Midtown Lunch

I don’t know why I decided to eat at China Moon the other day. This Thai/Chinese combo (on 47th btw. Mad+5th) has been around forever, and while I’ve been tempted to try it on a number of occasions I’ve never quite pulled the trigger.  Anytime a restaurant serves up more than one kind of Asian cuisine it’s always a big red flag, but Asian Station turned out to be pretty good, and China Moon just went through some renovations, so I was feeling kind of lucky.

China Moon has only been mentioned in the comments once, by Lunch’er “dombrooks” back in February of last year (that’s 2008 for those of you keeping score at home.)  He only recommended one dish, the triple chili chicken.  That sounded pretty good, and I was all set to order it, but there was one problem.  They didn’t offer it as one of their lunch specials- and I wasn’t about to spend $13 on a single dish at China Moon. Instead we ended up with these three dishes:

General Tso’s Chicken ($7.50 for the lunch special) is always a good standby, and happens to be one of my favorite American Chinese food dishes of all time.  Sadly, this version was just ok.  The first couple bites were tasty enough, but by the end I wasn’t sure I’d ever want to order it again.  Can’t put my finger on the why, but you’ll have to take my word for it. Interestingly enough, there were tons of chilies on the plate, but not really much heat on the chicken.

Not sure why “Three Shredded Meat Banquet Lo Mein” caught my eye, but we ended up with a plate of that as well ($7.95). Despite the menu billing it as a “less greasy” version of lo mein, it turned out to be one of the greasiest versions I’ve ever had. The noodles were kind of mushy (although in its defense, they were described as “softer” on the menu), and the meat was not great. Once again, the first few bites were fine- but I don’t think anybody would want to eat a full plate of this stuff.

Finally we had to try one dish from the Thai menu. Pad thai is usually an industry standard, but we opted for the pad see ew instead. Surprisingly it was the best of the three. Thai food at a Chinese restaurant usually tastes like Chinese food, and this dish was no exception. But this version of pad see ew has an interesting heat to it that made slightly more enjoyable than the other two dishes. Super greasy, and after a few bites I kind of got sick of it (what is it with this place!) but all and all I guess it could have been worse.

So here’s where you guys come in. I hate writing a place off after trying only 3 dishes, especially when it has customers (and China Moon was kind of packed when we left.) But I’m not going to try the whole menu myself (I don’t have the time, or the desire.) So if there is a good lunch special to be had at this place I want to try it. Anybody had a dish that’s worthwhile? Who are all these people eating at China Moon and what do they order?

China Moon, 7 East 47th Street (btw. Mad+5th), 212-207-4787

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