Hop Won’s Chicken and Broccoli Makes Me a Believer
I love Chinese food. I can eat it 3 meals a day, every day of the week. So obviously when I started this new job in Midtown east, I had to find a new go-to Chinese place (my previous go-to Chinese place was Fuji Bakery on 35th btw. 7th+8th). The easy/obvious answer seems to be Hop Won (45th btw. Lex+3rd). I had high hopes for this place since it is the twin sister of Hing Won (and you know how much we love Hing Won).
To decide if Hop Won could become my go-to Chinese spot (I’m quite picky with my Chinese food), I tried few different dishes and luckily for me Hop Won delivered. Check out what I ate after the jump.
Last time I went to Oriental Noodle Shop, I got the Singapore rice noodles and found it just okay. So when I saw the same dish on Hop Won’s menu, I had to get it.
Hop Won’s version ($7) was much better. It had just the right amount of curry flavors, big pieces of scrambled eggs and most important of all there wasn’t a big pool of oil at the bottom of the container.
On my 2nd trip to Hop Won, I was hoping to get something from the other line where you point what items you wanted but they were already cleaning up by 2:30pm. Instead I got one of the specials that was printed on a piece of paper that was taped to the wall, Chinese chives, bean sprouts with chicken over rice ($6.50). This dish would be a good choice if you weren’t feeling so good because it wasn’t heavy with oil or sauces.
I was determined to try something from the other line so on my 3rd trip I went to lunch around 1:30pm. Couldn’t help but notice that there weren’t many green options. I saw a lot of pork and beef and chicken and fried dishes. But that was okay since they had chicken and broccoli, which may just be my favorite item to get at cheap Chinese places. I’ve have had this dish from many places and they tend to over cook the broccoli- but not at Hop Won. The pieces of broccoli were cooked just right so that they still had a nice crunch, and the whole thing was mighty tasty.
I was curious about the fried round things so I got them as well. They’re actually battered pieces of chicken, fried and topped with sweet and sour sauce. (How could that be bad!?) With the chicken and broccoli and rice this came out to be $7.
On my 4th trip (I mentioned I could eat Chinese food every day, right?) I made it there around 2pm just when they started to clean up. Most of the things were already gone so I ended getting roast pork and the fried chicken with sweet and sour sauce over chow mein ($8). Since they were cleaning up they gave me extra roast pork and an extra piece of the fried chicken (win!)
The roast pork was pretty damn good, and not only did some of the pieces have a nice char, the overall color on Hop Won’s roast pork wasn’t like the scary looking red dye you see at so many other Cheap Chinese food places.
Overall I am quite happy with Hop Won and am pretty excited to try some of the other stuff on the menu. The service was quick and the people were friendly. Now if only they had my favorite pork belly with pickled veggie dish then I’d never have to long for Fuji Bakery again.
Hop Won, 139 E. 45th St. (btw. Lex+3rd), 212-661-4280
Posted by Donny T. at 11:45 am, August 11th, 2011 under Hop Won.
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Roast pig is $$$