Checking Out The Pork Chop At Ho Yip With Surprising Results
Pork chop over rice is one of those things that I occasionally crave but don’t really indulge because it requires a train ride to Chinatown. My personal favorite is Wah Mei Pork Chop Fast Food on Hester St. and when a craving struck the other day I ended up looking at my options in the Financial District. That led me to Ho Yip on Liberty St. (nr. Trinity Place) which I had never been to before but had been recommended to me by a friend for having good food and plentiful seating. And they had pork chop over rice on the menu at the “Chinatown style dishes” counter! While I was pretty sure this wasn’t going to be the pork chop of my dreams, drowned in pork sauce, I was completely unprepared for what I got.
Most of the business here is done either in the by-the-pound buffet or steam table fare that takes a minute to dish up. If you want noodle soup or something not on the steam table you’re going to have to wait about 10 minutes for food. So I ordered a pork chop over rice ($6) and was asked what kind. Seeing only two options on the menu I said salt and pepper since that sounded good, and the other option was one with onions. While I waited for this to be cooked I scouted the buffet and would have to say everything looked pretty tasty and was frequently replenished, although there was nothing mind-blowing here.
When I got my pork chop and cracked the container open I was a little shocked to see a mound of battered and fried pork chop pieces beneath a pile of green bell and extremely hot peppers. I guess I should have expected this since most of the meat dishes on the buffet were battered and fried, but sometimes you gamble and lose.
Regardless of what I was expecting, the pork chops were good as far as fried meat goes and not at all greasy. I appreciated the vegetables to complement the fried pork, but those slices of hot pepper were insane. Another bad thing about this dish was the rice on the bottom had no sauce to soak into it, so I would suggest asking for some sort of sauce if this is a problem for you.
And because I spotted a couple of good-looking things on the buffet, I grabbed little bits of each and none of it was remarkable except the roast pork. I’m not sure if this is the same Ho Yip as what’s now Sun Yip in midtown, but if it is then Zach has already told you that the buffet isn’t all that great. And really, no by-the-pound buffet can compare in my eyes to the one at New China Red.
It looks like Ho Yip is a good place to get noodle soup in colder months, and you do get a lot of steam table food for the money, but I wouldn’t go out of my way to eat here.
Ho Yip, 110 Liberty St. (at Trinity Place), (212) 349-8286
Posted by Andrea H at 9:30 am, June 30th, 2011 under Chinese, Ho Yip.
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2 Comments
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I definitely prefer Vietnamese pork chop over rice to Chinese. For one, who doesn’t want some sort of sauce for your rice and the Vietnamese places all give you that delicious sauce with the carrot strands in it.
Also, the Vietnamese places I go to all grill (or bake) their pork chops instead of frying them too, which, IMHO, is just as/more delicious. That picture makes the pork chop look pretty greasy.
I totally prefer Ho Yip over China Red, mainly because it looks so much cleaner. China Red looks like they haven’t cleaned the place in years and that skeeves me out.
I also have found all the food at Ho Yip very tasty and like you noted, most of the fried items aren’t overly greasy either. If I remember correctly though, the buffet is more per pound than China Red.