Midtown Lunch

I had one of those days recently where come lunchtime all I wanted to do was eat greasy food and get my recommended daily salt intake in one sitting. While I had many options to do that I opted to head over to Oriental Express on Cedar (btw. William & Pearl) to check out the buffet. I haven’t eaten at a by-the-pound buffet since New China Red in Tribeca scared me with its buffet sushi and communal soy sauce. I hadn’t quite committed to the buffet when I went down the stairs into the underground dining room, but it looked pretty good and at $5.95 a pound I wouldn’t be losing a whole lot of money if it did suck.

The buffet had about 10 or 12 items on it, including three that were vegetables or at least not containing meat. There wasn’t anything too crazy on it, and some of the standards were represented (General Tso’s, BBQ pork, lo mein). Nearly everything but the vegetable dishes was fried so be warned if that’s not your cup of tea.  The regular menu tops out at $6.75 so if you’re afraid of paying a lot for your buffet container you might just want to order from the counter. Hilariously, every time someone did that the guy taking orders would announce it over the intercom like it was Burger King.

The buffet doesn’t have the greatest selection of items, and it’s not quite as cheap as Yip’s but hey, they got an A rating from the Department of Health! I started off with some pork fried rice and added small amounts of General Tso’s, chicken chow fun, grilled chicken (more on this later), Cantonese roast pork and a piece of fish in spicy pepper sauce. I also threw in one of “mom’s fried dumplings” for good measure. One thing I noticed in comparison to New China Red, anyway, was that there weren’t any shrimp dishes or egg rolls on the buffet. What if I want to weigh down my container with fried carbs, Oriental Express?

The two best items by far were the fish with pepper sauce and the grilled chicken. The fish was fried and in some sort of black pepper sauce that set my mouth on fire. If I ever go back here I would probably just order this from the regular menu and skip the buffet.

The other star of the steam table was the grilled chicken. Why? Because it was basically fried chicken pieces that had been grilled and then thrown together with some vegetables. This may sound gross, but was actually really good.

The other things I got were edible, but nothing to write home about. As much as it pains me to say this about the fried dumplings, they were pretty bad and not even the meat inside could redeem the really doughy outside. The buffet is a good deal if you want a bunch of different things, but otherwise it’s probably a better value to just order something off the menu.

THE + (What somebody who likes this place would say)

• It’s a cheap option amid other overpriced FiDi places.
• The buffet is a good deal if you can’t decide what to get.
• I like eating underground. It makes me feel safe.

THE — (What somebody who doesn’t like this place would say)

• Where are the egg rolls and non-fried items on the buffet?
• It’s not as cheap as Yip’s.

Oriental Express, 32 Cedar St. (btw. William & Pearl), (212) 797-9477