Mee Sum

Walking into Mee Sum again was like going through a time machine. Little has changed since my father worked here in the late 60’s and early 70’s. The name translates to «beautiful heart.» It is the only coffee shop/​restaurant among the many he worked at that has survived the test of time. I still have a picture of him sitting at one of the booths. I remember coming here after school, having a dish of har gow & doing some homework in the back before heading home. The formica counter has been replaced by man-​made stone, the booths have new vinyl coverings, but the steamer case and coffee urns remain the same. I wanted to show my son a piece of family history before it disappeared, so we stopped in for a quick dim sum breakfast.
Still as dingy as ever, we sidled up to 2 stools at the counter and ordered har & gnau cheong (shrimp & beef rice crêpe rolls), pai gwut (steamed pork riblets in black bean sauce) & chicken over rice w/​fried egg. The ribs & chicken were tasty, but the rice rolls were extremely mushy with not a lot of filling. Washed down with milk tea, it was a satisfying morning meal.
The ladies running the place now are quick with the service and chatty with the regulars. One lady called the gentleman sitting next to me by my father’s name and I almost fell off my stool! It wasn’t him, but it was Spook-​kee! What a walk down memory lane.
If you’ve been reading my last few reviews, I’ve been in this maudlin funk lately. If you see me on the street, slap me in the back of the head (but wait until I’ve swallowed my har gow)!

This is one of my favorite old school dim sum places. It does not have much varieties but their fried egg and beef on rice and beef with rice noodle are the best.

I want to wrap up Pell and Doyers Streets in Chinatown and just keep them in my pocket all the time, because everything about these two streets make me smile. It’s definitely just the misplaced wayward nostalgia of someone who didn’t really experience Chinatown during the 60s and 70s, but so many of the remnants from that time on these streets are just so awesome.
Mee Sum was my latest foray into the past when I stopped in here for a coffee while waiting to get into Nom Wah for dim sum yesterday — and just being in the pale lemony yellow interior with the bars and counters, surrounded by the sound of Cantonese, made me blissful. The signage also looked very promising. I didn’t get a chance to sample the food (the coffee was fine and they respected my low on sugar request) but I’ll be back to check it out.

This is probably one of the last old school coffee shops (1 of 2) in NY and I had about 15 minutes for a quick morning breakfast before going to a funeral that day. This is a Cantonese blue collar coffee shop. It was appealing for me because I knew I would find some items cooked the old traditional way. These places usually have offerings like a humongous meat filled bun (Da Bao). The history of this is that it was meant for blue collar workers and the coffee house use to give it to their regular customers. It was a benefit to their customers and the coffee house didn’t make any money off it. They have offerings like the basic sui mai, shrimp dumplings, beef rice noodle wrap, shrimp rice noodle wrap, spare ribs, pork buns, chicken buns. Beef meatballs was just OK (no flavor of orange peel, probably left out due to cost). Also have chicken/​sausage wrapped in Napa cabbage. Something different they offer is a bun filled with pounded egg yolk and sugar. This place is a little flashback to the past and so are the prices. I do like this place for the nostalgia.
3.5 stars — good for a quick breakfast, snack, or if you get tired of loitering at Starbucks with a cup of coffee.

I chose this place on a whim when the line for my preferred Dim Sum place was too long.
Imagine a small, dingy coffee shop with a limited menu, and you get Mee Sum. They have a super small menu, and it was even more limited since some of the items we ordered were not available. Meh, all I wanted was some decent dim sum. I enjoyed the shrimp dumplings and the rice boxes were just ok. The boyfriend and I ordered two different rice boxes to split. I found the chicken rice box too greasy but I enjoyed the shrimp/​egg rice box. Overall, we found the experience disappointing because of the meh food. The surroundings are worn-​in and divey, which is cool in my book… I just wish the food was a bit more exciting.

If you ever wondered where old Fujianese men eat lunch on Mondays, this is it. Also, I was most definitely the only customer under the age of 60.
Unfortunately, the pink menu on the wall is written completely in Chinese, and the waitress at the bar could hardly understand my Mandarin when i asked for the rice lunch box with scrambled scallion eggs and ham. I pointed to a fluffy-​looking object in the glass-​case window behind the bar, and luckily, it turned out to be a yummy pork bun. After my valiant effort to converse with the waitress, i later heard a different waitress speaking to customers in English. Oops.
Expect a short line around lunchtime on the weekdays — I’d definitely come back for a quick bite or midday snack.

A great coffee shop with a lot of old timers. I ate here as a kid growing up in Chinatown but every chance I get to visit NYC, I must stop at this place for their rice in aluminum boxes.
They’re known for their small dim sum dishes and rice plates. Can’t go wrong with their spare ribs rice w/​black bean sauce, meatloaf w/​egg drizzled with their soy sauce, and my favorite beef stew.
They haven’t changed their prices since I left. Their milk teas and coffees are 75 cents. That you can’t beat!