Midtown Lunch

I’ve been missing the somewhat authentic Chinese food found at Goodies and not too excited to try out its replacement, Asian Wok, located in the same spot in the little mall at Fulton St. & Gold. A glance at the menu showed one of the cheaper lunch combos I’ve seen at $6.95 for an entree and rice, along with your choice of soup or egg roll. And the quality turned out to be better than what I’ve gotten at other Chinese places downtown.

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The gates were down at Goodies on Fulton St. (at Gold) and I wasn’t exactly reassured by a sign in the window saying they would reopen soon. In a good news, bad news situation, Goodies has indeed bitten the dust, taking its menu of things you might expect to find in Chinatown and not the Financial District with it. Lunch’er Seaweed noted that signage had gone up for its replacement called Asian Wok. During a walk by today, it didn’t appear they were actually open, but a new menu was hanging in the window and as I feared it’s full of the usual Americanized Chinese suspects without any dim sum selections in sight. I guess it’s the only Chinese food option in that area if you don’t want to walk up to Yip’s on William St. This is one of the sadder closings in recent memory and I guess there will have to be more treks up to Chinatown now.

Sometimes I feel like I’m the only one who loves Goodies, located on the upper level of the shops on Fulton St. at Gold, which was why I’ve been dismayed to see the gate down every time I’ve walked by for the last couple of weeks. This Chinese restaurant was a transplant from Chinatown in some sort of reverse move that seemed to go unappreciated by the office workers in the Financial District. There’s a sign taped to the window inside the gate saying they’ll reopen soon, but that’s been there for at least two weeks. I’m keeping my fingers crossed since the food there was good, and it’s also one of the only places down here to get dim sum beyond overpriced dumplings.

My first experience with the Chinese food at Goodies on Fulton St. (at Gold) was a great one so when the craving for noodle soup hit the other day I knew exactly where I was going. The hard part once I got there was deciding which kind to get, and then whether to get noodles or rice cakes in it. Thankfully the woman who’s always manning the tiny dining room had some time on her hands as the place was empty due to the torrential rain outside. When asked, she confirmed that this is indeed the same Goodies that used to be in Chinatown and based upon my second go-round with their food it’s definitely our gain.

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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. Read more »