Midtown Lunch

If you’re like me you didn’t know Goodies existed in that weird mall of sorts on Fulton St. (btw. William & Gold) where you will also find Tandoor Palace and the infamous Spa 88 and its three-course lunch. And even if you knew it was there, you probably never thought about eating there. It was touted in the forums as being underappreciated so I decided to go check it out since I hadn’t had good, greasy Chinese for lunch for far too long.  After looking it up online I discovered that there used to be a place called Goodies on East Broadway in Chinatown, and I can’t imagine this is a very common restaurant name. This made me pretty excited to go eat there because we are lacking in good Chinese in the FiDi.

The inside of Goodies is like a cross between a crappy Chinese takeout place and your parents’ basement. It’s got the backlit pictures of Chinese food, but the walls are covered in wood paneling and there’s table service of sorts but they still serve your food in a styrofoam container. There was also a boombox playing pop music to add to the ambiance. The woman running the place is really nice and chatted with everyone when they came in, as well as giving me a cup of tea while I waited for my food.

They have a lunch special where you get your choice of entree plus either soup, an egg roll or can of soda for $6.95. The standards of curry chicken, General Tso’s and chicken wings were all represented, but there were some different items like chicken with jalapeno garlic sauce and pork chop over rice. A lot of the more interesting things on the menu are more than $10 but there are plenty of options for less than that.

I ordered the shredded beef with hot peppers and because I was feeling dangerous, I got an egg roll with it. The egg roll was nothing special and tasted mostly of oil and the bits of pork and possibly chicken inside. It was strange that there wasn’t more cabbage or vegetable inside, but I’m not complaining.

The shredded beef with hot peppers was great. It really didn’t taste like it was from a hole in the wall place at all and you get a ton of food for your money. I got fried rice with mine and it was also really good. I liked that they didn’t bother with the peas and carrot chunks you so often find in fried rice. The meat was good and not all gristly like I was expecting, and there were plenty of hot peppers.

If you also didn’t know Goodies existed and you’re looking for something a step above the other steam table Chinese places down here, you might want to give it a shot.

THE + (What somebody who likes this place would say)

• The food is better than most Chinese places in the FiDi.
• There’s a $6.95 lunch special that will definitely fill you up.
• It’s closer than Chinatown.

THE — (What somebody who doesn’t like this place would say)

• I’d rather just take the train to Chinatown.
• It’s still like eating in a take out place.
• A lot of the more interesting items are more than $10.

Goodies, 88 Fulton St. (btw. William & Gold), (212) 766-0821