Dining Room Management Group

This review is from a couple years ago when we were living back in the NYC.
If you’re feeling like you need to shed a few vanity pounds, and fast, while being treated like complete and utter crap, then this is the place for you.
Allow me to elaborate. We came in on whim early evening on a Thursday; the place was empty. Despite the lack of clientele, it was a long while before our waiter came to see us, and an even longer while for him to do us the honor of taking our order.
The food arrived, again after a long while, and looked and tasted like your standard subpar, gloppy Chinatown fare. As I recall, we had the jellyfish and something fried.
Maybe there was something lost in translation while ordering – our waiter didn’t speak English very well, and I tend to talk fast. Evidently, I must have ordered us a side of botulism because my (at the time) girlfriend got violently ill, mid-​entrée. (My sick came an hour later.)
As if food poisoning wasn’t bad enough, the waiter took his sweet time getting us the check, even though I clearly (and slowly) explained that my girlfriend was sick. Almost ten minutes. Even with the language barrier, the pretty-​yet-​green-​tinted girl keeling over next to me is generally viewed as the international symbol of «I need to get this girl out of here now.» On top of that, they stood over my shoulder while I was signing the credit card receipt, ostensibly to make sure I tipped them. I left 15% just to avoid drama.
After the food poisoning subsided, I checked my credit card statement. On a lark. Lo an behold, the total reflected on my account was significantly higher than what I had on my receipt. Turns out, they tipped themselves 40%, not the 15% I actually left them.
Needless to say, I challenged that one. Gotta love American Express.
Long story short, avoid this place at all costs.

Worst restaurant I’ve ever been to. Tea gave me a stomach virus.

Had lunch here last week as it was recommended by a local. I tried the Ginseng Soup, the Crispy Garlic Chicken (½ chicken), and the Yang Chow Fried Rice. The staff was nice, but nothing I ate was memorable. It was all just okay. I felt like I was probably surrounded by dozens of restaurants that I would have enjoyed more.
The total bill before tip was $ 27 and change, which is a bit much for fried chicken and rice plus a cup of soup in Chinatown (no drink).
Wish I had read reviews here first.

It looks like they did some nice renovation since I was last here so I wanted to have lunch here today. Although there were many tables available, the host asked us to wait for a smaller table for the 2 of us. No one was clearing the smaller tables and after a while, the waitress escorted us to a table that wasn’t even cleaned. After standing in the dining room looking at each other with the waitress completely dumbfounded as to what to do, we said we would just wait by the door a little longer for the table to be cleaned. While we were waiting, it seemed the patrons weren’t getting any service, we saw a dish being returned to the kitchen, so we just left. Terrible-​the staff looks like they don’t care at all– I won’t go back.

Update.
Had crispy chicken. Amazing.
Salt and pepper squid is amazing (salt and pepper pork is ok).
Roast duck was amazing. The skin was crispy.
Beef and golden mushroom casserole was great.
Singapore Mai Fun was not so fun.
Please read original review for more details.

The images that hangs outside this restaurant has peaked T’s curiosity and so T has been wondering about this place for the longest.
I told T I wouldn’t mind trying this place and since we were in the hood, we came here to eat.
T wanted Fried Rice and I wasn’t too keen about the Golden Fried Rice. I like raisins but I wasn’t too sure about it being in my rice. So I just got the Yang Chow and we also shared the House Steak since the picture sold us.
Yang Chow — eh, the rice was really hard… I had better versions before.
House Steak — whoa, lots of fat and it looked down right scary when it came out medium rare.
This place is pretty «pricey» considering it’s in Chinatown but I guess you’re paying for the big hunk of glass chandelier that pretty much swallows this whole restaurant up and that doesn’t even look like it belongs in here. Or we might just be paying for the ill-​fitting golden yellow chair slip covers… who knows.
Third theory, you might be paying extra for the service. I must say this place had one of the nicest customer service in a Asian-​owned establishment. CRAZY Bizarre!
Now that I see Keiko’s review, perhaps we ordered the wrong things but I believe if a restaurant can’t even make the «simplest» things right then shouldn’t they deserve a low rating?

It is ok. Food is Cantonese style and the waitstaff was as usual a little distant.
Not Handicap friendly at all. The steep stairs down to the bathroom was decorated by a pillar of crystals in a long chandelier.
The décor is trying to say that it is a higher classed place than it was.

Don’t be put off by the odd name, this place is worth going. The best thing I’ve had here is the Chicken & Mushroom Rice In Casserole. Delicious! Make sure to also get the Double Boiled Egg Sprinkled & Milk dessert. Hot or cold, it’s tasty.

My parents dragged me to this place because they saw an ad for it in the Chinese newspaper… what can I say.
The place looks like any old place in Chinatown with the standard tacky decorations, but it is cleaner and more well lit than most. They have a picture menu, which is great, and I’d recommend only ordering dishes based on the pictures, so you know what to expect. I’m also guessing those are the dishes the restaurant specializes in.
The sign outside advertises «Canton’s No.1 Chicken» on one side and «Peking Duck» on the other side. This itself is a little suspicious… how can a restaurant specialize in both chicken from Canton and duck from Beijing? My parents tell me this is a Cantonese restaurant, so I knew the duck wasn’t going to be particularly great here and the price was suspiciously cheap, but my sister insisted we get it, so we got it. As expected, it wasn’t that great. The skin was crispy, but that’s all we got — no meat at all. I like there to be at least some substantial meat on my Peking duck. I also like to assemble them myself, but today we let the waitress assemble them, and she was clearly not very experienced in the art of assembly — by the end, she’d gotten all the sweet bean sauce on the outside of the bun because she was using the same spoon to get the sauce and close the bun. This annoyed me a bit… but I forgive her.
They were out of both the goat and lamb casserole (I still can’t believe they were out of both meats…), so we got seafood dishes instead. We ordered the Special Dried Squid with Mixed Vegetables and it was indeed special and unique. Like most Chinese dishes, it is nice and shiny from all the oil, but the squid had a delightful chewy texture from it being squid and a surprising chunky texture from it being dried. We also got the Hong Kong Style Clams, which was quite good, too actually… especially the minced topping. I would recommend both of these.
The last dish we ordered was sweet and sour spare ribs… a standard American Chinese dish. Again, it’s not a dish we should have ordered, but my sister wanted it.
At the end of our meal, they gave us each a complimentary bowl of red bean dessert soup. I really appreciate such nice gestures, even if it was a little cold.
I’ll probably come back to try this famous Canton chicken.

UPDATE 2: This place is finally closed and replaced with a Shanghai restaurant
UPDATE: they raised the price of the hotpot rice from $ 6.50 to $ 8.50! Also it takes them 30 minutes to cook it, it’s ridiculous. I can do it at home in 15 minutes! With tips, it’s $ 10! It’s definitely NOT WORTH IT any more, especially if you’re in Chinatown. Please avoid.
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This place was one of the only decent Cantonese restaurant left in Chinatown. It was original Bingo Seafood Hotpot Restaurant (Yat Bat Pun) until it’s changed to «Guangdong People» (Dining Room Management Group) and now «Yong Gee». They changed the chef and the food there is still Okay… but it’s no longer at its best.
It was famous for its fish soup noodles (which is MSG-​free), Guangdong chicken (yes it’s a rather funny name), congee, Chinese desserts and the hot clay pot rice. They made the clay pot rice just right, with a thin layer of slightly burned rice and most importantly, they marinated the ingredients.
But now after the new management took over, they decided to skip the marinate step. The hotpot soy sauce compensate for the lack of taste to a certain degree, but it’s still one step backward from how nice this place was before. Sadly, good things don’t last forever. Let’s hope this doesn’t turn into another tourist attraction like Yummy Noodles, because that’ll suck.

NOOOOO! This restaurant has been taken over by new owners! The current management is nothing to write home about.

Well, shortly after I updated my review, I have received word that Dining Room Mgmt has been sold to new owners. More importantly, the chefs are also gone. A light bulb definitely goes off in your head when you enter a restaurant so quiet you can hear a pin drop. For a normally bustling eatery, this was a shock.
The most telling sign that Chinatown has lost a true gem of an eatery was the food itself. No longer do they use the same fish broth in their noodle soups. It is replaced by some fishy msg soup base no different than that used by the likes of Big Wong. Also, from the texture and lack off freshness, they are now serving steamed fish that are frozen or already dead. The awesome fish maw is only made in the mornings (probably outsourced) as the new chefs are throwing up white flags as I ordered it.
For those curious to try this restaurant, I’d definitely suggest going in the afternoons so you have a higher chance to getting what you want. Even the waiters acknowledge that the transition in ownership and chefs has affected the taste of their foods. When told of the drop off in quality, they could only shrug and give off a conceding laugh…

All my Asian friends and I love this restaurant for their claypot rice. We always order it whenever we come (which is at least once a week) plus vegetables. And it’s so freakin cheap! And it’s open late.
The décor is kinda bright making it a Chinese style version of a diner and sometimes it’s funny when they have karaōke downstairs. Waiters/​Waitresses are hit or miss but generally pretty decent. Maybe because I’m asian.

YOU BETTER BE CAREFUL AT THIS RESTAURANT
As a local in Chinatown, I dare say I have eaten in at least 80% of the restaurants here and this place ranks one of the worst!
The way they do business here is so dishonest bc they treat you as if you a visitor from out of state and don’t know what the prices are — that is how they take advantage of you.
At my friend’s suggestion, I went to this restaurant last weekend. My friend wanted to order seafood, steamed fish. The waitress told us for our party of 4 people, a 2 lb fish would be enough. She told us how much the dish would cost — which is $ 28 per lb (YES — that is obscenely expensive for THIS place). Anyways, my friend wanted it so we ordered it. We get our bill and they charge us for a 3 LB FISH! The waitress claimed she told us that for our party of 4, we would be served with a fish minimum size of 2 ½ LB. Notably, she admitted she was wrong for not showing us the fish and/​or telling us she was going to serve us w/​a 3lb fish.
For people who do not have much experience with ordering fresh fish at a chinese restaurant, let me explain. Usually, you should go to a place that has the water tanks outside so you can go w/​the wait staff to pick the creature you want. Then they are suppose to weigh it righ there so you know the restaurant can’t scam your money. THis place doesn’t have a water tank — big mistake — and so they literally went to the fish market a block away to buy the fish. Do they really think I believe their bull crap that the fish market won’t let them buy a 2 lb fish? Common on — we’re New Yorkers!
Anyways, the fish we were served with was not 3lbs at all! How do I know? Bc it was a small dish! The whole fish deal came out to be about $ 85! Such a scam…
The other things we ordered included the casserole/​clay pot rice, which was so tasteless and the ingredients were so poor. One of the clay pot rice was the beef with egg one. If you have ever had it at another restaurant, no one ever uses sliced beef and they are suppose to serve it w/​a raw egg so when you mix it w/​the hot rice, it cooks by itself — not cook the rice w/​the egg on top. The rice was also expensive compared to other places.
This place sucks and its a waste of your money. There are so many restaurants in Chinatown with better food and service!

I’ve been this place few times after a late night hangout. they open until 3am.
Food traditional cantonese style. but service was super slow, they were definitely under-​staff here. food was CHEAP!!!
I think i will pass this place. they are many other places in china-​town that’s open late and taste better.

this classic Cantonese-​style eatery is officially added to my list of go-​to spots in chinatown. the extensive menu offers everything from traditional noodle shop items (noodle soups, roasted pork, chicken), to a long list of congees, dim sum small plates, to more dinner type items such as rice clay pots, fried rice, seafood, and meat plates. the menu also boasts shabu shabu (hot pot), and bubble tea smoothies. basically the equivalent of a home-​run diner menu that meets all needs to, from, and between breakfast, lunch and dinner. even the fluorescence of the citrus décor and worn seats add to the diner charm.
my favorite dish, fried squid with spicy salt and pepper, was purrrrrfectly done! this alone excited me, as i’ve had my fair share of disappointment due to mishandling of this dish. the congee was as good as big wong’s (the usual spot i get my congee), and the shrimp dishes certainly did not skimp on size. i couldn’t stop eye-​balling the tofu dishes on the neighboring table either, drool.
service isn’t as prompt as other places, but given the large space, they’re probably not under as much pressure to move the table traffic along.

It was cold outside. I rushed through the Mott street craving for «Fujian (A Province in China) Fried Rice». Then I saw it in their menu outside so I came in. Besides «Fujian Fried Rice», I also ordered their special «Shunde (A city in Guangdong Province) sweet egg custard» as dessert.
Are they authentic? I don’t know. Are they delicious? Just so so so so…
Even the service is just so so (but better than standard Chinese restaurants, I must say). In all, it is a very traditional and standard Chinese Guangdong restaurant, which I would never come back again… Besides, they have karaōke rooms for group dining…
BTW, isn’t the English name here funny? I guess the «Guangdong Family Restaurant» (their Chinese name) is better to recognize and remember…

All the other positive reviews make me think my friends made some spectacularly bad ordering decisions, but I will forge on with this review nonetheless.
I had the Pan Fried Fish Dia Luang Style which was on their Specials menu. Very well fried and the fish tasted fresh (as much as you can tell with fried fish…), I would definitely recommend.
One of my friends ordered the Lamb special which he said was dry and not much taste. My other friend ordered Cashew Chicken (maybe that was his problem right there haha) which he also seemed unimpressed by. We also got dumplings (which we all agreed were the most pathetic dumplings we’d ever seen) and two braised vegetables appetizers (I think tofu and taro?) which I had never had before, they were both good but nothing I would get excited about.
So, I thought the place deserved a 3 but my friends hated it, so I guess 2 it is. I might come back some day and give it another try. One thing that did annoy me is that they charged for the usually free tea, which of course they didn’t mention while they were pouring it.

The wait staff is very inattentive to patrons’ needs and the quality of Dah Bean Lo stinks. The quantity is very little especially for the price you’re paying. It’s really not worth it as the wait staff does not know what good customer service is. They serve more veggies than meat for Dah Bean Lo. This restaurant desperately needs to change their name as it’s not attractive or appealing. The upstairs has the appearance of a typical Western diner while the lower level is the Dah Bean Lo area. Their Dah Bean Lo is catered to Westerners who never experienced it before.

For no particular reason, I seldom eat Chinese food… maybe once every year or so. Today happened to be that day, and I’m glad we picked this restaurant.
First off, it’s open till 3am everyday… so at 1am, we were delighted to find this place fully lit and ready to serve. After debating over what to order (the menu has incredible amount of items!), we shared a bowl of chicken and mushroom casserole with sliced ginger and onions, which was sizzling hot and tasty. I joyfully savored the greasy, burned and crispy layers of rice stuck on the bowl. The casserole was big enough for us hungry couple to share, and it was only $ 5.50. Unbelievable!
They also offer breakfast starting at 7am. I wish we lived closer to Chinatown… I’d love to taste their congee first thing in the morning, and it’s like a few bucks per bowl.
Lastly, unlike some of the Chinese joints I’ve been to in the past (that offer food this cheap!), this place is comfortably clean and organized. It’s also HUGE, with two very spacious floors. It’d make a great party venue.