress several times where our appetizers were and she kept saying they’re coming.
Finally, after about 25 minutes (which is a LONG time at a Chinese restaurant) she delivered our appetizers… along with our main course.
I asked the waitress why she didn’t give us our appetizers before the main course and she gave me a nasty look.
I was furious as an appetizer is to be eaten BEFORE your main course, not during. It was inexcusable for us to have sat there hungry and waiting such a long time to eat.
When we finally ate the food was very mediocre.
I wrote a previous Unilocal review where I criticized the bad service at this place. The service we had this past Saturday was atrocious and the final straw.
We won’t be eating at China Fun again.

We go back. waaaaaay back. back into time.
China Fun and I had a bond. Don’t mess with us. This was my ATC (Around-​The-​Corner) Chinese restaurant and we were happy in our short time together. I’ve learned a lot from this relationship.
I know I was stubborn because I always ordered only one thing. and one thing only:
Broccoli in garlic sauce with steamed white rice. You spoiled me with it and I took advantage.
The reason why I think so highly now is because ever since I’ve been back in Houston, I haven’t found a single garlic broccoli AS good as yours. So there, I admitted it. You never know what you’ve got until it’s gone. China Fun, you hold a dear place in my heart and it was Fun while it lasted :)

It’s 8:30 on a stormy, wet Tuesday night. I’m staring at the bowl I’ve fixed myself: Drab kung pao chicken with sad, grayish fried rice.
My stomach growls.
I tear open the fortune cookie and crack one side to pull out the message: «A journey must begin with a single step». Good thing I have a bottle of Sriracha on hand.

You may as well cut to the chase and eat your dinner in the bathroom because that’s where you’ll be spending the next 6 hours after a meal at China Fun.
Wouldn’t be surprised if the pork was actually Central Park squirrel.

^shrug^
When one moves to a neighborhood in NYC, you look for three things: Pizza, Chinese and Café/​Diner. After three years, I only found one, and that place sadly closed… but still have not found my Chinese food place. China Fun is one of a handful of places to get Chinese food in my neighborhood. And I still don’t get what the hype is surrounding this place.
I will give it this: it’s the cleanest, busiest (usually the sign of a good restaurant) and nicest looking Chinese place. As far as delivery, it’s certainly not the quickest. Overpriced for sure. But there are things that are worth the money — the standards like chicken w/​broccoli are good and you can get two meals out of the one. But they charge you for every little damn thing. White meat chicken = extra. Rice mixed in with food = extra. Rice on the side = extra. I mean, WTF? If you are that cheap just mark up the price even higher. Hubby also complains about the moo shu chicken — the pancakes they provide are flimsy and only are 2, rather than 4.
Their dim sum are pretty good (but again, overpriced). Scallion pancakes are good… sauteed rice cakes are good… but I don’t go out of my way to eat here. I have to go out of my neighborhood for Chinese food unfortunately.

I reserve my one-​star reviews for businesses that do something extra bad. Just having crappy food isn’t really enough to deserve this bad a score, you need to go above and beyond in terms of some awful service or dishonesty.
In the case of China Fun, the one star is not because the food is bad. The food is pretty solid Chinese fare, if a little on the pricey side, and would garner a 3 star rating. However, the last time I ordered from them they shorted me a $ 6 order of shrimp toast and forgot to include the sauce for the sweet and sour chicken. When I called to complain they were totally rude to me and insisted that I hadn’t ordered the second shrimp toast and that they had put the sauce in the bag, the prior of which was obviously a lie as I had ordered online and had a copy of my order, and the latter was obviously a lie since there was not a drop of the freaky electric red sauce in the bag. I tried to reason with them, but wound up hanging up frustrated and feeling ripped off.
I didn’t care enough to go to China Fun and make a scene. That would defeat the purpose of delivery! I do care enough, however, to write them a crappy Unilocal review and to never order from them again. It’s not like there is any lack of good Chinese food in NYC.
Avenge me, fellow Unilocalers. Avenge… me…