Jobee’s

There are Taiwanese options all over Flushing but for some reason Manhattan Chinatown barely has any. Beyond the popular but divey Excellent Pork Chop House (
), there was the equally divey but vastly inferior Jobee’s, which is no longer part of the Chinatown landscape. Given the lackluster experiences, I can’t say I’m surprised.
The initial culprit has always been the food. One of the worst pork chop over rice (排骨飯) plates I’ve ever had was here: dry, over fried pork chop, and really bland pickled veggies to boot. Taiwanese love their beef noodle soup (牛肉麵) but their version had tough meat, overly soggy noodles, and the seasoning was off. I wasn’t all that thrilled with their 3 cup chicken (三杯雞) either, but it was probably the most tolerable dish I’ve had there in addition to the minced pork rice (滷肉飯).
I came back a few more times to sample their lunch rice plates and soups, all of which were generally disappointing in one way or another. One could fault a lack of variety, but terrible execution won’t save the most authentic of dishes or frankly the most Americanized ones. The proof of the pudding was in the food.
On a service front, the staff was never too eager or overly friendly. Considering the subpar variety of food, one couldn’t blame them.

CLOSED DOWN…
with a NYC sign on the front noting the building was seized by the Marshall’s office per request of the landlord, so I’m guessing that means they didnt pay their rent?
Too bad, I was hungry today and that that Marshall’s eviction notice was a bummer!

was not impressed with their «cold duck» over white rice. the duck was really fatty and underseasoned. something was just off. weird lil spot

Uopn walking in, this Taiwanese place was, décor wise, well… um…
You know, my Grandmother used to say, «If you don’t have anything good to say, don’t say anything.». So…
…
…
…that’s it on the atmosphere. Now onto the grub:
Crispy Fish with Sweet and Sour Sauce: a whole fish coated in cornstarch and fried till super crispy, yet the flesh of the fish was moist and supple. I believe the fish was tilapia, but it wasn’t stated on the menu. The sauce was made with diced peppers and onion, amber sugar, garlic, and Taiwanese vinegar, which has a very distinctive flavor. It was very good and satisfying. It was a bit of work decimating the carcass with chopsticks but don’t fear, just follow the contour of the bones and you’ll be fine! It was well worth the work.
Tofu with veg and black mushroom: a simple dish with snow peas, carrots, ginger, and garlic in a light brown sauce. Very fresh tasting and simple, which worked well with the fish dish.
Healthy portions of white rice were served, along with a pot of tea and some water.
We literally stumbled upon this place, and there was a sign for it posted on some construction scaffolding on the corner. The service was meh… par for the course in most Chinese or similar establishments. I never take offense to this, as I’ve grown accustomed to that fact. No problem!
Even though Jobee’s is mostly forgettable, the food was good. It was nice to find Taiwanese cuisine outside of Flushing! Will that be enough to get us back here? Maybe… stay tuned!

I used to love it here. I really did. I can see why non-​Taiwanese people would be sketched out by this place — it’s kind of a hole in the wall and the menu doesn’t really offer any insight as you would only really know what you were getting if you knew the dish by it’s Chinese name. But my friends and I did, and at times you could find us in here three, four, five times a month. The owners could recognize my boyfriend and I, we came so often.
But… I know this place has been going steadily downhill. The interior changes almost every month because it seems like the owners have no idea what to do with the place. I never really cared about that until my last visit, upon which I discovered that this place had been converted into some shady wanna-​be nightclub/​lounge… I asked what the deal was and apparently they rent the place out in the evenings for parties. What?
It was really off-​putting because it became clear to me that this establishment was no longer about the food… and more about how to make enough money to even keep this place alive. What a message to send to your diners.
As if that wasn’t enough, they gave us a different menu than what we normally would get… Did the selection of dishes go down or what? I asked which dishes on this menu were vegetarian and before I even finished my sentence, the owner quipped some random name so I just went with it. Low and behold when it came out of the kitchen literally five minutes later, it was just white rice with a bunch of mundane vegetables sauteed in questionable brown sauce.
Sigh. Farewell Jobee’s. It was good while it lasted.

Let me just start by saying if you’re looking for any ambience, do not come here. This place has a very unprofessional feel to it, as a restaurant. It’s almost like the backroom of some family-​run business, which incidentally, is not unlike many very casual eating establishments you’d find in Taiwan.
But we don’t come here to experience the atmosphere. We come here for the food, the only Taiwanese cuisine you can find in the city. This is the place to go if you don’t want to venture out to Flushing, Rego Park, or Sunset Park. Sure there are other «Taiwanese» joints like TeaMagic, Excellent Pork Chop (which is not really Taiwanese), TKettle, A-​Pou, BaoHaus, Quickly, and ViVi. But this is a real restaurant where you can order a well-​rounded family-​style meal hitting all food groups. AND, you can find Taiwan Beer here.
I cannot emphasize enough how bad the place looks and feels. When we went in recently, one chef was sitting in a booth up front with his head down taking a nap. The owner was sitting at another table eating his dinner. You’ll just have to really ignore it and tune it out.
The menu offers a similar deal to what you’d find in many Flushing restaurants — 3 dishes for $ 18.95. Dishes we’ve had are ba-​wan (meatball), beef with bitter melon, tsai-​bo-​nung (dried-​turnip pancake/​omelette), san-​bei-​ji (3-​cup chicken), lumpia, loofah, bamboo, & cabbage. The ba-​wan is surprisingly authentic and delicious, having the right amount of chewiness. They are all very tasty dishes, albeit slightly greasy, but not more so than any other Chinese restaurants. What we also really like is that you are not charged any extra for the generous bowl of white rice that each person gets. There are a lot of other dishes we want to compare, but somehow we end up ordering the same ones just because we want to eat them again.
The food is really solid here. We like it better than most cheap, run-​of-​the mill Chinese food found in Chinatown. Definitely a highly recommended place to check out if you’re a fan of Taiwanese cuisine. But do be warned it’s not a cozy place to eat.

I really want to give it 4 stars but for various reasons, I have to take 1 out.
Jobees is rather spacious but the use of space is quite ineffective. The back of the restaurant is dysfunctional; it looks like a storage/​living room to me. The furniture they use is very nice and quite awkward for a place that offers $ 5 bento box.
The wait staff are probably the owners of this place but they don’t seem too zealous about this business, which is a shame because they have plenty of space and a great menu to work with. They also seem to have alcohol license but I wonder who comes here to drink hard liquor?
Anyway so here comes the critique for their food. My boyfriend ordered the 3-​flavor chicken, which is typical Taiwanese dish. I on the other hand, got the fried chicken leg over rice bento box. His dish actually only has the chicken over rice and nothing else. The chicken is decent but not great. My dish though is really tasty and they have you a huge chicken leg and thigh deep fried with good seasoning. My bento box also comes with some sauteed vegetable, a marinated boiled egg and some minced pork. I love this dish but when it first arrived at my table, the leg was slightly undercooked. They were nice enough to redo it but it just seems like the chef isn’t too experienced?
Overall, the price is good and food is decent. I would come here on the way to Chinatown but it won’t be a place where I want to have a group dinner with friend.

I came in here to basically use the restroom but felt bad and ended up ordering soup. I got the sweet and sour soup. It was actually pretty good. A lot of places make them either too sour too watery but this place was just right. a group of kids dined and dashed, poor owner ran out to look for them. Oh well.

Chinese take out w/​out the take out part.
Went here b/​c a friend recomended it thought it was going to be good. Went there had a lunch special, chicken and brocli, and ordered an appitiazer as well. The main corse came out before the app, the app came out about 15 min later, which i dont understand. The place used to be a bar, it looks old, has a damp nast feeling, its like im having take out in a restuarnt that has been there since the 1970’s.
The food is nothing special, the prices is the same as any other take out place. Defently not worth the time or the money. The hostes/​waiter/​owner. Can defently learn to smile.
Over all… Um see the star rating nothing else to really say

I pass by this place almost every day, and i’ve seen this store opening up from shabu shabu, to accessories store and now to Taiwanese food.
It’s almost hidden in the chinatown area, you won’t find it unless you’re looking for it on purpose or you pass by the small Howard street.
Inside the restaurant looks o-​k, a bit dirty but as long as the seats and tables are clean, also NO rats or roaches running around (hahahha).
food is fairly cheap (from $ 5.00 thru $ 7.00) on lunch specials. I always order the fried chicken leg over rice which is not bad at all. It comes wiith soup. The meat is pretty big, greasy and of course it comes with one Egg, one fried Tofu, and some cabbage and meat sauce with the rice. Pretty filling for $ 6.00 (better than McDonalds sometimes).
Staff is ok, they don’t wear any uniform but I just don’t like the lady Owner because They treat us (asians) differently compared to Tourists, a smile gives a big difference, specially for regulars.
After my 5^th time coming here, he decided to change her attitude by a bit, but still her physical gesture needs to change that too! The rest of the staff are not bad.
Haven’t try out for dinner yet.

Was so excited when I found out they have a Taiwanese menu but then they’re not open for breakfast and don’t have Taiwanese breakfast items. I ordered a bunch of Taiwanese items and took home each after a few bites. The man thought their sauce was too sweet but it’s a quick fix for Taiwanese and a lot closer than Flushing.

The only place I’ve found near me in lower Manhattan where I can eat familiar Taiwanese food so far. The food and prices were fair.
The boyf. and I ordered a Taiwanese Roll, Steamed Pork Buns (xiao long bao), and a Thin Noodle in House’s Chicken Soup w/​Sesame Flavor. It came out to be ~$ 20. While I enjoyed it all, the boyf. (who’s unfamiliar with Taiwanese food) didn’t enjoy it as much, so stick to the other Americanized dishes on the menu if you’re in the same boat and not feeling a little adventurous.
I, on the other hand, looove Taiwanese food and found it to be a place where I could go fill up on some comfort foods when I’m missing my mom’s cooking.

this is probably the only taiwanese place in chinatown, or new york.
food wise, it’s more like 2 stars, but i’ll give it another star because it’s taiwanese :) lol
the flavors were lacking, but i guess it satisfies the cravings when you just really want some pai gu fan (pork chop rice) or niu ro mien (beef noodle soup). sigh… where can i find another good taiwanese restaurant?

You know how sometimes you stumble upon a place and it’s exactly what you need at the moment? That was my Jobee experience.
We were at an engagement party at horrid Moomia – the first of my good friends is getting married, and I was rather overwhelmed. When the groom-​to-​be started groping the bride-​to-​be in front of her traditional Indian brother, I knew I needed something to drink other than Moomia’s $ 20 White Zin.
So, off we went, in search of escape. We probably looked rather silly when we stumbled into Jobee – around 10, well after the kitchen officially closes – me with my deer-​in-​the-​headlights expression, he wearing a woman’s coat (because his was held captive by the evil «you much check this for $ 2 now» Moomiers).
We were greeted warmly, encouraged to sit. This place is run by a husband and wife team who smiled and chatted and looked on our fellow diners (one table, a description of how a bong works; another table, a man ordering shot after vodka shot) as if remembering, fondly, their youth.
We ordered steamed vegetable dumplings – and, with a smile, were told we would be given a few extra. One order ($ 4.95) was enough for both of us to sate our drunk-​munchies, and I loved that they appeared handmade – none of the uniform shape I was expecting. They were filled with meaty mushrooms, and steamed to perfection. I’m picky about Asian food; I’m from near San Francisco. This is the first time I wasn’t grossed out by New York’s interpretation.
In the meantime we’d asked for a glass of the least expensive red, and least expensive white wines. No funny looks; no «gosh, you’re so cheap» exhalations – just a kind smile and a bit of comparison shopping through their wines. Each glass was a very reasonable $ 5. My white was just fine, if a little sweet; his red was totally smooth and drinkable. The wife poured our drinks up to the very brim of large, round glasses, and had done the same for the vodka drinker, too.
The space is charming – it’s not huge, but there are some great wood details and the lighting is perfect for an old-​world late night spot. I took their take-​out menu just for purposes of writing them a review.
Thanks Jobee’s!

it’s not fantastic enough for a crown of five stars nor does it suck that badly to render it completely inedible.
Jobee serves up decent enough quick bites, all at a very affordable price. i was pretty happy with my herbal duck noodles even when the noodles wasn’t quite the mian xian (a kind of chinese noodle) that i was expecting. the thick and savory broth was enough to keep me devouring the entire bowl on a cold winter’s day. i was surprised to be given a choice between pork or chives dumplings. i went for the chives dumplings and it was excellent — soft dumpling skin and well marinated filling. however, they didn’t even have the usual ginger/​vinegar condiments to serve with it.
and what? no bubble tea?! you oughta be kidding me. the least i expect from a taiwanese café is to be able to serve bubble tea.

Taiwanese Three Cup Chicken — one of «crown gems of Taiwanese cuisine,» as it’s oft been called. It should be a basic, simple, tasty dish. This was nothing like any 3-​cup I’d had before. This was TERRIBLE. Overcooked chicken drenched in a thick brown goop, it reminded me of nothing more than a japanese brown curry sauce from a discounted package. I’m pretty sure that’s what they served me. Originally planned 2 stars, but then I found a chicken claw in with the meat. Not a foot — just a chicken fingernail. Disgusting!
And the mood? Somewhere between e.v.-hipster-upscale (nice diner-​y tables, club-​style thai restaurant lighting, gift shop by the front door), and irritating-​as-​heck (tv blasting behind me; the sole waiter disappeared for a wild 15 minutes, leaving me wondering if I should just crawl behind the bar to get a second beer for myself.)
I won’t return.