He Nan Flavor

This local joint has now been renamed as Spicy Village. Same menu and owner. Just a different name.

This place was great! Tasty food and cheap prices. I had the big tray of chicken and the pork pancake, both of which were very good. The chicken was just the right amount of spicy. Flower peppers are responsible for the tongue numbing kind of spice typified by Szechuan cuisine. Can’t wait to tell friends about this place.

My friend and I went on a friday night at around 8pm. Yeah it was out of the way, at the edge of Chinatown but we got a seat and food came within 10 minutes.
As you may have seen from other reviews, the pork pancakes are fantastic. My friend isn’t exactly a fan of pork and even she said she loved it! It’s toasted on crunch, soft white bread with the pork cooked just right. We also got a beef brisket hand pulled noodles in soup and black bean sesame hand pulled noodles. I recommend the latter. The beef brisket in soup has a super light broth that feels healthy and light but doesn’t have the rich, authentic taste. The black bean sesame hand pulled noodles are awesome.
Of all of this plus waters came to under $ 7 dollars for each person. We were in food comas. Let’s be real, its as good as it gets!

What a find Ron C., thanks much for bringing me by here! This is the kind of place you want to go to in Chinatown, cheap and delicious. Cool little family owned joint. The menu isn’t very big, but neither are the prices. Great spot for a quick snack or a cheap meal.
We both got the $ 2 pork pancakes to take with us en route to some more drinking. Best $ 2 I’ve spent in quite awhile. It’s a substantial «sandwich» with delicious shredded pork between two perfectly cooked «pancakes» (almost fried plantain like, kinda like a jibarito if you’ve ever had one of those). A little bit of chopped cilantro in the meat seal the deal.
Didn’t get the big tray of chicken, but I saw one, and it looks big and awesome. And for only $ 12 bucks would make a seriously good, cheap meal. I’ll be back for this soon.

I took my buddies to Chinatown on my half day from work. Took them to a Far Eats movement tour. Henan Flavor was our first stop.
We did not have lunch so our stomachs were primed with natural juices ;) We worked up a huge appetite by walking from the WTC Path. I ‘accidentally’ took a wrong turn and had us walk .5 more miles before we got there. It was a warm day outside and it smelled really rank out there.
Once inside the nasty smell was gone and we concentrated on ordering. Thank goodness the food came out really fast. We ordered the pork pancake and we devoured it within a minute. The cilantro’s freshness tasted really good. The next thing out was the dumplings. It came out in a bamboo steamer with cabbage on the bottom. Tasted alright, comparable to package dumplings I always eat. Then the brisket soup and the big plate of chicken showed up. They never had a chance. The gwilows I took really enjoyed the ‘exotic taste’.
I like this place better than Xian’s because it less greasy and they have tables that can hold around 4 people for my tours. I don’t like to share the table with strangers because my reptilian brain tells me that I am territorial and I’m fat. Luckily, not fat enough to buy two seats for plane ride.

Previous to going, I’d never heard of Henan Flavor or their «big tray of chicken,» and I could probably count on one hand the times I’ve walked down Forsyth Street. Nevertheless, this dodgy street bordering the park on one side harbors a Chinatown cheap eats gem.
So how did I end up there? Well, last week I was craving phở so I messaged one of my reliable phở buddies, Ron C., to see if he wanted to get phở after work. I didn’t get a response until the late afternoon:
Ron: Still craving phở?
Me: Yes!
Ron: Let’s go to Henan Flavor.
Me: Oh, I’ve never heard of that place. They have phở?
Ron: No.
Me: –_​_​_​–
Obviously Ron got his way and I was left to fulfill my phở craving another day. But honestly I wasn’t too difficult to convince. All Ron had to do was drop words like «spicy» and «hand-​pulled noodles» and I was in.
We ordered the BIG TRAY OF CHICKEN to share between the two of us.
The name sounds funny, but that’s what happens when you directly translate something from Chinese. Basically it’s chicken (mostly dark meat) and potatoes stewed with peppercorns, garlic, chili peppers, and fennel seeds, and served in a big metal wok topped with a generous amount of cilantro. We opted for the flat hand-​pulled noodles to pair with the chicken stew rather than rice, which was served atop the chicken. The noodles were my favorite part of the meal. They were the perfect chewy texture and really delicious soaked in the mildly spicy stew.
The chicken and potatoes were good but would have benefitted greatly from another 5 – 10 minutes of simmering on the stove. Also, personally I didn’t like that it was hard to take a bite without getting a mouthful of fennel seeds and peppercorns. A few are fine but I prefer when spices are stewed in a pouch or strained out before serving.
They big tray of chicken is just $ 12 and big enough to feed two to three people. The sides of noodles and rice are $ 2/​person. Thrifty and yummy is a winning combo. Ironically, though the big tray of chicken is the thing to get at Henan Flavor, I don’t think it’s really representative of Henan cuisine. To my knowledge, Henan cuisine isn’t known for being spicy. But never fear! If you’re looking for Henan food the rest of the menu has you covered — which I will be back to try!

I’ve gone to this restaurant twice now and I keep on getting the same thing. The big Tray of Spicy Chicken. It’s just so damn good!
First of all this restaurant is pretty hidden from everyone. It’s behind the park on Foursyth St. Which at night, the are looks closed down and sketchy. There isn’t really signage outside, so you have to look at each store to find this one. Once you walk in you notice that it’s a small family owned establishment with only a couple of tables.
Once you sit down and take a look around. You will see that there is a big menu on the wall (with photos) and a large poster of the owner/​cook at the end. The menu isn’t big, but it’s precise. You have choices of different styles of noodles, dumplings and even pancakes.
I recommend getting the Big Tray of Chicken. If you are with someone or a group, It’s only $ 12 and really good. The chicken is cooked in an assortment of spices such as chilies, Star Anise, Fennel Seeds and peppers. The sauce isn’t thick or watery, but somewhere in between. The dish is so big that they serve it in a wok and you just pick at it with you chopsticks.
I also recommend getting the pork pancakes are really big and quite delicious. The pancake is nice and warm with lots of pork filling. At $ 2 it’s definitely a real good cheap eat.
This is definitely a place to get good food when your on a budget. Need to pay rent and don’t have much cash. Go here.
This is one of my new favorite places in Chinatown!

What happens when you’re broke, cold and want/​need something to soak up all the alcohol you just pounded? You hop on the train to Chinatown and come here! I had been meaning to take Ron here and when he said soupy or ricey, this was the first place that came to mind, especially since I wanted spicy,
We both wanted the pancake with pork and the big tray of chicken, so we just ordered both and shared.
Not sure if they usually cut the pancake in half, but they did so without us asking, so that was a plus in my book. You could smell the yeast of the pancake as it was being griddled, which just made us hungrier. And, for $ 2 a pancake, it was well worth it. It isn’t overstuffed, which is nice. I can totally see ordering one of these on the go. The pork is tender, shredded and mixed into a sweet sauce. But, what I liked best was the pancake itself — toasted with a crackly crust. Love it!
The big tray of chicken was the first thing I wanted to try from here, so I’m glad Ron was game to share. Braised dark meat chicken pieces in a spicy, but not too spicy chili oil sauce/​soup. The liquid wasn’t exactly thick enough to be a gravy like sauce, but it wasn’t a broth either. Whatever it was, it was spicy with flecks of red chili, peppercorns and caraway seeds. I went ahead and added two servings of noodles as a vehicle for sauce absorption. I gotta say, these might just be my new favorite house-​made noodles in Chinatown. I love the springy texture and that they’re not too thick. And, a generous garnish of cilantro on top (I’m a fan!) — YAY! It was perfectly spicy enough to give me the spicy sniffles, but not spicy enough that I felt the need to run screaming and dunking my head into the nearest trough of water.
I gotta say that even though I was stuffed, I very well could have helped Ron polish off the rest of it. Instead, I talked him into taking the remainder home. The rest of the noodles would only absorb more of the sauce as it bathed in it overnight. I’m sure it’s probably delicious. Now I’m not sure why I insisted that Ron take the leftovers. Oh, probably because it’s so much closer to my place than his…
Lucky for my sis, I was there when she texted me to bring her home some dinner. Her choices were between the oxtail soup and the tomato egg hua mei, and being that I was doing all the work, I picked the other dish on my to-​try list — the tomato egg hua mei.
Now for me, tomato egg over rice has always been a long time comfort food. Something inexpensive and delicious when I’m in the need for something to sooth the soul. Having read other reviews that touted this as one of the best dishes here and with my own fond memories of tomato egg, I was hoping to be able to try some of hers. Well, I was hoping to recover some stomach space in order to try some. Though I did try some, I think I’ll reserve my judgment for when I can get a fresh, hot order and not one that was slowly walked home by a too-​full girl.
Service was friendly, which I always find a bit odd in Chinatown. Not to say Chinese people are rude, but service in Chinatown is pretty brusque, which is what I’m used too. But, it’s only a plus for when I come back to try the dumplings and noodle soups and such. Can’t wait!

Second time I’ve been here. The big tray of chicken is very good. Although I liked it more the first time. It was a bit more dry which brought out the flavors a bit better. Spicy, tingly and numbing. Not just hot for hot’s sake.
Don’t go here for the ambiance. It’s a small place on a quiet (relatively speaking) in Chinatown.

I’ve had this place bookmarked since it was featured in a NY Mag review with a huge photo of their «Big Tray of Chicken» emblazoned across one of the pages. However, the place is kind of out of the way and not exactly a «date place» nor «good for groups,» so I didn’t make it out till last night when my brother said he’d be up for checking it out. Yay!
We braved the bitter cold to make it out, and when we walked in — it was still bitterly cold. But they switched on the heat for us and we ordered the «Big Tray of Chicken» whose spiciness also helped serve to keep the cold away. The dish is large enough for 2 – 3, and at $ 12 makes this overqualified for a «cheap eats.»
The steaming tray comes out with roughly chopped pieces of tender chicken and potatoes (which, for whatever reason, were criss cut). Little brother was annoyed at the bone shards, but we both heartily enjoyed the spicy, oily, fragrant dish filled with whole peppercorns, chiles, and anise seed.
We ordered the dish with both a side of noodles and rice ($ 1 each). The noodles were the clear winner, with a wonderfully consistency, and heaped right on the tray of noodles. About halfway through the dish, the oil started to get to us, but they don’t have any vegetable dish on the menu (other than pickled cucumbers). However, when I inquired, they cheerfully offered to make a plate of steamed bok choy for us (asking, «$ 3 ok?» ok!)
The place is small — no bells and whistles, just a long room with about 6 two-​person tables. However, the service was stellar and pleasant. (I’m Chinese but don’t know how to speak, which sometimes brings out irritation or impatience in Chinatown). It’s a family affair, with the owner’s son running around and playing at one of the other tables. However, this just lended to the homey charm of the place. I’ll be back!

Hidden gem on a lonely corner on the Lower East Side /​Chinatown. Henan Flavor touts itself as the «First Henan Restaurant in East America.» Run by what seems to be a husband-​and-​wife team, this place serves up a limited menu of delicious carb-​laden Central Chinese foods.
The Egg and Tomato Noodles were amazing and arguably my favortite dish. If China needed a comfort food, this would be it. The noodles are hand drawn and springy, coated in runny egg and creamy parboiled tomato and garnished with a dash of sesame oil and some raw shredded vegetables.
Other highlights: Sesame Pancake with beef and pork are also recommended; a sort of less spicy, more texture-​focused version of the lamb burger from Xian Famous Foods. If you crave a fresh pancake that crackles on the outside and weeps on the inside as its interior is coated by fragrant meat juices, this is the dish for you. Oxtail Soup had a subtle flavor, added by its milky meaty broth, and sexed up by more of the said chewy noodles. Dumplings were fat and homestyle, although other dishes shine more here. Big Tray Chicken was surprisingly mild, despite its menacing placement on a bed of chili-​oil — chunks of dark meat on the bone, cooked until tender, served with small soft potato chunks.
I am bookmarking Henan Flavor for more visits. The menu is small enough to master, and the offerings are honest and satisfying.

This restaurant might be small, but don’t let size fool you, as their portions are huge and their prices are even better as it is ridiculously low!!!
How low can it go, you might ask? Well all dishes pretty much ranges from $ 4-​$ 6 and their menu is kept short and simple. I came here with a group of eight and despite their tight quarters, the restaurant was impressive. First off, the staff was very accommodating and the service was superb and quick.
I ended up ordering their spicy chicken dish ($ 5.50) that came with their homemade flat noodles. The noodles were a bit starchy, but nonetheless, it was still tasty and well balanced with the spiciness of the broth.
But what reign supreme was not their entrée (despite the fact that it was delicious) but instead their pancake with shredded pork was the one that out shine the rest that night. The flavor was absolutely incredible. The bread was warm, not oily at all with a nice crunch!!! If anything, I don’t even think they added any oil to it. As for the stuffing, it tasted perfect especially with a hint of fresh cilantro. Best of all, this bad boy only cost me two measly bucks!!!
_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​
**It’s also a BYOB!

This was just okay for me. The texture of the noodles was tender and chewy — reminds me of a non-​spicy Xi’an Famous Foods.
Most of their noodle soups have the same broth base — meaty tasting, watery, cloudy white generic broth. It had an ok flavoring to it. At 4.50 for a small and 5.50 for a large (huge) it is super cheap worth the money.
However this place wasn’t all that special to me. The food tasted good but the broth base was too basic for me and pretty much tasted like any other place. I kind of wish they had more options for spicy lovers but I guess the area the food comes from aren’t fans of spicy. They have like, 2 spicy dishes.
I would recommend this place for those who are looking for great hand-​pulled noodles without scorching your taste buds off.

There’s something magical about Henan Flavor.
Henan Flavor is wildly addictive and just hits the spot every time. Everyone I know who goes there falls in love with it. Seriously, all of life’s problems can be solved by placing a big bowl of chewy noodles in front of your face. What’s not to be happy about? Go to Henan Flavor and get your euphoric carb high on. Forget what’s going on outside. Just focus on your bowl of noodles.
There are four staples which I think should be ordered every time you go to Henan Flavor: the pork sesame pancakes, the big tray of chicken, the Tomato and Egg Lo Mein, and the Black Bean Sauce Lo Mein with minced beef. The pork sesame pancakes are so good it is something you will want to take home as well. Even eating it on the go would work. I can’t think of a better $ 2 snack that is filling. At the restaurant, we like to have the sesame pancake sandwiches cut up for sharing. It’s a great appetizer. The big tray of chicken is really the meat of the menu. It’s a great balance to all the noodles and dumplings on the table. The chicken is perfectly tender as if it’s been boiled for an hour. There is so much sauce on this dish that you can pour it over your noodles for extra flavor. We like to dip our sesame pancakes in it. I just wish the sauce was more spicy! If you’re craving noodles, really there is no noodle dish on this menu that you can go wrong with.
As for dumplings, I think I can pass on them. But no meal in Chinatown is complete without some sort of dumplings. I’d recommend the sour soup dumplings over the dry ones. The cilantro-​y broth is really quite nice. I’ve given up on the soup filled dumplings. They are sold out every time. I’ve also given up on the seafood soup. I found it bland.
Henan Flavor is impeccably clean and they have an «A» rating. Service is great and the place is so casual. Plus everyone who eats here is here to EAT. I feel so in the know eating at Henan Flavor.
I feel even better that the nasty rats outside did not make their way into the restaurant. At least, not that I know of.

I love this place!
It’s really cozy and cute. The waitress (who I believe is the owner) is the nicest woman. There was a homeless guy that came in and she was really nice to him
Ok now on to the food.
We ordered the black bean sauce noodle and the big tray of chicken. I really wanted to order more and kept looking at the menu on the wall while I was eating. The dumplings look delish and so does the lamb soup.
The noodles are wide and «ripped» instead of hand pulled. They remind me of Xian Famous Food’s but tastier. The sauce was salty but it complimented the big bowl of noodles. They are very generous with their portions!
The big tray of chicken was exactly that. Dark meat with bone swimming in a pool of red oil/​sauce. Lots of star anis and Szechuan pepper corn and a touch of cumin and hot peppers. I love my spicy food and this was not too spicy for my taste. I wish it came with rice or noodles because it was a tad salty.
They have a fridge where you can grab drinks. I recommend the coconut milk and the wintermelon tea. Both good!
Will return soon to try more. Total including tip was $ 20

Came here with a group of foodies, who inspired me to write my first Unilocal review.
Noodles is the star of this tiny little place. Hand pulled noodles, and they have this wonderful texture that is just yummy. You may ask, really, isn’t it just noodles? Okay, there is a very simple analogy. There is box pasta, and then there is fresh pasta that just knock your socks off. These noodles belongs to the not your average noodles, will knock your socks off category.
The flavor leans toward spicy, but not heat for heat sake. Very flavorful. We also tried the pork bun, cold rice dessert, and mock chicken app. One theme cut across everything: Complex flavors with surprisingly wonderful texture.
Oh! And it’s cheap! Great portions. Good service.
⁴⁄₅ = wonderful (5 stars reserved for once in a lifetime experiences)

They spoke English when I got there. I got the pancake with pork. I can’t believe it’s $ 2 but it is.
It feels like someone’s Chinese home here that really happens to be a restaurant… a food stall. Nothing fancy at all. Very nice people here.
It’s really inexpensive and I can’t wait to try their steamed dumplings next time. I’ll be back!

Came here ravenous. Waited for my friend for 15 WHOLE minutes (an hour in hungry-​time), so I appreciated Henan’s quick and no-​nonsense service! We came here at around 12:45 to an empty restaurant. By 1, it was packed with lonely old Asian men on their lunch breaks. And us.
We ordered (of course) the big plate of chicken ($ 12) and bowls of rice for each of us ($ 1/​each). The 3 of us didn’t come close to finishing it! The chicken is wonderfully tender and the perfect level of spiciness (this is coming from a spice-​wimp like me). We also ordered the pork pancake ($ 2), which can be its own meal in itself. Final product? $ 7 each. And that’s probably considered splurging here, as the bowls of noodles are around $ 5.
A welcome new restaurant to Chinatown!

Henan homemade cooking comes to America straight to New York! Henan province is located in the central region of China. Though the name Henan means «south of the river,» approximately a quarter of the province lies north of the Yellow River, to be known as «Huang He» in China. This small restaurant sits on Forsyth Street in Chinatown Manhattan.
Hand pulled wide noodles in soup brings comfort in dark times for small bowl at $ 4.50 to $ 5.50. Our party of six dined a Saturday night following a day of intellectually challenged by both Cantonese and Mandarin oral and written skills accompanied by pancake with pork and/​or beef at $ 2.00; and spicy big tray of chicken at $ 12.00. I personally enjoyed the pancake with pork and a separate order of beef were both flavorful, but not plentiful as it is cut in quarters. The tray of chicken was hell spawn flaming spicy for my palate. Beverages are available in bottles for self-​service from the refrigerator. With my brief cameo appearance at dinner, I sinned with food envy for my neighbor’s beef with vegetables of dry wide noodles. I like Henan’s choices in the menu for the simplicity as it is not overwhelmingly clustered with too many options to loose focus on the core concept of homemade cooking hand pulled noodles.
N.B. Patrons take note staff are only conversational in Mandarin with the added citation that patrons are mostly Mandarin speaking.

On a Chowhounder’s report, it was impossible to avoid the newest, most unique addition to Chinatown (especially since I was conveniently in the area for dinner). That night, we found ourselves at Henan Flavor. On Forsyth across from Sarah Roosevelt Park, Henan Flavor is the Manhattan branch of Flushing’s Henan Fengwei. Billing itself as the «First Henan Restaurant in East America,» there really is nothing like Henan Flavor in all of Chinatown.
Robyn Lee took much better pictures of our meal at the original location than my typically crappy photography, but be aware, they show the expanded menu at Henan Fengwei. Here, there are no cold dishes or casseroles, but the abbreviated menu features handmade noodle soups and the imposing «Big Tray of Chicken.»
For a Sunday night between 9−10pm, the narrow restaurant was actually fairly full, with people coming in and out for eat in and takeout. The lady running the show is actually Fujianese, which is probably good for business, since this part of Chinatown is their territory.
The pancake with pork contains minced pork and a couple pieces of cilantro slipped into a pancake and placed under a panini press. At only $ 2, it gives the similar version at Xi’an a run for its money.
We got the big tray of chicken and halfway through they dumped an order of their rustic handmade noodles on top. These soaked up the spicy, cuminy oil better than expected. The sauce looks incendiary, but has only a gentle heat. The draw is the complex flavor with a background of star anise infused in the dangerously cleavered chunks of chicken.
Most of all I liked the potatoes hidden in the oil, which inhale the sauce even better than the noodles.
The lamb lo mein had more of the handmade noodles along with glass noodles, wood ears, goji berries and lamb pieces in a mild lamb broth (I say mild, but I actually really liked it.) The waitress said this was their specialty, but I much prefer the chicken. Either way, we had a great meal for only $ 20. I’ll be back soon.
Links and pics on my blog: