Bian Dang Now Serving General Tso’s Chicken, Re-Launching Truck Next Week

Bian Dang Stall

The writers of Midtown Lunch (spurred on by Zach, no doubt) all seem to have a rapt fascination and begrudging respect for General Tso’s chicken – the faux-Chinese dish of deep fried lumps of breaded chicken, slathered in an unidentifiable glaze. Food snobs may dismiss this humble dish, but for the sentimental type, this dish is strongly evocative of simpler times – perhaps your childhood mall food court or the take-out dive that you’d frequent as a broke college student. And when we heard that Bian Dang in the Food Gallery 32 would be carrying this dish, it was a done deal.


But first, a PSA – I was informed by the Bian Dang counter staff that they are brushing off the dust on their street truck (fka NYC Cravings), which could be hitting the streets as soon as next Tuesday! This is obviously exciting news for the upper-Midtown lunchers that are out of range from Food Gallery 32. Additionally, their new ordering system seemed to be working well, though that may be a different story during peak lunch and dinner hours.

bian dang general tsos chicken

I sensibly chose the medium General Tso’s chicken ($8). I say sensibly, because the medium portion of chicken and rice was impressively large. So large, that I had to tap out with at least 1/3 of my rice remaining on my plate. Also, just as a fair warning, since the chicken is cooked to order, you’re looking at a 5-10 minute wait. But for fans of General Tso’s chicken, it’s certainly worth it.

Food plunked down onto the gleaming white tables in the cheerfully lit dining area, I dug in and found the chicken to pleasantly juicy, though not as crispy as other variations of the dish. The sauce was also comparably more delicate (well, as delicate as you can get with this dish), without the fierceness of salt and brawniness of garlic that I’ve come to expect out of General Tso’s chicken. And instead of a licking of heat, this version strayed towards the sweeter end of the flavor spectrum.

Though quite different from what I expected, this was a nice departure from bottom shelf preparations, which in the past have so often left my palate fatigued and my face and fingers swollen from an excess of salt and MSG. In short, it’s a fine version, and for $8 will definitely fill you up without overloading your palate with salt, grease or garlic.

In the meantime, we’re anxiously awaiting the re-launch of the Bian Dang truck, so be sure to follow them on twitter or the ML twitter tracker to find out where they’ll be next week.

Bian Dang (in Food Gallery 32), 11 W 32nd St (btw B’way+5th)

2 Comments

  • It’s always nice to find Taiwanese food in the city. I believe they recently announced a change to their dumpling recipe so I’m excite to see how that goes.

    To be honest, I’m not as big of a fan of their pork sauce – would love to see them update that. Their zongzi (chinese sticky rice “tamale”) is a good deal tho and pretty filling.

  • was it all chicken breast white meat? or did they have some good dark meat in there as well?

    Note to midtown east’ers….don’t get the general/orange/sesame chicken at grand szchuan on 55th/2nd. it’s terrible…all white meat and not tender and HUGE breaded coating.

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