If you ever had beef stew over rice from Chinese restaurants, then you know how this is going to taste. Stewed in a mixture of soy sauce, ginger, rice wine and star anise, this was really good. Oriental Noodle Shop totally redeemed itself with this lunch special. I got a total of 5 pieces of oxtails (2 large and 3 small pieces), all were cooked to falling off the bone deliciousness.

The oxtail over rice or noodles is only available on Wednesdays and Fridays as a lunch special. Maybe the lunch specials at Oriental Noodle Shop is the way to go. Though I’m still equally terrified and intrigued about the whole lobster special for $13.95.

Oriental Noodle Shop, 135 E 45th St btw. 3rd & Lex (212) 697-2353

At Hop Won you get a decent amount of everything for just $5.50. At the very bottom you have the typical wonton noodles. Surprisingly they still had some snap to them even though they’ve been sitting in the broth. There was a lot of different veggies on the top (greens, carrots, cucumber and bean sprouts) that gave some nice texture to the lunch. As for the wontons (you get 6), they were a little mushy, but perfect in size and tasted alright. The balls of pork inside the wonton skin had the right amount of meat but were a little tough and dry. As for the broth it was dark and had a hint of beefiness to it.

Then the following day, to make things more interesting, I thought it might be nice to try the wonton noodle soup from Oriental Noodle Shop (45th btw Lex+3rd) as well to see which restaurant makes a better wonton noodle soup (since both restaurants are so close to one another, I had to find out!)

For $7.35, the tub of wonton noodle soup from Oriental Noodle Shop was just terrible. In the container there were 11 wontons but they were half the size of Hop Won’s, very mushy, and tasted artificial. While the wonton skin at Hop Won held together, the wonton skin from Oriental Noodle Shop had pretty much broken up into pieces leaving many naked pork balls floating in the container. Everything else was pretty bad as well. The noodles had lost all their snappiness, the broth was light and bland and had only a few pieces of greens on top. Though the meal did come with a fortune cookie.

A good wonton needs to have a slight snap from the shrimp and good pork flavor from the meatball. The skin can’t be too thick or too thin. Obviously I didn’t find the wontons I was looking for at Hop Won (I may just stick with their broccoli and chicken and roast pork over rice) or Oriental Kitchen (where I like their chicken bun). I’m not even sure I can find good wontons near where I work (do I have to trek all the way to Main Noodle House for some killer wontons?) Do any fellow Lunch’er like wontons? If so where do you get them from?

Hop Won, 139 E. 45th St. (btw. Lex+3rd), 212-661-4280
Oriental Noodle Shop, 135 E 45th St btw. 3rd & Lex (212) 697-2353

Ever since Chris H. wrote about Main Noodle House in July I’ve been meaning to check it out. So when the hankering for mapo tofu hit the other day I figured I’d head over, but before I did I decided to check Chris’ post to see if any commenters had other suggestions- and I’m glad I did.

My original plan was to just get the Mapo Tofu lunch special ($7.50), but after seeing Lunch’rs meyekull, chris82, and steveroller had commended the Roast Pork Wonton Soup I made a game time decision to add that to my lunch order as well. When I placed the order over the phone the woman asked if I wanted noodles (when don’t I want noodles?!), so I decided to opt for the most popular combination, the egg noodles.

The Mapo Tofu was about the blandest version I’ve ever had. There was plenty of tofu, lots of peas, but where was the heat. I suppose the menu says that the spiciness can be altered to taste but it seems to me that the baseline for Mapo Tofu should be spicy. Maybe next time I should emphasize that I wanted it spicy. Has anyone else had better luck with this dish here?

The soup on the other hand was a revelation. There was plenty of tender, sweet roast pork, several pieces of bok choy, bean sprouts, five wontons and egg noodles. The first promising sign was that they packed the broth and the goodies separately so the wontons, noodles and pork didn’t get overcooked. The broth was rich and chicken-y without being too salty. And the thin skinned, scallion flecked wontons were superlative. Some bites even had a bit of crunch from water chestnuts. The egg noodles cost an extra 50 cents, bringing the soup to $8.00. If you’re a big noodle fan they are a nice addition, but honestly the wontons and roast pork are the stars of the dish.

While the Mapo Tofu was a lunch fail, Main Noodle House totally redeemed themselves with the Roast Pork Wonton Soup. I will definitely be paying them another visit. Any other must try dishes? I am intrigued by the under $10 lunchtime lamb specials…

Main Noodle House, 1011 6th Ave (between 37th and 38th St); (212) 869-0888

I can’t remember what Hunan Manor (on Lex btw. 39+40th) but the other day I noticed a Grand Opening sign hanging in their window. Turns out, the place replaced Red Curry Thai back in September, and according to Eating in Translation is a sister restaurant to Hunan House in Flushing. Aw yeah, Midtown East finally gets a taste of Flushing!

I’m not very familiar with Hunan cuisine so I was pretty excited to try it. They made choosing my first lunch item easy by placing double cooked pork as the first lunch special item on the menu (ever since my poor experience at Joe’s Shanghai, I’ve been on a mission to find good double cooked pork). So how did the Hunan Manor version do?

Most of the lunch special items at Hunan Manor are $7 with few hitting the $9.50 range. The double cooked pork ($7) came with a choice of brown or white rice and soup or a veggie spring roll.

When I sat down at my desk and started to take the food out, I saw a pool of oil inside the veggie spring roll bag. What a nice way to start your lunch, with a pool of oil.

As expected the veggie spring roll tasted like oil but besides that it was pretty standard.

To me a proper double cooked pork needs to have leeks so when I saw slices of bean curds and peppers with the bacon from Hunan Manor I was a little disappointed. But after a few bites I was converted. The thickly sliced belly was fatty and tender, and the slices of bean curd offered a nice balance to the pork (despite soaking up some of that nice bacon juice). The heat in the dish mainly came from the pieces of chili, all with seeds still in them. I actually love the taste of peppers but can’t really stand the heat from the seeds so I ate the pieces without much seeds in them. Even by doing that, this dish was pretty damn spicy. I may still prefer double cooked pork with leeks but this version from Hunan Manor was mighty good.

Midtown may never get its own Xi’an Famous Foods (a popular restaurant also from Flushing, Queens that has been taking over NYC) but I am super glad that I have Hunan Manor nearby. Now I have more options for good cheap Chinese food other than Hop Won and Shih Lee.

Have any Lunch’ers been here yet? If so, what dish did you get?

Hunan Manor, 339 Lexington Ave btw 39th+40th St. (212) 682-2883

As soon as I clicked on the Grub Street link about the newly opened Cafe China and spotted the wonton floating in spicy goodness, I knew I had to check the place out. Located on East 37th street (btw. Mad+5th) just a few blocks from Szechuan Gourmet and Lan Sheng, my go-to midtown Sichuan spot, Cafe China is entering a distinguished field, but in my book there’s always room in my heart for more good Chinese food.

Atmosphere-wise the restaurant is a step up from both Szechuan Gourmet and Lan Sheng with a sleek 1930s Paris meets Shanghai vibe. The lunch menu is correspondingly on the steeper side of the ML limit with the cheapest dishes at $8, climbing to $13 for Pan-fried lamb with scallion. This is up a bit from Szechuan Gourmet where most lunches are $7.60 ($10.95 on the high end) and Lan Sheng where lunches are $7.30. Lunch specials come with choice of soup (hot and sour or pork and seaweed) or spring roll and a choice of white, brown or fried rice. I placed an order for pick up for two lunch specials: Ma Po Tofu ($9) and Three Pepper Chicken ($9) as well as a side of Dan Dan noodles.

The Ma Po Tofu and Pepper Chicken pack some legitimate heat. Just opening the Ma Po container filled my office with the spicy, sweet smell of Sichuan peppercorns. The sauce wasn’t overly thick or gelatinous as some Ma Po Tofus can be, but it was big on flavor. Spice-cautious lunchers might find themselves reaching for extra rice to cool their mouths on this one. We’re talking a 3 alarm situation.

The chicken dish is first sauteed then flash fried to get crispy. I didn’t find it as crispy as a similar spicy fried chicken dish at Lan Sheng. Heavy on the heat and the soy sauce with plenty of actual hot pepper pieces this is another dish for spicy food craving lunchers.

The Dan Dan Noodles had a good amount of minced pork and garlic and more than enough sauce underneath to toss and coat the noodles completely. Not quite as hot as the Ma Po Tofu or the Chicken, there was still a little bit of lingering heat from the peppercorns.

Moving on to the accompaniments…the hot and sour soup was a rich, meaty version. Some restaurants will add sugar to their hot and sour, but any cloying sweetness was absent here. The pork and seaweed soup was a big disappointment. The broth tasted like a rich wonton soup but there was no actual seaweed to be seen (just a few stray scallions–maybe the seaweed was just a flavor in the broth?). And the pork part consisted of about 3 strands of mainly fatty pork. I’m not one to shy away from fatty pork in it’s varies forms but this was boiled fat where I was expecting meat.

The fried rice is a bit salty, just scrambled egg, oil and salt. Reminded me of the sort of mild fried rice I’d get at my Taiwanese friend’s house for breakfast after sleepovers (except her mom, who owned a Chinese restaurant, always added at least peas and ham, sometimes sausage).

The restaurant has only been open a week and I’d give it some time to let the dust settle. While they’re working out all the operational kinks you might prepare yourself for a wait. I placed my order for pick up and was told 10 to 15 minutes. Between getting out of my office and taking the subway one stop then walking several blocks, it probably took me a good 20 minutes to get there. I didn’t get my food until 25 minutes later. Snafus aside, this place has a lot of promise. Expect a full ML +/- in a few weeks after they’ve had a chance to get up and running. Early adopters let us know your thoughts in the comments!

Cafe China, 15 E 37th Street (btw 5th and Madison), 212-213-2810

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

With lobster rolls all the rage these days, it shouldn’t surprise anybody to see Chinese food restaurants get it on the action. Oriental Noodle Shop (45th btw 3rd+Lex) is now offering a WHOLE lobster plus pork fried rice (not sure what the “any style” means) for just $13.95. It is still over the Midtown Lunch price limit but considering you get a whole lobster for few bucks less than the super popular lobster rolls, why not?! Admittedly I am a equal parts terrified and intrigued by this lobster deal. Has anybody tried it?

Amazingly we’ve never written about the food at Main Noodle House, located on 6th Ave (between 37th & 38th St.). We have no excuse for this – clearly they’re doing something right, as they do brisk business with both the tourist and business crowd, and even earned endorsement from Salon.com and Gilt Taste’s food luminary, Francis Lam via Twitter. Such feedback is entirely justified by their cheap lunch combo specials and humongous portions.

It’s a fairly small, cramped space, and during the weekday lunch rush, you’re definitely looking at a 20-30 minute wait for a table. Customers waiting for take-out orders and for a dine-in table are mashed into a corner near the counter and front entrance, where they must dodge waitresses hurtling by, and customers entering and exiting the restaurant. But a little discomfort and a wait is more than worth the lunch deals here.

I opted for the roast duck ($7.50), which came with a choice of soup (egg drop, corn, or hot & sour) and a side of rice (white, brown, or fried). The service is abrupt, but ultra efficient – within 2 minutes of ordering, I had a piping hot bowl of soup plunked before me. Within a minute or so of finishing my soup, I had my main course. I had just enough time to case the dining room and gawk at the enormous portions that were being sent from the kitchen – colossal piles of General Tso’s chicken, burrito sized egg rolls, and noodle soups served in bowls the size of kitchen sinks.

I have a terrific and guilty fondness for hot and sour soup, and it’s my go-to order anytime a Chinese-American menu is put in front of me. I’ve tasted everything from wan and greasy interpretations to triumphantly hearty, spicy and chunky soups. The soup at Main Noodle House fell somewhere in the middle of the spectrum – borderline good to great, with a generous strata of chunky vegetables and tofu swimming in a relatively tame broth. Order with confidence, but don’t expect anything amazing.

Also order the roast duck with confidence. I was impressed to receive half of a chopped up roast duck – gloriously meaty and fatty, appropriately sweet, and redolent of Chinese five spice. It may not be on par with some of the better roast ducks I’ve tasted in Chinatown, but it’s easily the best I’ve ever tasted in Midtown, and the cheapest to boot. Served with a healthy mound of fried rice, and crunchy bok choy, the lunch combo is not only a fantastic deal, but a tasty one, and more than filling.

I know we’re a bit late to the game on Main Noodle House, but I’ll reiterate what Mr. Lam and all of the other fans of this place have been saying all along – “Main Noodle House is no joke. Really. No kidding.”  The toughest part is deciding what to order. Mr. Lam threw his support behind the Singapore noodles ($8.75)… what’s your go-to dish?

The + (What somebody who likes this would say)

• The lunch combos are an incredible bargain – the portions are out of control, and the food is actually pretty tasty
• The lunch specials menu is huge, with tons of variety. There’s something for everyone here
• The service is ridiculously fast – your food will probably arrive within 5 minutes of ordering, or less

The – (What somebody who doesn’t like this place would say)

• The wait during lunch rush can be very long, and very cramped
• Given the cramped space, you may have to share a table with strangers
• The food isn’t authentic Chinese, and it’s on the greasy side

Main Noodle House, 1011 6th Ave (between 37th and 38th St); (212) 869-0888

First of all the interior looked like it was stuck in the 1980s with the orange tiles and retro looking dining counter and stools.

The Singapore rice noodles ($7.65) was enough for 2 (maybe even 3) people- but I end up eating the whole thing myself. For those who have never tried it, it’s stirred fried rice noodles with curry powder, shrimp, roast pork and vegetables. I eat this dish a lot and Oriental Noodle Shop’s version is pretty standard for a cheap Chinese place. The slices of pork were good, and the shrimp was okay (but definitely not the fresh kind) but they could’ve added a little bit more curry powder. The one thing I didn’t like about it was the pool of oil that was at the bottom of the styrofoam box.

I also saw in the menu, a dim sum section. There’s always room for steamed buns (I thought about getting the roast pork bun but I always get the pork bun so decided to change it up a little) and so I got a steamed chicken bun ($1.50).

I’m not sure if they make this in-house or buy it from a vendor but the bun was quite delicious. The dough part of the bun was a little dense but not too bad. The filling was great, filled with a mix of chicken and vegetables and the bamboo shoots gave the bun a nice crunchy texture. I wouldn’t mind eating this all the time but then again I kind of mind paying $1.50 for 1 bun.

So if you find yourself around Grand Central and are dying for some dim sum bun action, you could do a lot worse than Oriental Noodle Shop.

The + (What somebody who likes this would say)

• They have dim sum and it’s actually quite good.
• I love large portions.
• I love anything retro.
• Good alternative to Hop Won.

The – (What somebody who doesn’t like this place would say)

• I hate retro.
• I hate the 1980s.
• I will not betray Hop Won
• The rice noodles were a bit oily.
• I could buy 2 buns in Chinatown for that price.

Oriental Noodle Shop, 135 E 45th St btw. 3rd & Lex (212) 697-2353

Ever since my mediocre experience at Joe’s Shanghai I’ve been on a mission to try all the double cooked pork dishes I can find in Midtown (going to save Szechuan Gourmet for last since it’s probably the best). Will this version come with pickled daikon? Maybe the spiciness is from kimchi? (It is a Korean/Chinese restaurant after all.) But mostly… will this be any good?

I was hoping since this was a Chinese/Korean restaurant I would get a tiny container of pickled daikon or kimchi or something! Nope. For $7.95 the entree came with soup and a fortune cookie. I got an egg drop soup and it was terrible. Basically it was a container of bits of egg white floating in a neon yellow thick liquid that tasted nothing like egg drop soup. The soup had the consistency of oil.

As for the double cooked pork I was once again disappointed to find no pork belly at all but instead thin slices of roast pork. Like the version at Joe’s Shanghai, the dish had bell peppers and onions, but at least it was a bit spicy (just enough heat to enjoy the dish).

My fortune for that day.

Despite my overall disappointment, the dish was actually pretty tasty- and a nice step up from Joe’s Shanghai.  But in the end I think next time I’ll stick with what they do best at Hyo Dong Gak. You can never go wrong with their jjajangmyeon.

Hyo Dong Gak, 51 W. 35th St. (btw. 5+6th), 212-695-7167