New Li Yuan

I went on Friday October 16 at 5PM, and this place was (temporarily?) closed. They were sanitizing the place with some sort of chemical, so my guess would be some sort of health violation.

Solid Char Siu Bao (roast pork bun) for $ 1 amongst a variety of other baked buns and noodles for breakfast. This bakery is open pretty early and on the way to times square from Penn Station along 8^th avenue so it’s pretty convenient. Glad this little gem also makes rice dishes like a regular chinatown cantonese restaurant, all dishes /​noodles are $ 6-​$ 7 which is a great deal for non-​panda express fake stuff in midtown.

My kind of place. Walked by a couple of times and there were several people on line. Told myself to remember to try it.
Finally did today and I’m so glad this place is on my way to work every day. Like most Chinese bakeries, you need to arrive early for the best selection. I got there around 8:45 am. Still plenty of buns to choose from. I had no idea what was inside any of them but thats what makes it so fun!
I randomly selected two different buns and a large coffee. This place is VERY cheap. Everything came to about $ 3!
One bun was filled with a lemon flavored gel/​custard. The other had roast pork! Both delicious.
I’m devoted!

found beetle in food. most likely the type of bug that got stuck in the bok choy plant and then bok choy was probably not rinsed properly to shed said beetle — idk, i’m just speculating. really, there’s no excuse for beetles in food, anywhere anytime.
even before finding beetle, i wasn’t all that impressed with the food. was just ok. place is small, cramped, and to be honest did look pretty dingy. wasn’t all that bothered by it because i thought well, you know. good chinese places don’t always have the ambiance or sparkling white countertops…
ok who am i kidding, why am i even writing anything else — THERE WAS A BEETLE IN MY FOOD.

comfort food for ABCs who grew up eating Canto/​Toishan cuisine in Chinatown and other satellite Chinatowns around the city. This really hit the spot on a cold Feb afternoon.
Would love it if they served tangyuan…*sigh*

Deborah L does a great job of outlining the basic characteristics of a Cantonese style cafeteria, including the fast paced griminess, the lack of English, and the strong preference towards cash only. This place is the old Ying Du Chinese place, and I highly doubt ownership or patrons have changed much since then. (
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I only had time to grab a bubble tea (only basic milk tea here) and a couple paper wrapped sponge cakes to go. It’s definitely hard to find bubble tea anywhere around here (a.k.a. are you taking a Boltbus and need to be near this side of town, yes, get your bubble tea here), so I’m happy to report that it was fairly decent with squeaky perfectly cooked bubbles. Obviously, not a lot of flavor choices, but tapioca consistency and a solid milk tea flavor is all I care about.

It’s my go to when it comes to cheap home cooking Chinese food. It’s buffet style fast food. The. staff are really nice and some of them remember how I want my coffee, and it takes minutes to get my lunch sort out.
My favorite is their soy sauce shrimp, sweet pork rib and some seasonal vegetables. The shrimp usually sold out before noon. Be sure to go there early if you want the full varieties.

Where else can you find 3authentic Chinese entrees with rice, soup and tea for $ 5.50 in midtown, Manhattan？？？？？？

I have no idea how this place only has 1 review. Either this has recently opened and I’ve missed it all this time, or this is a hidden gem that no one knows about.
I also have no idea why it’s classified as «Asian Fusion» at this time. This is an authentic Cantonese style cafeteria with a bakery. When I walked into this place, I felt like I was walking into a street side restaurant cafeterias on Cheung Sha Wan Road in Shum Shui Po or Nathan Road in Mong Kok, Hong Kong.
At any rate, I work in Times Square and decent authentic Asian food places around this area are VERY limited (there’s pretty much just… Wasabi and Go Go Curry, or if you want to walk 2 avenues over to Bryant Park, you can find the café inside the bookstore on 41^st Street).
To be honest, I was on my way to Go Go Curry when I walked past this place and saw roasted meats hanging in the window. I did a double take and decided to order when I saw the following hallmarks of a true Cantonese style cafeteria:
1. Everyone inside is Chinese. I saw one Caucasian woman come in and order takeaway.
2. Every single word being spoken is in either Cantonese, Mandarin, Shanghainese, Taiwanese or village dialect. I was actually able to order in Cantonese and my order was promptly repeated in Cantonese in a loud shout across the restaurant by the boss lady running the front counter to the boss man chef running the kitchen.
3. The «paper wrapped sponge cakes» look genuine and they had a dozen other varieties of Cantonese style baked goods.
4. The walls and floors are clean but grimy looking — this is a contradiction that is important and that I cannot explain in words. Good food in HK rarely comes from a sparkling clean place — that’s generally an indicator that they spend too much of their time thinking about things other than making amazing food.
5. All of the furniture looks like it has seen better days. Especially the round vinyl chairs where the cushions are splitting and you can see the yellow foam padding.
6. There is one single ineffective air conditioning unit in the back and a lone wall mounted fan in the center of the room on the max setting and full rotation.
7. There is an altar with lit candles and fruit offerings in a corner
8. The menu is in Chinese, with some limited English translation
9. The majority of the patrons are middle aged Chinese men wearing a combination of white singlets or short sleeved undershirts and knee length shorts or polo shirts and faded jeans who are sitting around pontificating in a Chinese dialect on their philosophies on everything under the sun, from how to live life to politics and relationships.
10. Everything is being served in plastic ware or foam.
Long story short, I paid $ 6 for what is probably the best bowl of beef flank noodle soup outside of Chinatown in Manhattan. It was quite large and generous with how much beef was actually included (I actually finished all my noodles and still had about 4 large chunks left over). I ended up being too full to buy any of the baked goods as well.
I am probably going to be coming here regularly from now on.

Good food cheap price fast service Chinatown style noodles BBQ meat
Authentic places like this are hard to find in midtown