Flatiron Lunch: Taste Good Chinese Restaurant
Now that Downtown has its very own section of the site, what are we going to post on Fridays at 10am? Answer… how about a new column devoted to those lunches just south of the ML boundaries. Please give a warm welcome to Jason Lam from the blog Me So Hungry. Every Friday at 10am he’ll post about lunches in Murray Hill south, Gramercy, Flatiron, and everything in between… or as we’ll call it from now on: Flatiron Lunch.
I was wondering how long I could keep my go-to lunch spot to myself. But now it’s time to give it up. The name’s Taste Good and it’s more than just another Chinese take-out spot. Not to be confused with the popular Malaysian restaurant in Queens, this Taste Good is on 25th St. between Broadway and 6th Ave. Their made-to-order menu is just common Chinese-American takeout, but at the heart is the Chinese home-cooking filling the steam trays at lunch time. It’s the kind of food that my parents made for their staff meals at their Chinese restaurant growing up …nothing that would ever be on the menu.
Now at $6, you get to pick three choices over rice. My favorites are the pork spareribs with black bean sauce, bitter melon, curry chicken & potatoes and braised pork belly. I ate that pork belly four times in one week before I realized I was probably going to die. It was worth it. Sticky lip smacking worth it.
You might see the similarities to Jimmy’s House, that I profiled back in February, with the point & pick steam tray food. But here, there’s fewer choices, slightly smaller portions and lesser quality cuts. So why is Taste Good my go-to choice then? It just has that home-cooked taste that I remembered from home or my aunt’s place in Hong Kong. The beef and turnip stew is a good example. Parts of the beef tendon can be very rubbery, but very much Chinese soul food.
Taste Good taste good to me. The Chinese regulars there would agree. They’re there for that comfort food too. Just one question. If we’re being served what often Chinese restaurant staffs eat, what is the staff eating here?
Here’s a tip. Get in line before that one Chinese guy with the mustache gets there. He’s always getting six boxes to go and takes the good stuff. Nope, not talking about me. My stache is fake.
THE + (What people who like this place would say)
- I want to eat what the Chinese restaurant staff is eating
- I love home-style cooking away from home
- It’s cheap, close to work and tastes good!
THE – (What people who don’t like this place would say)
- I don’t like random parts of animal (beef tendon & pigs feet)
- I rather have Chinese-American food like General Tso’s (Well they do have a menu for that if you have to)
- I had Chinese yesterday
Taste Good Chinese Restaurant, 18 W 25th St (between Broadway & 6th Ave) New York, NY 10010
Posted by Jason Lam at 10:00 am, April 16th, 2010 under Flatiron Lunch.
16 Comments | RSS comments feed for this post
16 Comments
-
Jason Lam, this is one Brooklyn girl (well, before I had to hightail it OUT of Brooklyn, you understand — now I am a HOTlanta girl, and I’m hotter than a firecracker!) that would REALLY like to see those karaoke videos where you had your shirt off.
It looks decent for Chinese home-cooking and priced well at $6. I like spare ribs in black bean sauce and beef-turnip stew but sadly, I would probably hit up the General Tso’s. ;P