Midtown Lunch

I’ve had Shih Lee on my radar for a while now but can never seem to make it over to their pretty far out of bounds location on 45th btw 1+2nd.   But finally the other day I had to run some errands around 2nd Ave and decided to use it as an excuse to finally hit up this fast food Chinese steam table place. We know that their noodle soups are pretty damn good but I was more curious about their lunch combos.

It seems like the last time fellow Lunch’er Kayoko reported on Shih Lee, the price for a combo lunch (2 items and rice) was $7. Oh but guess what? It is now $6.75! A whole quarter less. (Or maybe she rounded up in her report? I guess we will never know!)

While in line, I was going through their lunch menu options and noticed they serve tripe and beef tendon. Sadly there was no on that day tripe but they did have beef tendon, so I went with that, ox tail and rice.

The Chinese way of preparing tendon is my favorite way to eat it. Braised in a mixture of sugar, soy sauce and ginger and cooked till tender and smooth. The version from Shih Lee did not disappoint. It was soft and delicious, and the taste of ginger helped cut through the heaviness of the sauce which was great on the rice.

The ox tails were excellent as well with big chunks of meat barely falling off.

Shih Lee may be out of bounds (way way out of bounds) but it’s definitely worth the trek. So far it’s the only Chinese restaurant in the area I know that serves beef tendon and tripe (when they have it) for lunch..

Shih Lee, 311 E 45th St (btw. 1+2nd), 212-867-0318