Great NY Noodletown
Cantonese roast meats on the corner of Bayard and Bowery since 1981, cash only, no reservations, and the ginger-scallion sauce that French chefs have been quietly copying.
Why go
The roasting is the reason to walk in: barbecue meats hung in the window and a house ginger-scallion sauce the restaurant puts on the plainest thing on the menu, poached chicken.1 Ruth Reichl reviewed this room for the New York Times decades ago and still picks it, and her line about that sauce is that big-name French chefs have widely copied it. Two things are seasonal and worth timing: the roast suckling pig, and the soft-shell crabs, which were on the board the day this was written.
Order this / avoid
- Order: the roast meats. Ruth Reichl, March 2024:
All of the roast meats are fantastic, but the baby roast pig is particularly delicious.
2 Then the shrimp wonton soup, the soft-shell crabs when they are on, and the poached chicken with ginger-scallion sauce. - Avoid: arriving with a card and no cash. The restaurant states cash only.
What locals & experts say
- Ruth Reichl, critic, 2024-03: she names the wonton soup, the spring soft-shell crabs and
the very plain poached chicken with ginger-scallion sauce,
and says the sauce has been copied by big-name French chefs.2 The restaurant was one of the first she reviewed for the New York Times, which puts her relationship with it back in the 1990s. - The restaurant's own billing:
A beloved, no frills Chinese restaurant located at the corner of Bayard & Bowery Street in Manhattan Chinatown,
open for breakfast through to a late-night snack.1
Good to know
- Timing: all day and late.
- Booking: none taken. First come, first served, and cash only.
Jeff's take (his words)
- Note: Saved with no note of his own. The line on his list is Ruth Reichl's and is quoted above.
Verdict
should-visit — Cantonese roast meats on the Bowery since 1981, and a poached chicken whose ginger-scallion sauce Ruth Reichl says big-name French chefs have been copying for years. It is cash only, takes no reservations and runs late, which is exactly the room a reader wants after everything else has closed. Time it for spring or late summer and the soft-shell crabs are on.