Mapo Tofu

This is one of the best Chinese food restaurants in New York City. Spicy and delicious!

Delicious, fresh ingredients, expertly cooked and served without drama. Loved the mapo tofu, green beans with thin ribbon-​sliced bamboo shoots, and salt and pepper shrimp. Will be back!

Ordered mapo tofu lunch special and the entire dish was filled with tongue numbing spices, to the point where I could not even taste anything else but the numbness of my tongue. I understand Szechuan food is all about their spices but this is way OD. I’ve had Szechuan food many times before and it was never this extreme. I took one bite and couldn’t even continue on cos I though my tongue was going to fall off. Btw I am a southeast azn and I love my food spicy but this is something else !

Fresh and flavorful. Our favorite dishes are braised whole fish Sichuan Chili Miso sauce, sautéed sponge squash and Spicy cucumber appetizer. The service is efficient.

If Jim Parsons of the Big Bang Theory lived in New York City I think that Mapo Tofu would be the Chinese Restaurant of his choice. Mapo Tofu, Szechuan Chicken, Hot & Sour Soup, and Dan Dan Noodles would be his Manhattan staples. I am beginning to understand how Millenial Unilocalers value their delivery service, etc. However I stand by my statement that it is about the food. Also, even an old school Chinese food lover like myself embraces that the future is fresh, sustainable ingredients. I love the Kung Pao chicken, Hunan chicken, hot and sour soup, Dan Dan Noodles, and the Mapo Tofu. This is a very consistent restaurant as I have become a carry out regular. I have old had one subpar meal here The bamboo shoots, and Dan Dan Noodles are some of the best you will ever find. In the movie «The Search for General Tso,» they make the statement that Chinese food has become the quintessential American cuisine. I would contend that there is some truth to the statement. After all, the Big Bang Theory, is the «Friends» of this decade. So if spicy Chinese food appeals to you, this restaurant is a place you should experience.

Thanks to my fellow Unilocaler chica Shonnie H. for recommending Mapo Tofu to me. I speed walk over and order my take-​out of Hunan Chicken without carrots and mushrooms along with Fried Rice and Wonton Soup. There was one seat that was meant for someone to sit and wait for his/​her take-​out which was for moi =)
It took a bit as I was like the last person to get my take-​out and speed walk back to my office which I had only 20 mins to devour my lunch. OMG the chicken were huge slices along with green and red peppers… mmmmmmmmm! I am glad that I got the Fried Rice because it was flavorful then the boring white rice. The Wonton Soup was pretty yummy and wish there was a little more meat filling and the broth was delicious. I was super stuffed and wanted to lick the leftover sauce from the chicken but too many hot pepper seeds mixed in it or mama’s mouth will be on fire lol
This is definitely WAY BETTER THAN Evergreen on 38 and the food tasted so fresh from the ingredients that they make to each order.
Next time I am going to call ahead so I don’t waste time waiting =)

I went there this noon to pick up my order. After 25 mins waiting Nothing came (one more interesting thing was that another customer who was later than me but ten mins earlier get his order)
If there was anything I must complain, it’s not about long time waiting, but the dirty look of the cashier. Seems everyone owe her money. Also she knock the glass very rudely when my order was ready. Omg. It was terrible.
I really don’t understand, we are ur customers, not enemy. I don’t request any apology for long time waiting but only a nice smile and gentle attitude. Very bad experience! One world in Chinese: 店大欺客！

I went there once about two years ago at night. I and my friend ordered some different menu and shared. I thought food was good, but not very impressed, but I
went back recently for only Mapo Tofu. I think this is the best Mapo Tofu I had in New York. There Mapo Tofu is very authentic and the spiciness is not adjusted for non Chinese. The spiciness comes from both red pepper and szechuan pepper corn. Yes, it is super spicy! My tongue started to numb, but I wanted to keep eatingbecause it had a great flavor. So I had to wash my tongue with cold water many times. It was hard to eat, but worth eating.
I went there on Sunday, so they didn’t have lunch special. So the Mapo Tofu costed more but my friend tokd m the quantity of Mapo Tofu we had is more than that of lunch special. Since that taste gteat, I wanted to finish everything, but I could eat only half of it. The rest became my husband’s dinner and he loved it! I will definately go back there for that Mapo Tofu.

This is some of the very best Chinese food I have had in all of NYC (including various forays into China Town). I love that based on the fact that the clientele are 90% Asian, and probably thanks to very bare bones atmosphere, it appears to be undiscovered.
I have eaten here probably 10 – 15 times and LOVE (and almost always order) the Dan Dan Noodles, the pork dumplings in hot chili oil, the Braised Fish Fillets with Napa Cabbage Leeks and Roasted Chili, the spicy cucumber, the General Tso’s chicken (this is SOOOO much better than any other place I’ve ever had this dish — succulent tender chunks of chicken), and lately I’ve branched out and been thrilled with the beef chow fun. My best friend insists we eat here at least once every time she visits, and many of my friends that I’ve introduced come here quite often as well. Oh, and ask for an extra dish of their house made hot chili oil sauce. It is so delicious I literally take a spoon and eat bitefuls of it straight (with a big glass of water at the read) while I’m waiting for the food to arrive. Also recommend their pea shoots and the sauteed green beans
One caveat, I’m personally not a fan of Sichuan peppers — if you’re not familiar, those type of peppers have more of an extreme tingling zing effect on your tongue rather than actual spicy-​hot — and I find it disturbing and so zingy that it numbs my taste buds and I can’t really taste anything else — so I avoid those dishes. If you’re a fan though — I’m sure their Sichuan pepper dishes are just as delicious as the non-​Sichuan pepper dishes. They have dishes with both normal hot pepper and also the Sichuan pepper so make sure you know what you like.

My friend made a group reservation at Mapo Tofu, but upon entering the restaurant, I was hesitant to dine here because it was“Grade Pending,” and the last letter grade they received in Feb. 2015 from the Department of Health was a «B» due to:
1) Hot food item not held at or above 140º F.
2) Evidence of mice or live mice present in facility’s food and/​or non-​food areas.
3) Food not protected from potential source of contamination during storage, preparation, transportation, display or service.
It was pouring outside and most of the people were at the restaurant already, so I did not object and sat at the back of the restaurant on one of the big round tables.
In hindsight, I should have objected.
People in the party had a lot of dietary restrictions (vegetarian, gluten-​free, etc.), so instead of ordering many different entrees and sharing, we all just got an individual entrée. I had the Beef and Toasted Rice in Sizzling Platter ($ 17.95). The dish came out in ~10 minutes, which was a bit skeptical as to how the chefs could cook that fast.
Anyways, the dish had about four pieces of toasted rice crackers, and the waiter poured the sauteed beef and vegetables over them right before serving. You need to eat the rice fast because they get soggy super quickly. The brown sauce they used was unbearably salty. Even with a side of rice that they give you, this dish was so difficult to consume because of the high sodium count. The beef was pretty tender. There were wood ear mushroom (my favorite!), bamboo shoots, and bell pepper mixed in to the dish. Overall EXTREMELY salty, so be prepared to drink lots of water…
My boyfriend got the Champhor Tea Smoked Duck ($ 18.95) and it looked like it was 75% fat.
All was good… until couple hours later. I felt a rumble in the bottom of my stomach and all through the night suffered from the worst stomachache ever. I ended up spending most of the night/​following morning with my head in the toilet… so be warned. Those health inspection grade does not lie.

The general tso chicken was really good — instead of being deep fried the way it normally is, it seemed the chicken had a fried coating so it was lighter and tasty. however, the chow fun (usually my favoirte dish at a chinese place) was so bland and had no flavor at all. not sure i would come back here again because overall, the food wasn’t amazing

Replying back to Mapo Tofu’s comment to my previous review:
First off Mr. Jun Zeng, the meal was halfway finished when I noticed this fly inside the soup and was appropriately thrown into the kitchen sink. The soup was poured beforehand into one of my bowls before I ate and not the plastic delivery container, with the remainder of the soup, that you had asked for back. All they told me was that they wanted the remaining food back. I was never told by anyone in your restaurant to save this fly, not even when the food was picked back up by your goomba. Well it was in my sink strainer if anyone had asked for it. Furthermore, I did speak with seamless that day to explain the situation and it was not «spilt food upon delivery», that may be what seamless put into their computers cause insect wasn’t part of their options.
Seriously I was a long time and loyal customer that had regularly ordered delivery from you and also had dined in very often. So you guys know me well and I have never complained before even though I had quite a few reasons to from past negative experiences. Nonetheless, when I said there was an insect in my food I became your public enemy number one for some bizarre reason. I was treated like pure garbage over something that should have been corrected easily.
And I am not one to post a negative review to a business unless I really felt mistreated, especially with the nasty attitude of the disgruntled man you sent back. That was the last straw. I understand this may be as you «claim» it to be, the first time in 5 years, but please don’t try to reverse this on me with your comment or even imply that there was no fly.
And no I did not eat the fly. fyi
I have pictures to prove that too.

Disgusting service. Confronts you on tips when I tipped $ 6 for a casual two person dinner — slow to no service, loud and uncomfortable ambiance. Should have tipped none — which is what they deserved. Waiters begged for money. Food is good (on the salty /​oily chinese food side), but experience is too gross.
I have never given a Unilocal review of one star, but this restaurant has won it shamelessly.

First time around (over a month ago) I got their mapo tofu dish, which you would think they would make well, but the sauce tasted like styrofoam! Enough said on that i think.
Tonight I gave them a second shot cause the place I normally go to was shut… stupid choice! I got their extra greasy scallion pancakes and an extra spicy sautéed mixed vegetables and tofu. It was the blandest mixed veggies i’ve ever had, let alone extra spicy. They threw 4 whole red chillies in which did nothing. So dry, bland and over priced.
Finally, it doesn’t help that the staff is uninterested and don’t bother smiling or being pleasant with customers.
Never again. Not worth the money.

I cannot get enough of Mapo Tofu! I’ve never actually eaten at the restaurant but pick up food from here all the time on my way home. I absolutely love love love Szechuan food and their Dan Dan Mian is the best I’ve ever had in my life. Their mapo tofu and shui zhu yu (a favorite of mine) are spot on!

This was a gem of a place in busy crowded midtown area. Lightning fast service and comforting chinese food. We had the fried chicken in a wok and a eggplant curry. Both were delicious and I should say would suffice for 2 hungry people. If you are expecting a classy service and a noiseless environment this wouldnt be the place. Its noisy, quick, mediocre tables but amazing chinese food and equally amazing service.

A solid 3 stars for having friendly staff, albeit fairly rushed during lunch (we had three different servers come by to take our order before we were able to even finish looking at the menu), and ok food. I thought because of the name they would have more tofu lunch options but I was incorrect. I believe they had two but I felt so rushed I just ordered the first one that was suggested. It’s a dish that normally comes with tofu and pork so I substituted broccoli instead of pork. When the broccoli is the star of a dish over the protein there’s something a little off. The flavor wasn’t bad but it always kills me when the wrong consistency of tofu is used for a dish. If you’re adding cubes of tofu you should use firm or extra firm. Soft tofu should be used for scrambles and smoothies. They used cubes of soft tofu and it wasn’t drained properly (you have to drain the tofu of the liquid it comes in or it won’t pick up any flavors) so they were just soft cubes of no flavor. But I was starving so I made due.
The portions are a great size for what you pay during the lunch specials, and my husband seemed to like his chicken dish, so that helped my rating but it’s just hard to give a bunch of stars to a place with tofu in the name that doesn’t do a whole lot with that protein.

Only one person was here, a middle-​aged Chinese woman slurping a noodle soup. Eventually another Chinese guy came in but this was later into the meal.
In short, I got served pretty quickly.
Had the Dan Dan Mian/​Dan Dan Noodles With Minced Pork 5.95 or 6.95 and the «Madam Song’s Braised Noodle With Shrimp And Fish Fillets 9.95»
She questioned me getting two noodle dishes (but I was taking one of them home.)
Dan Dan Mian: Not that bad a variant, spicy but not too spicy, good amount of Pork. I’d get it again. Noodle had the proper texture also. I’d give it a 3.6
Madam Song’s Braised Noodle With Shrimp And Fish Fillets.
Soupy noodle dish with a lot of mushrooms/​fish, not a whole lot of shrimp but I really didn’t mind as there was a lot of other stuff. A lot of noodles. I got the rest to go and it oddly came in one of those large takeout Chinese containers, which is strange for a soup-​like dish. I haven’t opened it again but it seems like everything is there. I’ll give it a 3.3 for now.
So, 3.3÷3.4?

Food: 4 stars, Service for delivery: 2 stars. I feel terrible for the guy who has to deliver the food because he probably gets yelled at all the time by people who tell him he’s brought the wrong order. Are you serious? I ordered spicy garlic chicken 3 times for delivery and TWICE it was wrong. They are also very rude over the phone. I asked them to bring the right food back and they reluctantly agreed — didn’t even offer a refund at first, which is why I demanded they bring the right food. Then the woman on the phone had the audacity to demand that I give the delivery man the previously, wrongly delivered food — SERIOUSLY? What are you going to do with that? It’s not untouched — it looked similar so I tasted it. are you kidding? I was so disgusted — so if someone returns food. you’ll serve that to someone else? UGH!

My friend decided to take me here during my few days in NYC on the premise that if I like Mapo Tofu, this was the best place in NYC to go – I definitely wasn’t disappointed at all.
The place doesn’t look like much from the outside, but the inside is actually pretty nice and I’d say a little more high-​end then what you would expect from any typical Chinese restaurant. This was actually our dinner round two… so we weren’t too hungry so we just got the Mapo Tofu to share. My friend compares here a lot though and also got the dan dan noodles to go (which she highly recommends).
The mapo tofu comes in a variety of spice levels so even if you have low spice tolerance, there’s a flavor level that’ll work for you. I loved it. The tofu chunks were pretty large, but the sauce was super spot on – mix it with the rice and you have delicious dinner. The sauce had a bit of «ma la» which is this numbing feeling that comes from good Sichuan food. I thought it was pretty ironic that the chefs in the back all spoke Shanghainese yet they were cooking Sichuan food, but they sure are good at cooking it.
Lots of Chinese families eat here so you know it’s legit. I’d definitely frequent this place if I lived in the city!
tldr; mapo tofu is so yummy here, get it and be sure to customize your spice level if you have low tolerance for spicy food