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Yips
Fresh off my disappointment of no Hallo Berlin Cart on Wednesday, I was forced to find lunch in an area I haven’t eaten in before. Walking back to work, I went down 52nd Street between 5th and 6th where I found a bunch of lunch options. But because of my “condition”, one stood out as the clear choice. Yips.
I am addicted to cheap chinese food… and Yips is the kind of place I have trouble walking by. The food is right there, in all it’s steam plate glory… calling to you… “Please point to me”. With all the choices right there, waiting to be picked in any number of combinations, it’s hard for me not to eat at these kinds of cheap chinese food places… so right off the bat, I can say- if you are not into this kind of eating, Yips is not going to be the place to change your mind.
Most places like this suffer from the same problems. Is the food authentic? Usually not. Is it as fresh as it could be? Usually not? Is it restaurant quality? Usually not… and Yips is no different. But it’s got a lot of choices, and many of them you don’t normally see at places like this. Garlic (Salt & Pepper) Shrimp, Honey Roast Pork, Curry Fish Balls, Spicy Thai Chicken, Some sort of fried cutlet, and numerous soups joined the usual suspects. And they had a Tue&Thurs. specials board, so it appears as if they change some of their items around every few days.
When you walk in, there are three or four different places you can get in line to pick your food. On first glimpse, they look mostly the same, but some of them have different things. Usually I like to ignore the menu, and just order with my eyes… but here that’s a little tough because there are a few different places to order. My suggestion would be to look up at the bulletin boards hanging behind each station, and choose which line to get in based on that. There are a ton of choices, and the board (while it doesn’t seem complete) will help you to at least narrow it down.
What I ordered, and the +/- after the jump…
You get two items and a choice of white rice, fried rice or lo mein for around $6 (depending on what items you choose it could be cheaper or more expensive). I went with the General Tso’s & Garlic Shrimp over Lo Mein. I know some might look down on the General Tso’s choice, but it’s part of my addiction… and is usually the first thing I try at places like this. This version was not one of the better ones I have had. The quality of the chicken was not the best, and the coating was a little soggy. But the taste was good, and it had a nice bit of heat to it from the red chili peppers. The salt and pepper garlic shrimp made up for it a little, and provided a nice contrast to the sweet and sticky chicken. The lo mein was ok, but a little on the mushy side.
Now, don’t mistaken this for a bad review… I ate every single bite of my lunch. I just want to be honest for people who don’t have the same addiction I do. If you are looking for great chinese food, this is not your place. But, if you love cheap chinese food places, then the selection at Yips makes it worth going to at least a few times. I would definetely get the Garlic shrimp again, and I’m interested in trying some of the other things they had. Suggestions are welcome. If you work closer to 48th St., I definetely think the steam plate food at Hing Won is better, but if you are on the north part of midtown, or are looking to try a different cheap chinese food place, you could do a lot worse then Yips.
THE + (what people who like this place would say)
- Good selection
- Cheap and quick
- It’s cheap Chinese food! I love cheap Chinese food! I think I’m addicted to cheap Chinese food
THE - (what people who don’t like this place would say)
- The quality of the food (meat in particular) is not that great
- Not as fresh as it could be
- Not authentic chinese
- There are better places for this kind of food in Midtown
Yips, 52 W. 52nd St. btw. 5th & 6th, (212) 397-8280
Posted: July 7th, 2006 under 52nd btw. 5+6th, Blogroll.
Comments: 28
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Comments
Comment from Simon
Time: July 7, 2006, 7:11 am
Good article
Comment from Terry
Time: July 7, 2006, 9:22 am
Try Manchu Wok, on the north side of the lower Rock Center concourse. Smaller selection, but better cooking than Yips.
At Yips I like to get sauteed green beans, bbq chicken, and white rice.
Comment from Al_Rocka
Time: July 7, 2006, 10:30 am
Yips is a great midtown lunch option. They have day-of-the-week specific specials. I go for the eggplant + chicken, only available on Tues/Thursday. Quick turnover and reasonable pricing (for midtown).
Comment from Inane
Time: July 7, 2006, 12:17 pm
Add Cafe Cello to your list, on 46th near 6th, get the roast pork, Id be interested to see your opinion.
Comment from Zhan
Time: July 7, 2006, 2:51 pm
For really good cantonese wonton noodle soup (with a generous serving size), try Dong Hai Grille on 39th between 7th and Broadway. You get this with a choice of 2 meats from roast pork, pork rib, roast duck, or soy sauce chicken. Ignore the rib - tastes about the same as the roast pork but has bone. Get roast pork with soy sauce chicken (ask for a THIGH portion - 50c extra but worth it for more meat) or roast duck (less meat than chicken, fattier). The other dishes I have tried in the place are generally mediocre to okay e.g. the dumplings arent good. The cantonese wonton noodle soup is the star. With 2 meats, it cost about $9-$10 if I remember correctly. For a starter, you could try the shrimp spring roll which is pretty good. I like to have this with dark rice vinegar (reflecting my Chinese regional tastes)
Comment from cityrag
Time: July 7, 2006, 4:31 pm
Cool site!
I work in midtown too. Couple faves…
Margon for great homey Cuban food
http://cityrag.blogs.com/main/2004/12/yes_virginia_th_1.html
Lazzara’s for great pizza
http://cityrag.blogs.com/main/2006/03/vodka_and_pizza.html
and chicken parm hero’s
http://cityrag.blogs.com/main/2004/10/king_of_all_par.html
both deliver
Comment from aaronpaetz
Time: July 7, 2006, 5:47 pm
HUH?
Comment from bill
Time: July 11, 2006, 12:13 pm
Big Yip’s fan here. I go for the low prices, quick service and the one, two punch combo of crispy garlic chicken and bbq chicken with fried rice.
Much better than Manchu Wok…Red neck yockles in Muscatine Iowa make better chinese than they do at Manchu Wok.
YIPS FOREVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Comment from Brom
Time: July 11, 2006, 12:14 pm
Puhleaaaase Terry, Yips could ROLLOVER Manchu Wok like a monster truck over a Honda. The food is devastatingly addictive and good. The BBQ Chicken is definitely the thing to get, but take advantage of splitting up your meal by getting a half portion of something less sticky like the garlic shrimp or chicken.
One of my co-workers was fired for spending too many afternoons there…he was going twice, sometimes three times, an afternoon. Granted he was lazy, but he primarily couldn’t get enough of this stuff.
Comment from Jamie
Time: July 13, 2006, 3:05 pm
Great blog–good luck on your quest. IMHO, only one truly great midtown Chinese: Grand Sichuan.
Best bet is to get lots of appetizer plates, or anything off the fresh chicken menu. Ignore the obligatory generic Chinese restaurant food.
Comment from cynthia
Time: July 14, 2006, 8:53 am
If you want good chinese food, hit to Chinatown instead. They have real authentic food in chinatown which they do not substitute MSG in it. Seafood is a great way to go as well.
Comment from Joe
Time: July 19, 2006, 1:10 pm
Good point, Cynthia, but I don’t think anyone that uses this site eats in Midtown by choice and would most definitely head down to Chinatown if their lunch hour wasn’t limited to just an hour.
Comment from richie
Time: July 19, 2006, 2:38 pm
thank you cynthia for stating the obvious
Comment from simond
Time: July 27, 2006, 12:44 pm
Yeah Yips is right next door to our office. The only time we go is when we have less than 5 mins to get lunch before our 2-3 hour meetings (they can crank out your meal in less than 45 seconds if you have exact change). I get the fake beef usually.
Pingback from Midtown Lunch » Blog Archive » Arang Korean/Sushi Buffet
Time: August 7, 2006, 6:13 am
[...] I just wanted to say a quick thank you for all the emails I’ve gotten, many of them with some great suggestions. A lot of those suggestions urge me to branch out farther and farther from the places I have already reviewed. 9th avenue, the high 30s, Koreatown. Someone even suggested I go to Chinatown if I wanted “real authentic Chinese food“. Apparently she didn’t fully grasp the meaning of my blog’s very complex title. It is very confusing… [...]
Comment from Mike
Time: August 9, 2006, 11:08 am
Yips is just plain VILE with a capital, well, VILE. I have eaten it a couple of times but even out of desperation to stave off hunger, it’s like getting a root canal to take care of a little food stuck between your teeth. I mean, their food is just painfully bad from any perspective. Even the stuff that should be able to survive a steam table is bad. The best analogy I can think of is that their food is the Chinese version of bad junior high school cafeteria food. And while it’s one thing to eat it when you have no alternative, it’s quite another altogether to voluntarily subject yourself to it, and to add insult to injury, actually pay for the dubious privilege.
Comment from Mike
Time: August 9, 2006, 11:24 am
I don’t know if comments can be merged but I wanted to make clear that I’m not comparing the place to “good” Chinese restaurants. Any but one of even the most mediocre places within a 4 block radius is better than Yip’s, and I’m pretty sure the place that was worse was finally run out of the rising rents.
Comment from Left Hand Luke
Time: August 9, 2006, 1:40 pm
Oh Mike, you fool of a man. You have yet to taste the BBQ chicken I suspect? Your rantings, ravings and abuse of CAPS LOCK have saddened me.
I swoon for the BBQ chicken and yet, here you have the spite and malice to damn the place with half-baked analogies? Return to your Manchu Woks and do not cast such stone of anger upon Yipps.
Comment from Left Hand Luke
Time: August 9, 2006, 1:49 pm
And if the place that “was worse” and was “run out” that you speak of is Chef Ho’s (49th and Seventh), then clearly we are not on the same page regarding cheap Chinese food.
R.I.P. Chef Ho’s, big ups
Comment from Johnie
Time: August 10, 2006, 12:00 pm
The different lines at Yips are the same menu. Just get in the shortest line.
My favorite combination is Shrimp w/ Broccoli (or Lobster Sause depending on day of week it’s served), extra sause, and Pork Chops… Mmm Mmm..
Pingback from PROFILE: Midtown Lunch’er “Serena” « Midtown Lunch
Time: October 17, 2006, 6:03 am
[...] Place you discovered on MidtownLunch.com: I actually rediscovered Yips– the Chinese place. I used to go there when I was an intern like 8 years ago, and it had been completely erased from memory until I saw it here on MidtownLunch. Ridiculously cheap, and I’ve never gotten sick from eating there. And again– a great name! How can you not laugh asking someone if they want to go to “Yips” for lunch? [...]
Comment from Ben
Time: November 7, 2006, 4:54 pm
I go to Yips about twice a week, and I always get the same thing: BBQ Chicken, Fried Rice, and a side of hot & sour soup for $1.50. Costs me $7.05 in total, tastes great, I enjoy it, and I rarely want dinner that night because it’s filling. Haute cuisine? No. Good stuff (to me at least), done cheap? Yes, and in Manhattan that’s a winner in my book.
Comment from karen
Time: February 7, 2007, 3:45 pm
I got the worst food poisoning from Yips circa 97; will never go back there again. AND I am not the only one. That place is notorious for food poisoning.
Comment from Zach@MidtownLunch
Time: February 7, 2007, 3:57 pm
You’re taking a chance every time you walk into one of those cheap chinese steam table places. Clearly it’s a chance I’m willing to take over and over and over and over…
Comment from rferguso1
Time: May 25, 2007, 11:27 am
This is the worst Chinese food I have ever had. (period)
I work across the street from this place. It made me feel miserable the rest of the day. Don’t go.
Pingback from Midtown Lunch » Get and Give Lunchtime Inspiration from the M.L. Flickr Photo Group
Time: September 5, 2007, 9:15 am
[...] Although maybe “inspired” isn’t the right term for it. “Tempted by my darkest addiction” is probably more appropriate. I was planning on grabbing lunch at the Jamaican Cart, but it was M.I.A., so I went to Yips (on 51st btw. 6+7th) as a back up, and got the same double shrimp dish I had seen in the photo above. [...]
Comment from Anonymous
Time: October 30, 2007, 1:07 pm
As many people have said, the BBQ chicken at Yips is amazing and everything else is kind of lousy. But the BBQ chicken is enough to keep me comnig back again and again.
Comment from Bossman
Time: June 2, 2008, 4:06 pm
Yeah, I’m catching up (added benefit in knowing no one will ever read my drivel). Used to glom the Yip when I worked int eh Financial district (why are they always adjacent to a back alley?)….. nevermind, don’t answer that. I’m in midtown now, (56th and 5th) and although I’ll be strolling over to Yips this week I usually go a little further south to 45th (betw 5th and 6th) to Ho Yips for my crap chinese. The Singapore Rice noodle…… yumm, roast pork, chicken, shrimp (sort of) intertwined with slightly curried rice noodles. Similar setup as Yips but I’m not sure about the two “entree” thing. YMMV
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